In particular, she’s committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues. It’s common to experience difficulty when making big changes, but good self-care practices can help you manage overwhelming feelings and take care of your mind and body. Research shows that most people believe that drinking can make them feel better. However, when alcohol makes up part of your typical routine, drinking can become something of an automatic response, especially when you feel stressed or overwhelmed. What’s most important is to look at your drinking habits and find a way to cut back that works for you. Whether it’s improved relationships, better health, or weight loss, keeping the “why” in sight can help boost your motivation.
- We’ve also partnered with Moderation Management, a non-profit dedicated to reducing the harm caused by the misuse of alcohol.
- Some of the most common reasons for wanting to drink less alcohol are improving physical and mental health, like sleeping better, feeling less anxiety, or losing weight.
- Cold turkey is a common slang term for quitting alcohol (or any substance) all at once.
- These factors can make one person’s taper last longer than another person’s taper.
- Nicole Lee works as a consultant in the alcohol and other drug sector and a psychologist in private practice.
For example, if you can’t stick to a tapering off schedule, entering a detox facility is the right choice. But we are talking about tapering off, which means you will be drinking. In this article, we’re taking a closer look at how to taper off alcohol to avoid withdrawal.
Ways To Cut Back on Drinking Alcohol Without Quitting
- Getting help shows your strength and desire to reduce the amount of alcohol you consume.
- Hello Sunday Morning’s Daybreak program is a large online alcohol support community, accessed through a mobile and desktop app.
- Even without considering alcohol’s relationship with cancer, it’s still proven that there are many, many other benefits of forgoing alcohol and living a low-alcohol or no-alcohol lifestyle.
- Surrounding yourself with a supportive network of friends, family, and peers who understand your goals and challenges can be invaluable when you’re working to cut back on drinking.
- But the idea of alcohol tapering, the gradual reduction of alcohol, might seem counterintuitive.
- Find something that you enjoy that will occupy the time during which you would usually be drinking.
There are a number of resources both online and through your physician that can help you gauge your alcohol consumption and the best course of action. Learning about your triggers and urges as well as how to avoid them will all carry over if you decide you want to try giving up alcohol completely for a week, month or ongoing period of time. Remember that the journey to recovery from AUD is individualized and may involve several attempts at cutting back or stopping drinking.
What Works Depends on How Much You Drink
Often, rigid, all-or-nothing goals can set us up for failure, which affects our mental health and future decisions. We often make failure mean something about https://thecinnamonhollow.com/a-guide-to-sober-house-rules-what-you-need-to-know/ who we are, as in we’re not good enough, strong enough, or smart enough to follow through. It can bring up self-criticism, shame, and guilt, which impacts our sense of self-efficacy — the belief that we can accomplish our goals. If you’re not dependent, you should be able to either reduce the quantity or frequency of drinking or quit altogether.
Create a Support System
Because drinking alcohol becomes less pleasurable, it can become easier to stop drinking. People who consume drinks quickly, particularly the first few drinks, are at greater risk of misusing alcohol and developing alcohol dependence. Some people trying to cut down have been successful by pacing their drinking.
Drink Less Alcohol : Learn how to moderate with no pressure to quit
For instance, 12-step programs assist individuals struggling with alcohol addiction by serving structured guidance to plan for moments of weakness. These programs accentuate building a support network, forwarding self-awareness, and equipping members with coping mechanisms to handle triggers or cravings effectively. Setting clear goals grants focus and motivation to sustain recovery efforts. Setting clear goals is concerned with pinpointing specific, measurable, and achievable objectives, such as cutting back alcohol intake measurably or maintaining complete sobriety for a set period.
Part of an alcohol tapering plan should include ways you’ll tend to yourself during times when you have a craving or a bad day. Planning for social situations where you know there will be alcohol can help you navigate how to respond. Taking days off within the week is a common strategy to encourage drinking less overall. “Many people still want to enjoy socializing but are mindful of wanting to average one to two drinks per day. They often try to not drink at all during the week, and allow for moderate drinking Friday through Sunday,” Dr Lee said. “Any relative reduction in daily alcohol intake is healthy and headed in the right direction,” explains Lee.
- With severe dependence, there’s a high risk of quickly going back to heavy drinking if you just try to cut back.
- When combined with counseling, this approach is proven highly effective.
- By making a boundary for yourself and sticking to it you will gain confidence and discipline, and that is a big step toward managing drinking.
- The main treatment type to help with alcohol issues is counselling.
- For example, those who drink more heavily may need more time to taper than those who drink less alcohol.
- The main treatment type to help with alcohol issues is counseling.
There is relatively little research on AA and much of that has been conducted from within the organisation. The more of these signs you have and the more severe they A Guide To Sober House Rules: What You Need To Know are, the more dependent you’re likely to be. You can also get help by reaching out to a professional rehab facility directly, like The Recovery Village. We can leverage our resources and team to help you reduce and eventually end your alcohol use. However, some groups have stepped in to try to bridge this gap and have published sample tapering schedules to help those trying to stop drinking. The medication blocks the endorphins that are normally released when a person drinks alcohol.
For over 20 years Dr. Umhau was a senior clinical investigator at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). On top of delicious mocktails, the market for alcohol substitutes only continues to grow with readily available non-alcoholic wines, beers, and spirits. For something a little different, try Surely non-alcoholic bubbly red, a blend of cabernet and pinot noir. If you’re throwing a sober party of your own, have fun with flavor profiles, fresh ingredients, and food pairings on your mocktails menu. We know it might sound like a lot of fun to drink beer out of one of those giant boots, but it makes it really hard to track what’s going on.