By Lin L.
C.W. posted: My last relatively lengthy abstinence ended while I was standing in Rite-Aid. Suddenly, I happened to notice the beer display and The Cloud descended over my head. “Why not?” “Who cares?” “What difference does it make?” These were my thoughts.
Ah, the infamous “fuckit switch”. As in, “Aw, fuckit, I’ll just have one.” Or, “Ah, fuckit, I need a break.” Or, “Ah, fuckit, I deserve a reward.” In other words, any drinking-related thought that begins “fuckit” is probably not a good one.
The use of the word, “fuck” in particular is important. That is a word that has a high emotional load — grown men have been known to commit assault and sometimes even murder when they hear it. It effectively shuts down rational thought (thus the “tripped-circuit” result) and allows only strong emotions to pass through to consciousness. And, what do we do with strong emotions, boys and girls?
Also, the “fuckit” portion is usually only the first half of the equation. The second half is usually one of the many excuses we use to drink. “Ah, fuckit; I deserve this.” “Ah, fuckit; I’ll show those bastards.” “Ah, fuckit, being sober never did me any good anyway.” So, we disarm our ability to think reasonably in a goal-oriented way, and then the little devil on the shoulder moves in for the kill, with a totally irrational thought that we — without the verbal land mine we just dropped on ourselves — would be able to handle in a blink.
Posted June 27 — July 1, 1999
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