Alcohol consumption isn’t harmful unless abused. There are health reasons to drink, and there are also health reasons to stop drinking. What usually starts as a social fad quickly degenerated into social plague and took its tolls on the abuser, family, and society. drinking problem in America has assumed a dangerous dimension according to the national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism claiming that over 15 million adults suffer from alcohol use disorder (AUD) including over 9 million men and more than 5 million women.
Why you should care about the drinking problem
Many lives have been shattered due to AUD crises in our society. Untimely death, dashed hope, severe economic problems, job loss and committing avoidable mistake due to uncontrolled use of alcohol is threatening many homes and national survival; thus, the need to learn how to stop alcohol cravings.
What are drinking problem signs to note?
SAMHSA (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration) defines heavy drinking as “drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion or more days in the past 30 days.” For you to establish your drinking problem, you need to check yourself against the above definition of a drinking problem and see if you have been able to control your alcohol cravings or not.
Drinking problem help and drug rehabilitation center
While many abusers of alcohol often feel sober after a major crisis and vow to stop, they usually go back to their vomit. Experiences have shown that stopping alcohol abuse takes conscious efforts with the help of experts. Therefore, if you want an easy way to stop drinking, we recommend you turn to a drug rehabilitation center where the professionals can help.
What happens in drug rehabilitation centers?
If you spend your day drinking or getting drunk, you need to visit a drug rehabilitation center for help. A drug rehab center is a place where a scientific approach is taken to address the abuse of substances and help the abuser take control of their lives. The drug rehab professionals will help you identify the triggers and build your determination to avoid it. Ultimately, you will develop the ability to confront your problem and stop fallen prey to it. The center recognizes you need help and will use their professional training, group support and counseling to help you out of alcohol abuse.
10 Easy Ways to stop drinking
If you can’t stop drinking every night to the point you get drunk, all hope is not lost. While we strongly recommend you seek help at the drug rehabilitation center, you can also follow these 10 tips to stop drinking:
1. Be prepared to talk about it
If you can’t get a hold on yourself, perhaps your close relation can. When you discuss your drinking problem with a loved one, they can help you stop. Talking about it help you get someone to hold you accountable to yourself and remind you of your desire to quit drinking. Therefore, feel free to discuss your reason to stop and be ready to subject yourself to their counsel and help.
2. Recognize Triggers
Alcohol cravings like any other cravings have triggers. These are things that influence or cause you to want to take a bottle. Your job is to recognize your drink triggers and build your resolve to avoid them. Triggers can be internal such as stress, mood change, excitement, anxiety and so many other causes within you. Also, it can be external such as the influence of friends, place or people you associate with that can cause you to drink. What usually starts as a harmless gesture often lead to a binge and getting drunk.
3. Avoid High-Risk Situations
Since you know your triggers, it is up to you to avoid them. Any trigger situation is considered a high-risk, and you need to keep off. One way you could create high-risk is to keep drinks at home or go to a bar for a meeting. Avoid visiting a friend or family who may lead you into drinking. Keep off from places or people who will influence you to take “just a bottle.”
4. Avoid keeping alcohol at home or work
What you will not eat, do not smell it. If you want to end your drinking problem, it is best to not keep alcohol at home or in the office. The less you see it, the better you can keep off. While you are battling to keep a straight head and stop drinking, it is better if you avoid the sight of drinks where you can quickly grab it. Remove the temptation to drink, and you will be just fine!
5. No magic wand can help you, only you can
While a drug rehabilitation center is your best bet to stop drinking, the counselors need your help to make it work. Do not expect there is a magic to make you stop drinking, the solution is to follow a simple instruction, and all will be fine.
6. Food is Your Friend; Alcohol is Not
People with drinking problem have been known to have unhealthy food eating habit. They skip their meal and rarely eat healthily. If this is you, one way to curb your convulsive crave for alcohol and getting drunk is to increase your love for good food and eat as and when due. Eat early, don’t skip your lunch and make your dinner a must. Give quality time to eating and restrict yourself to taking only water after food.
7. Build Support Networks
The saying “show me your friends, I will tell you the person you are” remains valid in every drinking problem situation. More than 80% of people who abuse alcohol keep friends who drink a lot! If you desire to stop drinking, one of your efforts should be to find friends who don’t drink. This is why seeking help from drug rehab remains one of the best activities anyone wanting to overcome alcohol abuse must take. The rehab will introduce you to sobriety group where you will meet people who have won the battle against alcoholism and become your role model to quit drinking.
8. Enjoy Healthy Activities
Everything you do as someone genuinely seeking help to quit drinking should aim towards healthy activities. What are the activities you once enjoyed doing? Look for such past time and take the attention away from drinking. For people who drink, the problem is they have replaced their past joyful past time with drink, and because alcohol offers short term pleasure, they indulge in it. Why not reverse the trend and give yourself another activity that will take the place of alcohol. For instance, join neighbors who jog or play tennis and who don’t drink. Keeping up with them every time will take your passion away from alcohol because you will never see them drinking.
9. Give up or gradually reduce your alcohol intake?
You can stop drinking if you mean to do it! However, since you didn’t start in a day, don’t expect to quit so fast. You declared alcohol a problem because of your convulsive hook on it. Therefore, it takes time to go away. If you recognize this far well enough, you can give it time to stop gradually. If you are work with professionals, you will be programmed on gradual disengagement. Notwithstanding your situation, you should be able to cut down on alcohol drinking with time and ultimately stop, at the right time. If you are an every night drinker, begin skipping some nights and reduce the number of bottle or glass you take. Gradually reduce your drinking to compensation for specific work achievement. And finally, make your success to be not having a drink for a week and find some other rewards.
10. Get professional help
I have mentioned this above, but I can’t say it enough; your best support for drinking problem is the drug rehabilitation center where you will meet the professionals to help you programmatically! The rehab understands the science of drinking and also knows the science to stop drinking. When you take a cookie from a kid, the experienced parent knows what to replace it with to prevent the child from crying. Therefore, the rehab will help you stop drinking without causing you additional emotional or psychological problem.
Conclusion
The addiction recovery program is everywhere, for people looking for drug and alcohol rehabs near me, check the website or talk to a health worker in your community for help. If you travel a lot and you think you are having a drinking problem, it is always good to seek help. Many have lost their lives to alcohol abuse, many homes have been ruined, and so many are right now suffering from drinking problem crises.
If you feel concerned and want to help someone, you can share this post or talk to us for more information for addiction treatment anywhere in the US.