After making the wise decision to safely wean your way off of the poison you’ve been willfully ingesting, get ready for the battle that awaits… The Taper Trap!

Alcohol is your enemy and your enemy does not want you to succeed. It has no desire to relinquish control of your time, money, relationships, health, or anything else you sacrifice to your liquid ruler. Alcohol controls your mind and it will desperately fight like a cornered roid-raging rat to keep you from getting to zero drinks.

The start of your tapering could be going smooth as smooth stuff, but when you get down to the last few days, that’s when the demon possessing you awakens and tries to take control of the vessel.

A sort of panic kicks in like you are a couple days away from something horrible happening. An inner dialog starts up; a debate between who you want to be and what you have been. Your alcoholic mind vs you.

For me, this would usually happen when I got to my 2-drink day. Change is scary.

Instead of wrapping up my taper and moving along like the Greatest Non-Drinker in the History of the World that I am today, I would enter the debate stage.

The arguments were solid, alcohol did its research. It also had the advantage of controlling my mind for years, whereas this hope for a new me was untrained and naive to the deception and power I was up against.

Alcohol knew that if it could delay the proceedings long enough, there was a strong chance that I would give up and fall back in line like a spineless lackey begging for forgiveness.

Delays would come in the form of negotiating the number of drinks I would have instead of just the 2 that were planned. I would go back and forth in my mind, crunching the numbers and justifying anything that lead to an extension.

Once convinced I could still have 3 or even 4 drinks without it really throwing me too far off schedule, a shameful calm would arise. The daily compromise would momentarily feel like a win-win, but the only real winner was alcohol. I was staying stuck in a loop that would ultimately lead to another failure and starting over.

You have built up the strength to start tapering your way to a better version of yourself. Don’t get derailed by the ambush towards the end.

Get yourself mentally prepared for the possible conflict by envisioning ways that you can overcome and reach your goal. Make a plan to stay busy and keep your mind occupied to limit the destructive inner dialog.

Push forward with confidence and you can Destroy the Taper Trap.

If you slip up, correct the course and continue ahead. Keep trying and you will get there.

Nobody Likes a Drunk. Don’t be that person.