Are you an entrepreneur that wonders about your drinking? I know that feeling. I wondered about my drinking for a long time. Being at events for entrepreneur I often felt my drinking alcohol was normal, because everyone around me was drinking so much. I still stayed in denial for a very long time. I even tried some controlled drinking, but that just made me obsess more about drinking.
If any of this sounds like you, know that there is help. Just Contact Me or give me a call at +1 (604) 721-5732. I’ll share my journey with you and listen to yours in 100% confidence.
Summary
- Entrepreneurial events often have a lot of heavy drinking.
- Health Canada defines heavy drinking this way. For a woman, four drinks in one occurrence at least once a month for a year. For a man, it’s five drinks.
- I denied I was drinking too much for many years.
- Trying controlled drinking made me more obsessive about my drinking.
If you relate to any of this, consider having a phone call with me. I’m an entrepreneur who knows what it is like to have a drinking problem. It’s easy. Just call me at +1 (604) 721-5732 or Contact Me.
Audio
Transcript
As a CEO, how do you know if you are drinking too much?
Hi, everyone. I’m coach David J. Greer, and today I want to talk to you about the journey of being a CEO or an entrepreneur of your own business, and whether you’re curious about how much you’re drinking and whether that’s too much. I remember an event I was at in the mid-2000s with a lot of other entrepreneurs, CEOs, and this was a two and a half-day event just for entrepreneurs. We were sitting around at 1:30 in the morning in the hotel bar, and we were still drinking scotch from one of the vendors who had a scotch tasting. I think they ran out and then some of the better off entrepreneurs were buying rounds of scotch from the bar. There must’ve been at least 30 or 40 of us still up at 1:30, 2:00 in the morning drinking.
We had started with afternoon drinks before dinner. Another vendor had sponsored wine with dinner. And so, many of us had been continuously drinking from 5:00 to 2:00 AM. Now, Stats Canada defines heavy drinking this way, for a woman they say, four drinks in one occurrence, once a month, for a year. That’s heavy drinking. For a man, it’s five drinks in one occurrence, once a month, for a year. Now, of course, for me, in my drinking story, I had more than that every single day for 20 years, so, I was well beyond the heavy drinking. And that night, in the bar, at that event, I think almost everyone there was having a heavy drinking occurrence.
Now, whether they were alcoholics, well, that’s for them to decide. But I know that I, at that time was an alcoholic.
Another thing you can try is controlled drinking. I did make a few attempts to quit or moderate my drinking. I call those white knuckle experiences because I was literally just hanging on by my fingernails, had no program or recovery, nothing to fall back on, no people around me who were in recovery and could support me. And even those times when I only had a few drinks, I was just obsessing about when I was going to get my next drink or if I was trying to drink a drink slowly, I would just get frustrated. And I know watching people around me who are not alcoholics take a glass of wine and have it last for most of an evening or them even turn away when it’s halfway done and say, “I’ve had enough.”
That would drive me crazy, and those were clear indications that I really couldn’t drink anymore and I was drinking far more than I should.
Then the last piece I want to share is, are you in denial about the amount you drink or whether you drink too much? I was in denial for decades. I remember in the 90s being in my doctor’s office and there was a little pamphlet, and in the pamphlet you answered a number of questions about your drinking. I think there was 20 questions and I completed them all. At the end of the day, I think I got 17 out of 20 that I had check marks. The recommendation was, if you had three or more you should talk to your doctor about your drinking.
Well, I remember looking at that and going, “Oh, they don’t know what they’re talking about. I’ve got so many friends that drink like that.” And of course, as an alcoholic, I surrounded myself with other people or other people who I thought drank like me. Maybe they only drank like me around me or maybe they were drinking half as much as me or even less, but I didn’t realize it. But I was clearly in denial and not ready to think or talk about or do anything about my drinking. If any of these fit you or sound like something that you can relate to, know that you can always call me, email me, or we can set up a time to have a conversation and I can share some of my journey and how I got past that denial, how I realized that I was drinking far too much, and that I had a drinking problem. Ultimately, I needed to go into recovery and I needed to admit that I was an alcoholic.
Know that any conversation that you have with me will be a 100% confidential. So, if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re struggling with alcohol in any way, either you’ve stopped or even if you’re still drinking, give me a call, send me an email, let’s have a conversation.
