If alcohol creates our desire, then if you decide you want to cut back or take a break, then the way not to have to deal with your desire is to avoid it, it’s to remove yourself, it’s to make sure you are not around it, but here is the thing. Drinking is everywhere and it is part of everything. So, I believed that I could take a break, but I thought, yeah, but I always be wanting in, I will always feel like I am missing out on life. So, if it’s a choice between having unfortunate experiences and drinking too much and feeling upset about my actions while I don’t like that, but if it’s a choice between missing out on life, I don’t particularly want to miss out on life. So, I felt very stuck, but I promise you it is possible to lose your desire to drink. So, I will talk with people who will say, you know, I am totally fine when I am out with people, like going out with people and socializing is not a big deal, it’s fine, I am not really struggling with that.
The Escape: What the Brain Learns
- But I really do believe and I found for myself and for so many other people that I work with that so often behind all of that or underneath that is the attempt to feel better.
- Events like FebFast can encourage and support these good intentions.
- In addition to the health benefits, when you stop drinking for any amount of time it automatically saves you money.
- There is a wide range of options — from residential “detox” programs to cognitive behavioral therapy, to medications such as naltrexone which can help people drink less, or acamprosate, which can help people stay dry.
- I just felt like that part of me wasn’t fully there and so this was just a struggle.
We are talking today, why you shouldn’t take a break from drinking too seriously, why you shouldn’t really take your drinking too seriously, or really take anything in life too seriously. If you need some help keeping track of the number of units you’re drinking in a week, try using our free app. It can also help to keep track of what triggers your desire to drink and then plan how to change your response.
I Tried ItI gave up drinking for a month — and what I learned about myself surprised me
It’s also a good way to communicate to your friends your choice to quit drinking, so they can better support you. Relying on intention and willpower to stop drinking, even for a short period, is not usually enough. Resisting temptation takes up a lot of brain power and eventually your brain gets tired and gives in. Events like FebFast take a break from drinking can encourage and support these good intentions. But around 30% of people who start FebFast don’t get through the whole month alcohol-free. “There are people who have learned to practice very reasonable alcohol consumption that contributes to psychosocial well-being in a way that does not impair their health,” Kumar noted.
A drink that feels fancy or fun can go a long way
Whether you want to drink less or stop drinking, this podcast will help you change the habit from the inside out. We’re challenging conventional wisdom about why people drink and why it can be hard to resist temptation. No labels, no judgment, just practical tools to take control of your desire and stop worrying about your drinking. Welcome to the very first episode of Take a Break from Drinking! I am so happy to be here, sharing this podcast with you (it’s been a long time in the making).
Not only that, but do you have a little secret that all the tools that you learn here, they are tools that you can use and apply to change anything you want in your life. This was always the million dollar question for me. You won’t be surprised to know that I got into this work because of my own challenges and struggles with alcohol myself and so figuring out how I could do this? How I could figure it out, and still feel like I was enjoying myself and not missing out, that was something that I really wanted to solve and I did and I want to show you how do you do it too. So let me give you a really, really short truncated version of my story with drinking. It can be hard to find (or even know) the balance of how much alcohol your body is able to handle.
What to know if you’re a casual drinker
Now think about it, because we don’t often think about drinking in this sense. We think about drinking as, it’s a social thing, it’s a fun thing, it’s a holiday thing, you know, it’s an evening thing, it’s a celebration thing, like we think about more the activities that we are doing. I wasn’t really into partying, that wasn’t my scene, I wasn’t interested and now you know 10, 15, 20 years out, all of a sudden, I feel really pulled to drink, right?
Tips to start reducing alcohol in your life
If drinking is your go-to way to blow off steam after a busy week, schedule a booze-free, self-care activity for Friday afternoons, like indulging in a hobby you enjoy or a pampering session like a massage. Your body’s systems bounce back over time, but after about 30 days, you’ll start seeing a difference. “Your skin has had a month to absorb all the hydration and nutrients and B vitamins that your body hadn’t been getting while you were drinking, so this is when you’ll see noticeable improvements to your skin,” says Dr. Mosquera. There’s also likely to be some weight loss within a month, due to the absence of the calories you were ingesting in alcohol (as long as you haven’t swapped them for equally high-calorie comfort foods). Research from 2018 showed that a month-long break from alcohol was enough for moderate-heavy drinkers to see improvements in insulin resistance, blood pressure, body weight, and cancer-related growth factors.
As well as existing non-alcoholic beer and wine, a range of non-alcoholic spirits is also emerging in the market. You could ask for it to be served in a spirit or https://ecosoberhouse.com/ cocktail glass – you might be less likely to be asked why you’re not drinking. You might hear psychologists refer to something called the “rule violation effect”.