16 Ways To Stop Drinking Alcohol

Take this “getting back to normal” as a chance to rethink your relationship with alcohol. Doing a reality check with a simple online self-assessment might be the first step. Take the Alcohol Use Disorders Test (AUDIT) developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) online. She enjoys interviewing medical experts and researchers about their work and is passionate about communicating accurate and relevant health information to the public. If you tend to drink too much whenever there is any alcohol in the house, get rid of it altogether,  the NIAAA recommends.

Instead of aiming for complete abstinence, for instance, aim to drink fewer than seven days a week. “Try sober Mondays or sober Mondays through Wednesdays,” he says. You’ll get a 100% custom plan, then use daily texts to track your progress and help you stay on target. Long-term (chronic) emotional stress may contribute to high blood pressure. More research is needed on the effects of stress reduction techniques to find out whether they can reduce blood pressure. The effect of sodium intake on blood pressure varies among groups of people.

There are steps we all can take to create a healthier future for ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.

Moderation can open a window for you to defuse the emotional challenges that create the craving for relief that alcohol provides. If you use alcohol to manage stress or self-medicate, fear of how you’ll cope without alcohol might hamper your efforts to regain control of your drinking. If you consider alcohol as a coping strategy, then it makes sense why heading straight to abstinence would be terrifying.

Arrange for a ride home with a sober driver, or pre-book a cab or rideshare service. If that is too costly, plan your journey home via public transportation so you know when to leave while the buses or trains are still running. A sober life doesn’t have to mean more time at home as you try to block out triggers.

Cravings and alcohol use disorder

If you decide together that moderation is the right goal, there may be a program or support group that will support you in your new lifestyle. There are also medications that can be helpful for people who want to https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/the-hidden-effects-of-binge-drinkin/ reduce their drinking. Many people, including some medical professionals, believe that abstinence is the only way. But medical research has shown that the cold-turkey approach may not be the best way for everyone.

CDC calculated descriptive statistics on characteristics of reported drinking water outbreaks. Data cleaning, management, and analysis were conducted using SAS (version 9.4; SAS Institute) and Microsoft Excel for Microsoft 365 Microsoft Office (version 2022; Microsoft Corporation). Outbreaks with multiple etiologies were classified and analyzed how to control drinking as one outbreak. In the long run, frequent binge drinking may lead to chronic illnesses such as liver disease, heart disease, and high blood pressure. It’s also linked to several types of cancer, memory and learning problems, and stroke. Not to mention that consistently drinking to excess puts you at risk for developing an alcohol use disorder.

Measure your drinks.

Only a small minority of people come to my practice with the expressed agenda of stopping their drinking altogether. If you turn to alcohol to manage emotional distress, the added overwhelm can prompt the urge to drink, making success seem even more out of reach. 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.

• Be prepared to have these things on hand for when a craving strikes so you can nip it in the bud.
• This can make it more likely a person will continue to consume alcohol.
• The added bonus being that if you have to drive to get drinks the effort required means you’ll only go if it’s really necessary.
• Although they have fewer calories, many light beers have almost as much alcohol as regular beer—about 85% as much, or 4.2% versus 5.0% alcohol by volume, on average.