Not OP, but I had a similar experience. Getting to the root of things with CBT caused me to completely change my relationship with alcohol. At this point, heavy drinking has become a clear path to increasing my anxiety, and it’s easy to abstain.

Not OP, and kind of cliché (with the common corollaly to seek professional advice instead of internet wisdom), but:

excercise - and for me it was more anxiety+smoking but less anxiety led to less drinking too(which I did not recognize as a problem at the time)

I consciously used it as a replacement: when I was stressed and need of a cigarette, I told myself that I actually feel the miss of a good run - and for me running really helped somewhat, so it was enough to start a positive feedback loop. It is also good that both drinking and smoking makes excercising harder, which I tried to (and many times could) use as a fact against them ("if i now drink i wont be able to wake up early enough to go for a run", "if i smoke it will much harder to breath")

And another internet wisdom cliché ;) regarding anxiety: stop drinking coffee (tea...)...

How did you practice CBT? Yourself? With a therapist? A workbook?

In my case, getting hired by one of the Big Four tech companies.

Always was a high performer, but didn't feel satisfied at other companies. I felt I was worth much more than what I was getting paid. I needed the validation and at least the perception of being with the best. I kept pushing my application since it felt daunting and I had failed Google once. I also made up excuses why a big tech company isn't worth it anyway, and that I shouldn't have to go through whiteboarding. But I'm much, much happier now. Glad I gave it a shot.

How did you overcome the 'I shouldn't have to go through whiteboarding' problem?

The riddles, and the whiteboards, are why I turn down all big 4 recruiter emails.

Power through it? You only have to do it once (or four times if you respond to all four), it takes one day and it's not that hard. There are way worse and fruitless ways to spend a day that we do routinely.

For a lot of skilled engineers with cushy jobs, not going for whiteboard is matter of principle.

I understand, but the question was on how to overcome the unwillingness. I don't see any other way to overcome it than 'just do it'. It is not a physical addiction or a condition and bears no ill effects other than lost time and maybe some pride?

What are the big 4 tech companies? I’ve heard that in accounting, but I don’t know which 4 they would be in tech.

There's actually 5: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft

I normally see FAANG for Facebook Apple Amazon Netflix and Google. Not sure how to work Microsoft in there - maybe MAFANG or FANMAG or some such.

Netflix is one side business for Amazon and they rely on AWS for hosting. Why put them in the group?

It was originally used as a label for high performing tech companies from an investor's perspective[0], and from there adopted by software engineers and other employees who work or aspire to work for those companies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook,_Apple,_Amazon,_Netfl...

(F)acebook, (A)mazon, (N)etflix, (G)oogle.

Microsoft and Apple each have over twenty times more employees than Netflix. I've never understood why Netflix is included, in FAANG, etc.

FANG was coined to characterize a sliver of the stock market. It's all about the returns those stocks were producing over a period of time, and how they frequently traded together.

It has basically nothing to do with: revenues, profits, employees, products, technology.

It's at least 90% because it makes the acronym work.

A is not Amazon, it's Apple.

Amazon does not have the same technical hurdle as the others.

> AWS

There are 2 As in FAANG.