Alcohol

Are you trying to decide if you should stop drinking alcohol? Maybe you’ve already tried a few times to just cut down, and drink more sensibly like other people seem to.

Perhaps you’ve had limited success, you manage it for a week or so, but then you start drinking more again, then the blackouts and awful hangovers start, the guilt and the arguments with your partner. Do you finally decide its time to quit? It might be worth a try.

So how do you stop drinking? The first thing to look at is:

Consider your motivation for stopping
Why do you actually want to stop? What are the consequences of your alcohol consumption?
Weigh up the pros and cons of your drinking, the costs versus the benefits (write them down here if you like).

» What are the good things about your drinking right now, what does it do for you? This is important to consider, because you need to find other ways to achieve this.
» Then what are the bad things about your drinking? Really dig deep with this – look at your relationships, your health, job, self-esteem, depression etc.
» Next what are the good things you expect to happen when you stop drinking, how will your life be better?
» Finally what are the negative aspects of quitting? What is putting you off the idea? Again, this is important because you will have to find some way to solve these concerns.
You need to be reminding yourself about this list of your motivations every time you think about having a drink.  

Alcohol has been your way of dealing with everything difficult in your life, so you are going to have to find some other ways to cope, basically.  You should regularly review what is working and what’s not, what things are still tripping you up and most importantly, what benefits you are seeing. Remind yourself of your original reasons for wanting to stop drinking alcohol.