The rule that turns one evening into a week

There is a named pattern for what happens after a single lapse when a person is holding an all or nothing rule, and it is worth knowing by name because you have almost certainly done it.

It works like this. You are holding never again. Then it happens once. Because the rule was all or nothing, one is not one, it is the whole attempt collapsing. And the reason you give yourself is not that you were tired at one in the morning. The reason you give yourself is that this is what you are.

Then the week goes, because there is nothing left to protect. The rule did that, not you. A rule that cannot bend converts one evening into a fortnight.