If your candidates won the elections last night, don’t relapse. If your candidates lost the election last night, don’t relapse.

If you’re on the winning side, you may feel an elation that seems to take you beyond the daily grind of life. You may feel some vindication and connection with everyone who voted with you. You are now on the winning side. Life is better now, you might say; Things are moving in your direction. You might tell yourself that you deserve to delight; there is so much to celebrate. You may want to pop a few corks. Or open bottles of good or bad stuff. Light up and relax.

Could there be some exhilaration in those first drinks or hits? Most likely yes, because if you have been sober or abstinent for a while, your tolerance will have diminished. You will get what you pay for. Drugs and alcohol are false friendsHowever. They make promises they can never keep and demand a price you may not be able to imagine. Life will go on, presenting new challenges while old ones re-emerge in new forms. These old problems may be quite familiar to you since you have faced them before. Ask yourself: Will my drinking or drinking help me meet these challenges?

Even if you are on the winning side of an election, you may not be on the winning side of your own life if you relapse. You risk missing the things you thought you were fighting for.

If you are on the losing side of the election, you may feel a despair that will engulf you and your loved ones. You might feel a fear that extends to the state of the world. Numbing the pain, anxiety, fearAnd anger with the medications of your choice may seem like the only option. How can we hope to live in this world that seems so hostile and uncaring? You may be thinking that the only way to survive is to numb yourself or escape for a while. You may want to open any bottles that are within reach. Light up and relax.

Could there be a respite from the suffering caused by those first drinks or those first puffs? Yes, for the same reasons the person celebrating experiences the effects they want. Reprieve, like exaltation, is seductive but temporary. Life will go on. Being anesthetized will amplify new challenges while giving new intensity to old ones. Ask yourself: Will my drinking or drinking help me meet these challenges?

Even if you’re on the losing side of the election, you don’t have to lose your sobriety. If you relapse, you may miss out on the things you thought you were fighting for.

Our addictions have taken so much from many of us. Let us not be convinced by false friends to alcohol and drugs and losing what we fought so hard for. It’s a matter of life and death for us.