Everyone drinks for different reasons and in different amounts, so it may not seem easy to choose just one best way to stop drinking. What works for one, may not work for another. Choosing tactics to help you stop drinking will need to reflect your personality and drinking style.
Knowing your personality, your weaknesses and your strengths will all help you in choosing a strategy to get you to your goal to quit liquor. Also consider why or how you started drinking and how your drinking got out of control. Use your mind to be more powerful than the alcohol and you will find yourself alcohol free.
#7 Best Way To Stop Drinking Is By Creating Coping Mechanisms
Right now you are filling a void in your life with alcohol. Having a drink makes you feel comfortable, reduces anxiety and enables you to relax. You have been utilizing alcohol as a coping mechanism for stress and anxiety in your life.
If you take away alcohol, you will feel a hole than needs to be replaced with a new coping mechanism. Instead of dodging problems with a drink, try writing them out or talking through your anxiety with a trusted friend or relative. Speaking your frustrations with a clear mind will help you to better be able to solve problems, rather than avoid them with alcohol.
You can also fill this hole with breathing exercises which alleviate stress and decrease anxiety. This can lead into reading a book or going on a long walk. Finding relaxing ways to cope with stressors is important if you plan to take alcohol out of your life.
#6 Stop Drinking Alcohol On Your Own By Identifying Danger Zones
You probably have regular binging habits or know when you are most likely to want a drink. These times are called danger zones. Identifying what time of day or what day of the week are danger zones will better prepare you to deal with them in your quest to stop drinking.
Once you have figured out when you most want a glass, you need to develop an alternative activity. If you normally want a drink right when you get home from work, pick up a class to learn a new hobby instead. If you crave alcohol before bed, call a friend and have a warm chat before falling asleep.
Identifying the danger zones and planning ahead will better enable you to combat cravings and will result in you drinking less. Remember to be honest with yourself and stick to the plan that you make to curb drinking during your peak craving hours and stop stressing about what might be the best way to stop consuming.
#5 Best Way To Stop Drinking Alcohol By Building Your Self-Esteem
Years of drinking alcohol tend to lead one to have pretty low self-esteem. You probably feel guilty and weak for drinking, which leads you to believe negative things about yourself that aren’t true. You, as a human being, are stronger than alcohol and you can achieve your goal to quit booze.
Building self-esteem is not easy, but it can be done by taking some small steps. One very rewarding thing to do is to help others. You can volunteer within your community to make other people’s lives better or easier, which is very rewarding personally. You can also reach out to loved ones in need by helping them clean their house, mowing the lawn or just taking them shopping.
When you help others, you will feel accomplished. You will have done a good thing for another person, which will slowly build your self-esteem. You can use this new confidence to resist having a drink or cut back on the amount you are drinking.
#4 Quit Drinking Liquor Without AA By Creating A Competition
Approaching quitting drinking like a competition may prove successful. You can solicit others to join you, or you can create a personal competition. Saying that you want to quit drinking is one thing, but actually doing it is a different game altogether.
If you have been telling yourself that you can cut back on liquor whenever you want, then prove it to yourself. If others have told you that you can’t give up booze, prove them wrong. The proof is in the doing of the matter, so make this competition one that you can beat yourself in.
If you have a drinking buddy, make a dare or bet that you can go longer without a drink. Bringing someone else into the competition makes it more driven and you will be less likely to give into a craving. Sticking to your goal will become easier and you will be accomplishing your goal to quit consuming alcohol.
#3 Making Mental Strategies Is A Powerful Tip To Quit Drinking
Knowing when you consume can have an impact on your entire day. In order to avoid drinking you can trick yourself into not drinking with mental strategies. Planning activities after your typical drinking time will help you avoid participating with alcohol.
If you usually consume heavily on Friday night, plan an activity for early Saturday morning. This will be on your mind and you won’t drink as much the night before to avoid having a hangover for your morning plans. If you drink right after work, schedule a phone call with a friend in a different time zone. This will keep you from binging so that you can have a quality conversation.
Mental strategies are excellent ways to keep your mind on task instead of losing control and downing too much. If you have things to do, you will want to be feeling great to do them, not be feeling hung-over or tipsy.
#2 You Can Give Up Liquor Through A Secondary Goal
Making your goal to quit drinking alcohol may seem daunting. So make your goal something else, such as losing weight. Bring someone else into this goal so you can keep each other on track. If your goal is to lose weight, you will naturally want to avoid alcohol.
Booze has a lot of empty calories that can wipe out all your hard work at the gym. If you just burned 500 calories working out, you can forget about weight loss if the first thing you do is grab a margarita, which can have over 500 calories in a 12 ounce glass.
Beer and wine each have over 100 calories per serving and hard liquor such as rum and vodka have 64 calories per ounce. Those numbers add up quick if you are having three or four drinks in an evening. Making a goal to lose weight will help you keep away from having multiple drinks and lead you to your bigger goal to give up drinking alcohol altogether.
#1 Cure Alcoholism With Daily Cutbacks Of Other Substances
The fact of the matter is, when you quit booze you will feel tired and cranky. You will probably want to have a drink, but instead replace alcohol with smoking, caffeine and sugar. These substances will make your process of quitting alcohol even harder. So quitting one means quitting them all.
If you cut alcohol out of your diet along with coffee, sugar snacks, and smoking, you will feel better quicker. Instead of the tired, cranky feelings lasting weeks or months, you could cut that time in half. Your body will crave all of these things because it is comfortable in addiction.
Replace these substances with healthy foods or activities. If you crave a drink, go for a walk. If you want a candy bar, have a bowl of yogurt with honey instead. If you really want a cigarette, write a letter to keep your hands busy and distract your mind. The best way to cut back on drinking is to not give into your body’s delusions of needing substances to be happy.
