One of the things my partner and I have continued to do every year for our annual vacation is to look for something that’s all-inclusive. The past three years we had that on cruises with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, but this year we decided to go land-based, which is how we ended up at the Gran Porto Real in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. But I’m beginning to wonder after this past trip if the all-inclusive is the healthiest thing for my recovery.
For those who don’t know what an all-inclusive vacation means, it’s essentially when all the food, drink, entertainment, and your room of course is provided in the cost of your stay. The only reason why my partner and I have continued to choose this option for our vacation is to reduce stress, except the drink portion of the all-inclusive has been doing the exact opposite of that to me.
Case in point on this past trip, there were a bunch of moments I wasn’t in the best of headspace. Trying to deal with that while having a free mini-bar in my fridge and four free bottles of liquor mounted to the wall all in my room wasn’t the greatest thing for a recovering alcoholic. There were times I looked at the booze and thought how relaxed I could be if I just had a little.
Most people tend to think a guy like me with almost 20 years of sobriety from alcohol and drugs wouldn’t be tempted anymore to drink. But that’s so far from the truth. Anyone who says that temptation doesn’t happen for them anymore no matter what their length of sobriety has been is only kidding themselves. This disease is cunning, baffling, and powerful, and can take a person down no matter how many years they have remained clean and sober. At 14 years, I almost drank a Coors Light because I had strayed so far from my recovery program. In regards to this vacation, the only reason why I even briefly entertained the thoughts about the alcohol around me was due to the pain levels I was struggling with. Thankfully, for each of those times during this past vacation when that happened, I got myself to a local AA meeting and took my medicine of sorts to counteract this disease.
Regardless, I still pondered the thought of how unhealthy it might be for me to continue going on these all-inclusive vacations where I can get wasted for free in the privacy of my own room, at any bar, or even at the 24 hour hospitality suite. But even more importantly, I continue to find myself getting overly frustrated with the heavy partiers that seem to flock to these all-inclusive vacations as well. In some cases, I’ve felt like the old crowds I used to drink and get drunk with were completely surrounding me and I couldn’t escape them. And we all know that saying that if you hang around the barbershop long enough you’re eventually going to get a haircut. Well I’ve mirrored that sentiment too closely at times on these all-inclusive vacations the more I’ve had to spend any length of time around each of those heavy drinkers.
The bottom line is that next to my relationship with God, my recovery is the most important thing to me nowadays. And as much as it’s often a convenience being on one of these all-inclusive vacations, I’m starting to think the stress and temptation of alcohol all around me might not be the best thing for me in the future when I travel, which is why my partner and I are pondering the thought of renting a condo next year instead.
Regardless, the all-inclusive vacation is definitely not something I’d ever recommend to any person who’s new to sobriety from alcohol and drugs, because the temptation of all that free booze being only fingertips away could very well overwhelm them to relapse. I’m just thankful that my recovery has been strong enough to resist it these past few years, but I’ve decided I need to spend some time in the next few months dwelling on whether I want to put myself in that atmosphere again for another year. Because in all honesty, I’m not sure if the convenience of having everything free around me is worth the risk in the long run…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson