Benefits Of Quitting Alcohol And How To Stop Drinking

At Future Recovery Healthcare, we’re committed to helping you through this journey. Taking care of your physical health, mental health, and emotional wellbeing. There is a common misconception that relapse prevention skills should only be used when someone has a desire to use alcohol. But in reality, it’s a skill that must be implemented in the day-to-day life of all recovering patients. Talk with your health care provider about your drinking. The longer you go without alcohol, the more health improvements you will experience. This will include for-the-better changes in your overall health, relationships, job or schoolwork, finances, and more.

If you are at risk, you will likely need to be under medical care while you stop drinking. One of the symptoms of an alcohol use disorder is giving up the social activities and hobbies you once enjoyed to focus on drinking. A sober life means having more time to rediscover yourself and your passions and build a new, exciting alcohol-free life. After trying this plan for 30 days, try it for another 30 days. Like anything else in life, it is not easy to change behavior, even when it might be in your best interest. But the more you practice new behaviors, the more likely it is that they will become habits.

If loneliness triggers the desire to drink, you might look into ways to connect with distant friends or explore ways to build new friendships. When you feel sad but need alone time, you might consider a favorite album or comforting book.

Reasons To Quit Drinking Alcohol

Naltrexone is a key component in the Sinclair Method, which uses targeted doses of this drug to help people moderate or quit over time. It is also available as a monthly injection , or as a daily pill. Support can come from various people, including family members, friends, other recovering alcoholics, healthcare providers, and counselors. Having the support of friends and family is invaluable during recovery. Binge drinking and chronic alcohol use put added stress on your liver. As a result, you can have further serious health issues such as cirrhosis of the liver. But, one of the many reasons to quit drinking includes letting your liver rest and heal.

If you’re reluctant to turn to your loved ones because you’ve let them down before, consider going to couples counseling or family therapy. Treatment should address more than just your alcohol abuse. Addiction affects your whole life, including your relationships, career, health, and psychological well-being. Treatment success depends on examining the way alcohol abuse has impacted you and developing a new way of living. Our mission is to provide empowering, evidence-based mental health content you can use to help yourself and your loved ones. However, if someone has AUD or is addicted to alcohol, quitting drinking is a long process. Let friends and family members know you’re cutting back on alcohol intake.

How To Know When Its Time To Cut Back

“You could use a calendar, journal or any number of tracking apps.” Drink Control Alcohol Tracker or Less are two examples of free tracking apps available on iOS devices. There’s also a hypnotherapy section at the end – and absolutely no role-play or group exercises, don’t worry!

It’s normal for the readjustment period to take time, and for people to encounter speed bumps along the way. Assume that for several months to a year you will need to focus on this process, and continue to problem solve as you go along. It’s important to remember that it takes time to develop alcoholism, and it takes time to recover from it.

Drink Water

What’s most important is taking a look at your drinking habits and finding a way to cut back that works for you. But when it’s hard to face challenges without alcohol, it’s worth considering whether drinking prevents you from finding more helpful ways of managing emotions. Maybe you don’t think you depend on alcohol, exactly, but you still wonder whether you might be drinking too much. So, when you quit, you develop a new-found sense of self-confidence. You realize you are in control and not alcohol, and that is a powerful feeling. We make it easy to find the best treatment centers in the nation.

So before we look at the reasons to quit drinking, here are 5 immediate benefits when you quit drinking. Nomo accurately breaks down the time you are sober to the minute, which means that it can show you your sobriety time in terms of years, months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes. Every time you reach a recovery milestone, Nomo issues a chip to celebrate your achievement and keep you motivated. Sober Grid is designed to connect those who want to get sober or are in recovery from alcoholism with thousands of other people who are focused on sobriety. Some individuals join the app to receive support, while others join to give support. No matter the motive, Sober Grid serves as an opportunity to stay dry while helping others on the network to do the same. Whether you are trying to reduce your alcohol intake or quit drinking altogether, there are apps to help you succeed.

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It is often touted as a means of restoring liver health and protecting against liver damage from too much alcohol. In one study, people who binge drink took either kudzu extract or a placebo before a 90-minute session of best way to stop drinking alcohol drinking beer. A 2017 research review did not find that this therapy was more effective than other forms of relapse prevention. Some studies report that mindfulness led to better outcomes than 12-step programs only.

• Sedatives such as benzodiazepines are most likely to produce this phenomenon.
• It’s common to drink to lighten tension on a first date or before a difficult conversation.
• Sana Lake Recovery Center is a Joint Commission Accredited addiction treatment program.
• The site provides self-help tips and strategies that can aid you in quitting.
• You may want to abstain for a week or a month to see how you feel physically and emotionally without alcohol in your life.
• Morning and night prayers, promises on experience, hope, and strength, and notes that can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, and email are all included in the app.

These triggers can be very subtle or personal that generally get ignored. However, understanding and managing them during the early stage can be beneficial to your mental health and physical health.

Avoiding Drinking Triggers

If your body is physically dependent on alcohol, you may be in danger of withdrawal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend women drink no more than one alcoholic beverage per day, while men shouldn’t drink more than two per day. If you struggle to drink within these guidelines or frequently consume more than recommended, it’s probably time to talk with your doctor. On the other hand, it might be best to ride the wave (it’s temporary) and let it pass without giving in.

Consider staging a family meeting or an intervention, but don’t put yourself in a dangerous situation. Offer your support along each step of the recovery journey. Research the kinds of treatment that are available and discuss these options with your friend or family member.

It also explains why it’s important to find effective treatments. Whatever treatments you choose, make sure to discuss the benefits and risks with your healthcare team. Verywell Health’s content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Continued use of alcohol even when it is interfering with other aspects of life, including health, family, friends, work or school. Withdrawal symptoms when the effects of alcohol wear off, including nausea, sweating, tremors and anxiety, restlessness, hallucinations and seizures.

Managing Alcohol Cravings

Whatever recovery option you choose, it is important to have medical supervision. During an alcohol addiction treatment at an alcohol treatment facility, patients are helped with effects of alcohol identifying their triggers and the reasons for their heavy drinking habits. They also provide you with tools and skills to help manage those triggers to avoid a relapse.

Allen Carr is also the author of the bestseller, The Easyway to Give Up Smoking. It also makes you question what benefits, if any, you’re getting from alcohol – so you no longer feel like you’re missing out on anything, because you decided to stop drinking. She also agrees that people aren’t turning their backs on alcohol because it’s ruined their lives – but a lot of other people just don’t want to feel its effects any longer. Our mission is to use new technology to make treatment more accessible, and reduce the stigma around problem drinking.

If you’re not sure if you’re ready to change or you’re struggling with the decision, it can help to think about the costs and benefits of each choice. For example, commit to changing your drinking habits and have no more than two drinks per week or drinking only one day a week. Or approach this strategy from the reverse and schedule alcohol-free days.

With treatment, one thing is clear, however – the longer a person abstains from alcohol, the more likely he or she will be able to stay sober. To help relieve uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms, many treatment programs offer medication-assisted therapy. Certain prescribed medications can treat alcohol withdrawal, allowing patients to focus on other aspects of recovery. Hose of us who don’t drink, whatever the reason, know that being alcohol-free doesn’t mean the end of socialising or having fun. But for some people, giving up or cutting down drastically – perhaps for Sober October, Macmillan Cancer Support’s fundraising campaign – is a big step. “Many people – 5 million in the UK – have mild or moderate alcohol dependency,” says Richard Piper, chief executive of Alcohol Change.

If you have not been through it, do your best not to make any judgments when someone you love is struggling with it. Not only do you not understand it firsthand, but you may also do more harm than good. Shaming an addict will only make them turn to what coats their emotions, which is likely drinking. The approach of judgment and shame does nobody good in the end. While the addicted is the only person who can stop their own substance use, loved ones can still take steps to bring light to a drinking or drug problem. Even in the earliest days after you stop drinking, your mind and body are already healing. You’ll probably notice your mood stabilizing, Dr. Prylinski says.