Late nights can make your days run together and you have probably woken up many a morning and thought, “I want to stop drinking.” Saying that and meaning it are very different things, but if you are to the point where you are seeing alcohol affect your life in an overwhelmingly negative way, it is time to stop.
If drinking alcohol has become a central part of your daily life, then quitting drinking will require you to replace the activity of drinking with new activities and routines. The reasons you always gave yourself for drinking will now need to be your reasons for making healthier choices. You can stop drinking because you have the power to make the change.
#7 If You Want To Stop Drinking Then Keep Your Mouth Busy
As a drinker, you are consistently putting a glass or bottle to your mouth to take a swig of alcohol. This is a habit that, along with the effects of alcohol, you have learned to rely on. Quitting drinking will also depend on your breaking the habit of always putting something up to your mouth.
An easy way to break this habit is to keep your mouth busy. Chewing sugarless gum will put flavor in your mouth to appease taste buds, but will also keep your tongue and teeth occupied. You can also much on crunchy foods such as apples or carrots. This will act as a similar feeling to crunching on ice at the bottom of your drink.
Breaking the drinking habit means breaking other habits that go along with it. Your mouth has been busy for a while chewing ice, sipping and swirling alcohol. Replace the habit by distracting your mouth with other items. Remind yourself, “I want to stop drinking” and grab a stick of gum to hold yourself over.
#6 Quit Drinking Alcohol On Your Own By Adding Abstinence Days
Consider how many days per week you are drinking. It is probably a routine that you can predict. Maybe you are a daily drinker or you only drink on the weekends. However often it is, you need to build in abstinence days where you agree with yourself not to consume during a time that you are usually consuming alcohol.
If you drink daily, start with one day that you have absolutely no alcohol. It will be hard at first, but keep at it for several weeks. When it becomes easier, add a second abstinence day and keep building. This process will make quitting easier and break it into steps.
If you are a weekend drinker, decide on one weekend per month that you will have no alcohol. Plan things to keep your weekend busy and make sure to stay around people that will not be drinking. Avoid night clubs and bars. This will help you to slowly create new weekend patterns that don’t involve hangovers and chunk of change out of your wallet.
#5 How To Give Up Alcohol By Developing A New Routine
People who drink a lot tend to have a routine with their drinking habits. Look at what your daily routine is and where alcohol fits in. Observe yourself and when you are planning to binge and when you spontaneously decide to drink.
Once you know your drinking schedule, change it by creating a new routine that does not involve alcohol. If you come home from work and have an alcoholic beverage, go for a walk instead. If you usually have a beer with your meal, purchase your favorite soda instead. If you know you party every Saturday night with alcohol plan to go to a movie instead.
Creating a new routine in place of where you usually consume will break habits in drinking that you probably don’t think about anymore. If you purposefully replace those old habits with new routine, you will find yourself drinking less often and a lesser amount of alcohol.
#4 How To Cut Back On Alcohol By Faking It
When we are in social situations that involve drinking, there are often expectations that we participate by drinking alcohol as well. Often one glass swiftly turns in to four or six and you find you can’t remember the evening or how you got home. There are tricks to keep this from happening.
If you are out with friends, order one glass publicly, but tell the wait staff to fill your drink with water for the remainder of the evening. This tactic does not draw attention, keeps you at one drink, and keeps you participating in social activity.
You can also choose a drink in a dark bottle and have a glass of water on the side. No one will be able to see how much is gone from your bottle, and you can consume the water all night long. Again, this keeps you at one or two drinks without drawing attention.
#3 Remedies To Give Up Booze By Keeping Your Hands Busy
When you are drinking, your hands have the activity of holding your beverage. It gives you a feeling of being busy or occupied. In order to give up drinking you will need to find an alternative activity for your hands to do to give you a feeling of being occupied.
A simple way to do this is to replace the alcohol in your glass with a favorite nonalcoholic beverage. Possibly a favorite soda or tea that you rarely get will do the trick. Your hands will be participating in a familiar activity and your brain will still believe that it is busy with activity.
You could also pick up a new skill. Knitting or crocheting both keeps your hands busy as do wood carving, cross stitch, building model kits and weaving. Writing letters to old friends and relatives is also an excellent activity that will also build on positive relationships.
#2 Reduce Alcohol Consumption Through New Sleep Patterns
When you have had a long, stressful day having a night cap sounds perfect. This late night glass of booze can make you think you will sleep better, but in actuality it causes restless sleep that leaves you feeling tired the next morning.
This late night consumption is unnecessary and you will get better sleep by creating new bedtime patterns. Think about your typical hour before bed. If it typically includes a drink or two, find relaxing activities to replace drinking. Starting with some deep breathing to relax your mind and body will begin the process of a good night’s sleep.
Instead of drinking with the television on right before bed, turn off the tv and pick up a book or newspaper. Relax by reading for a while. Creating new patterns before bed will better prepare your body for healthy sleep than consuming liquor will. You will wake up refreshed and rested, which will aid in resisting alcohol day after day.
#1 Treat Alcoholism By Creating a Plan For Urges
As you work toward your goal to combat drinking habits, prepare yourself for cravings, urges and slip-ups. You may go days, weeks, months or even years without a drink and then all of a sudden you will have an extreme craving for a drink. Think about a plan to handle this urge.
One instant thing you can do when you have a craving is go back to your support group. Give a good friend a call and tell them about your craving. They can provide a distraction and other things to talk about until the craving passes. Talk with your support people to find out who is willing to take on this role.
If you do relapse, give yourself permission to learn from your mistake rather than feel guilty for drinking. Guilt will lead to negative thoughts which can lead to even more drinking. However, if you look at what triggered the relapse and why you gave in, you can better refine your plan for dealing with cravings in the future and keep telling yourself, “I want to stop drinking.”
