Kick the Drink Easily!

  A Special Dedication to … My Beautiful Mother

  While I was in the process of updating this book, my beautiful mother passed away. It is impossible to convey in words what this amazing woman meant to me and the void left by her departure. Having no brothers, sisters or a father, my mother was much more than simply my Mum or a great friend. What my mother did leave was a clear message to me – keep doing whatever you can to help lift people from their addictions, as well as always telling me, ‘turn your lemons into lemonade.’

  My mother always taught me that if you can help just one person then it has all been worth it. So here is the updated version of this book, designed to help just one person. I sincerely hope that person is you.

  I love you Mum and I miss you every single day.

  Contents

  Title Page

  A Special Dedication to … My Beautiful Mother

  Please read before you start

  What People Say

  There is No Such Thing as an Alcoholic

  Am I an Alcoholic?

  It’s Easy to Stop Drinking

  Why Do People Drink Alcohol?

  It’s a Habit

  Taste Has Nothing to Do With It

  Quenching Your Thirst

  Marvellous and Pleasurable Effect

  You Are Never Really You

  Under the Influence

  It Helps Me to Relax

  Dutch Courage

  Stress

  Concentrate

  Boredom

  Social Pastime

  Liquid Asset

  A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good

  Passive Drinking

  Barrel of Laughs

  Clear Head

  Truman Show

  Am I a Man or a Mouse?

  Lose Your Bottle and Gain Your Courage

  ‘Recovery’

  The Advertising

  Other Drinkers

  Take It or Leave It

  Binge Drinkers

  Cut Down

  ‘OK, Just the One’

  Curiosity vs. Craving

  ‘Time Please, Ladies and Gentlemen’

  The Adjustment Period

  Think Drink

  Tempting Situations

  Replacements

  The Final Drink

  The True Steps to Freedom

  Biggest Buzz in the World

  End This Madness

  LIFE

  The Final Warning

  Copyright

  Please read before you start …

  I am better known for my books on juicing and nutrition these days but what many people aren’t aware of is that my first book was in fact the one you are holding right now.

  I first wrote and self-published this book in 1999 and it has taken over ten years finally to get it officially published. Despite the fact that it was not available in any bookshops, word spread and, over the years, the book has had several print runs. It has helped thousands of people free themselves of the addiction to what is the most widely used legal drug in the world and I have yet to meet anyone who has read the book and not changed his or her relationship with alcohol at least to some degree. This is evidence that the message in the original version works, so the new, fully updated version has, in essence, changed little from the original edition. This means there are a few old references, but the book worked so well I didn’t wish to change it that much.

  Having said that, many things have changed over the last ten years with regard to alcohol. One of the biggest changes was of course the government of the time’s crazy decision to bring in twenty-four-hour drinking in the UK. They believed, in their ignorance, that this would somehow help with alcohol related crime. Of course it didn’t. What a shocker!

  The other major change has been in the perception of alcohol. Although it still remains the only drug on earth you have to justify not taking, there are more and more people opening their eyes to the realities of this liquid drug. Just as smoking has seen an incredible paradigm shift over the past twenty years, I believe we are on the verge of a similar shift in attitudes to alcohol. There doesn’t appear to be a week that passes by where alcohol related social problems aren’t reported. More and more we see front-page headlines about ‘Booze Britain’ and how so many people are exceeding the recommended ‘units.’

  Over 90 per cent of the UK’s population at one time smoked something containing tobacco and that figure is now below 30 per cent. As I write the updated version of this book, around 80 per cent of the UK’s adult population still drinks alcohol but when I first wrote this book the figure was over 90 per cent. With the help of Kick the Drink … Easily and other books like it, I feel we are on the brink of reducing incidences of excessive drinking and mass addiction as happened with smoking. It may take time but I am sure it will happen.

  The approach I use is not for everyone as not everyone will agree with my views or the methodology. Similarly, not everyone will like the way I write, my language or the repetition in the book. However, if you allow yourself to be open and get past any prejudices you may have about the tone and my views on conventional treatment for those who want to stop drinking, you will find this book incredibly useful and, more importantly, effective.

  If you are reading this page, I feel it is safe to say you do so because you wish to change your relationship with alcohol to some extent at least. If this is your goal, let your mind be free and relaxed while reading it. As I say with all my books, I write but I am not an author. I will never win a literary award and I don’t have an Oxbridge education. What I do have is an incredibly simple way for you to understand the nature of the trap you are in and a ridiculously easy route out if you choose to take it. Please make a point of reading the short selection of testimonials taken from many who have used this approach before reading the book.

  I love to hear from people who have benefitted from the book. Please feel free to write to me at the email address at the end but if, for whatever reason, the book doesn’t have the desired effect, you may be interested to know that I still run alcohol sessions at my Ultimate Mind and Body Retreats in Turkey.

  I wish you well on your journey.

  Jason Vale

  What People Say …

  This is an excellent book. I didn’t feel a compulsion to give up alcohol when I started reading it. I only read it really because I have several of Jason Vale’s books and was interested to hear what he had to say on this subject.

  Before reading this book I would have described myself as a social drinker (a glass or two of wine most nights, lots more on a big night), although I have drunk significantly less than I used to over the last four years, having been either pregnant or breastfeeding two children! My main motivation for reading it was to lose weight by cutting down on alcohol.

  However, I was fascinated by Jason’s assertion that there is no such thing as an alcoholic and that everyone who drinks alcohol is an alcohol addict. Jason challenges the way that we view alcohol and the way that many people who consider themselves to be in control of their drinking simply aren’t. As Jason points out, if someone said that they only eat bananas after midday, they only eat so many a week and limit overdosing on bananas to the weekend you would surely assume that they have a problem with bananas so why not with alcohol? As over 90 per cent of the population drinks alcohol it is considered normal and we assume that anyone who is teetotal is not normal or must have had a problem in the past.

  Jason finds ways to challenge many of our long held perceptions or beliefs about alcohol. As I said earlier, I had no intention of giving up alcohol altogether when I started reading but, since finishing the book, I find that the last drink I had was on New Year’s Eve and I have had absolutely no desire to touch a dr
op since. I have been to a couple of dinner parties and a black tie event since then; occasions where previously not drinking would have been inconceivable. My husband is incredulous, as are most of my friends. I must stress, I do not feel as though I am missing out being on the wagon; I simply do not want to drink and feel absolutely free of all the control I had to exercise in the past (i.e. I won’t have one till Friday, won’t have more than a quarter of a bottle of wine, etc.). That’s all gone. It’s an amazing book – open your mind!

  Rachel

  I haven’t quite finished reading this book but it has already stopped me drinking. I can’t see any reason why I would want to drink any longer. Jason gives very compelling reasons why drinking is not a good thing and the damage it actually does to your body and mind and why most people who drink don’t think that they are actually addicted. Great reading, written in Jason’s usual, fun style, it has changed my total perspective on alcohol, even though I wasn’t thinking of giving up totally when I bought this book. I just wanted to cut down. Now I realise that it is very difficult to do this and that I would be better off just stopping and not giving in to this drug at all! Thanks Jase, you have changed my life!

  Julie M

  This book will definitely free you from having to put alcohol in your body … If only everyone would read it, our society would be transformed for the better. It deserves to sell more copies than any other book ever written! If you need to cut down or stop drinking then look no further. This is the book you need.

  James M

  I think I was like many people out there who enjoyed the odd drink, but found that the odd one was becoming a daily routine. Either socially or alone I was becoming reliant on a bottle or two of wine a day. I managed to get hold of Jason’s book and cannot believe that I have not or wanted to have a drink for over a week now (I know this seems a tad feeble but believe me, it’s a huge step in my world). I even had a dream last night that I did have a drink and was truly upset that I had succumbed but, on awakening, I realised it was just a dream and felt joyous once again. I have felt so much healthier, aware and alive (not just hazing through each day!). I would recommend this book to anyone who realises that booze is having an adverse effect on your life and well-being. Thank you Jason.

  Mrs K. D. Wooldridge

  I used to drink a couple of glasses of wine each day with a bit more at the weekend and social events. The book is very easy to read and is written in a ‘brainwashing’ style. It worked. I haven’t drunk alcohol since the day I read it, i.e. 19th July and it’s now 30th Nov. The interesting part is other people’s reactions. It would almost be easier to drink alcohol to fit in (especially in the beginning until people accept your decision) but the book gives you the strength to be your own person and do what you want. I would certainly recommend it.

  Prior to reading this, in June 2009 read The Simple Way to Stop Eating Chocolate also by Jason Vale. I haven’t fancied a chocolate since then. Not many vices left now!

  Karen B

  It’s difficult to know exactly where to start, so I guess simplest is best:

  THANK YOU.

  It seems such a small word for what you’ve helped me achieve – TOTAL FREEDOM from alcohol. I had for quite some time (a few years if I am honest) before I read your book started to suspect that I was an alcoholic in the understood sense and I was terrified of all the implications that went with it, i.e.:

  the ‘fact’ that it is an incurable illness;

  the ‘fact’ that you have to take one day at a time and decide not to drink today;

  the ‘fact’ that you are vulnerable for the rest of your life.

  Thanks to your enlightened way of thinking I can now see how wrong the ‘experts’ are and how, although there are many whose lives have been saved by AA and other such organisations, these tormented souls live every moment of every day in fear. Whereas with your way I really do live Life In Fearless Excitement. I am proud to be in the real world and the real me (not the alcohol soaked version) is there to enjoy all of it.

  There are home truths in your book which felt as though you had found my own personal life script and were exposing them, not with contempt or in order to shame, but with a gentle thought-provoking persuasiveness which enabled me, and I know will help anyone who drinks, to get free. Thanks again.

  Angela

  There is No Such Thing as an Alcoholic

  For many people reading the first page of this book, the statement ‘There is No Such Thing as an Alcoholic’ may seem incredible or certainly difficult to accept, particularly if you have been labelled an ‘alcoholic.’ However controversial, I intend to prove without any doubt that there is no such thing as an alcoholic, as society understands it, and that there is no such disease as alcoholism.

  I would like to take you on a journey to discover the truth behind the most used and generally accepted drug in the world. It is time for us all to take our heads out of the sand and finally to face up to the truth about alcohol. Alcohol addiction has never been seen for what it really is as the subject of a drink problem and the possibility of a person being addicted to alcohol are rarely addressed or all too often swept under the carpet. We have been conditioned to believe that you are either a ‘normal’ drinker or that you have lost control and are an ‘alcoholic.’ As a result, people who have finally woken up to the fact that they are not in control have to keep quiet about it for fear of being made an outcast. If they are brave enough to voice a desire to stop drinking, they are called alcoholics which suggests they have an incurable disease and would have to ‘give up’ drinking forever. This is an unwelcome and frightening thought for anybody who drinks.

  The truth is that is the vast majority of people are never in genuine control of their alcohol intake as I will attempt to prove beyond doubt in this book. With any other form of drug addiction, the addict who wants to quit is applauded for realising that they were never in control but the alcohol addict is given a label and made to feel inferior. In reality the person who realises they are not in control is far from inferior. In fact, they are well ahead of the game. After all, you can only escape a trap when you know you are in one and the majority of people who drink alcohol have no idea that they are. It is one of the subtlest traps ever devised and one that has fooled millions for generations.

  You can only escape a trap when you know you are in one.

  Alcohol has always been seen as very different from any other form of drug taking; so much so that drinking alcohol is rarely described as drug taking at all. But, for a significant majority, drug taking it is and drug addiction it is. What is more, it is the only drug in the world where, when you stop taking it, you are seen as having a problem.

  … it is the only drug in the world where, when you stop taking it, you are seen as having a problem.

  As you read this book, you will soon begin to realise that alcohol addiction is exactly the same as any other drug addiction. It will become clear that the amount people drink has very little to do with their genes, character or personality. You will realise that the only difference between alcohol and all other drugs is the conditioning and brainwashing that we have been subjected to from a very early stage. This book will be much more than a simple eye opener and will change the way you see alcohol forever. It will show you not only how to stop drinking, should you choose to, but how you will enjoy the process and enjoy your life so much more without having to drink alcohol. I will also show you why nobody ever needs alcohol and that all the reasons given for drinking are part of one of the most ingenious confidence tricks ever to dupe mankind.

  They say you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all of the time. However, I believe that is exactly what alcohol has done. We have all been conned into believing there are genuine benefits to drinking alcohol. Many of you will be convinced that this is the case. However, I would like a chance to prove that there are no genuine benefits whatsoever. I do not expect you to accept or believe what I say at this stage
. After all, we all have thousands of references to back up our belief that there are good and bad aspects to alcohol. Nonetheless, I would like you to turn a page in your mind, open it as wide as you possibly can, so that we can begin the process of removing years of conditioning and brainwashing. It is about time we all woke up to the truth and stopped kidding ourselves. Alcohol drinking is alcohol addiction and alcohol addiction is drug addiction and drug addiction is a form of disease which gets worse and worse – unless you cure it.

  Now that I have your attention please let me introduce myself. My name is Jason Vale and I am a non-drinker. Now in case you start having images of a holier than thou non-drinker whose idea of a good night out is having a cup of cocoa while watching bowls, then you would be very much mistaken. Nor am I a person who hates alcohol drinkers, cannot socialise with them or wants to judge them in any way. Yes, I am a non-drinker but I am also a non-heroin addict and a non-crackhead but you wouldn’t think any less of me for that and you certainly wouldn’t pre-judge me for not taking heroin or crack. However, alcohol is seen very differently. It is the only drug that people will question you not taking.

  … alcohol is seen very differently. It is the only drug that people will question you not taking.

  Now to be fair, I have never been a heroin addict or a crackhead but, just so you fully understand where I am coming from, I have been a drinker. Well, not just a drinker believe me; I was no slouch when it came to drinking! I was a very heavy drinker and very badly hooked (or so I thought). I was, at one stage in my life, possibly one of the world’s worst alcohol addicts you could ever meet. Even then I knew all the reasons why I shouldn’t drink and at times I actually wished that I didn’t need to drink. But what was my alternative? To become a non-drinker? To be honest that sounded like a disease in itself. I really wouldn’t have wanted to suffer that as my life seemed bad enough as a drinker.