This book is a revolutionary approach to defeating addiction and a multiplier of empathy and insight that will aid in understanding others as well as yourself. If you don't understand a problem, how can you possibly hope to fix it?

If you have no intention of becoming sober, you will find these 69 excuses to drink alcohol entertaining-because you must've used some of these excuses in the past, perhaps all of them.

However, if you are actively seeking to become sober, this book might just be the tool you need to achieve your goal.

69 Excuses for Drinking Alcohol could have been called 69 Excuses for Keeping Your Bad Habits and Addictions Alive or 69 Excuses to Take Drugs.

I chose alcohol in particular as it has become ingrained into many cultures and thus accepted as "normal" and "safe".

For me, alcohol symbolises addiction. If you can control your intake of alcohol; if you can choose to consume or not consume it, you will have mastery over yourself and will not know apathy or pessimism again. You will have defeated addiction and regained control of your life.

When your addiction controls you, makes you lie and invent excuses, makes you desperate and dependant, it is no longer a case of you wanting that thing to continue, it is a case of you being so far down the rabbit hole that continuing down seems easier than climbing out.

Climbing out, recovering, becoming reborn is made easier when we stop avoiding mirrors. This book is a mirror.

In this book you will meet yourself; you will recognise yourself in these pages of excuses.

No excuse-making addicts should feel weak or inferior, it is the genius of their minds that is responsible for their continuing woes-we are just too damn convincing, and we have a bad habit of always listening to ourselves the most.

When, however, you stand before a mirror, you will be forced to begin caring and get your house in order or say, 'Nothing matters. I don't care about anything.' This book is one that you can use whenever you have cravings or wish to become sober and it will prove to you that everything matters, including you.

A mirror like this book will force you to say either:

'I am truly happy living this way, I don't need to change anything, ' or,

'I will no longer make excuses. When I'm about to make an excuse, I will avoid the behaviour that required me to make excuses in advance to justify it.'

I was once a slave to addictions: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and many other bad habits besides-we are all on similar journeys. However, addiction is not for life because it destroys life and thus should be a very temporary measure. It should be a learning experience, it is something to be fought and conquered-it is not a solution or a life choice.

I will share the methods and thinking responsible for me escaping the 'excuse and denial prison' in the hope that your life will become more positive than negative, more love than hate, more pride than shame, more reward than regret, more free than enslaved, more purposeful, more profound, more optimistic-more natural.

If you smoke, drink, take drugs, binge or gamble you are already engaged in a war against yourself. An inner conflict is raging inside you, the result always being the same: self-harm.

This book is your ally, your weapon.

Religion is not mentioned in this book, no meetings are suggested. Nothing is expected of you. This is simply a collection of my thoughts on alcohol, the thoughts of a former alcoholic who realised he was unable to develop a healthy relationship with alcohol, that it caused him and his family harm.

Many find it hard to take advice or ask for help, and if you are such a person, this quirky book may be the right fit for you, because when read fully it will empower you to choose whether or not you continue to consume alcohol.