Quitting Alcohol pt.2

Why do I want to stop drinking?
– I’m not comfortable with how much I am drinking (I’m definitely estimating down).
– I’m concerned I don’t seem to be able to take a night off, and it’s becoming a bigger thing.
– Giving up smoking was hard, I don’t want to create something else destructive that will be so difficult to quit.
– It’s expensive, and with the squeeze on cost of living this is an easy one to reduce.
– I remember how much better I felt when I stopped before – calmer, more energy, less anxiety, made time for meditation (and I lost weight, which I wish didn’t enter my head but it does).
– I’m on antidepressants, and while I’m totally ok with that I know it’s not something I want to be forever. I want to do enough of the things consistently enough that help me come off them eventually.

Who would I be doing it for? 100% me. My family would benefit, but surprisingly they aren’t my motivation.

It’s been good to realise I actually want to quit, but can take the forever-ness out of it to remove the pressure and anxiety. Perhaps a 6 month review point would be good.

T – yeah, this is “I should give up” (not even that I should WANT to give up).

And thank you. This loss is going to take a long time to work its way through, but that’s ok because she was (and will always be) important and deserves that space.

 

 

Answer:

Absolutely. Grief is love with nowhere to go. Many people choose to avoid their grief but it is patient. It will wait. When you are working with urges like drinking, it can be helpful to create a drink plan. That means you choose on purpose what you will drink, and it needs to be at least 24 hours before. You can design this however you want but the goal is to not drink in response to urges but instead show yourself that you can make intentional decisions and allow any urges for drinks that are not on your plan. You can start with planning to drink half a bottle of wine every night, but do it on purpose. Make sure you have a method to be sure you stop because it can get harder as you have more alcohol. Then next week start lowering it a little. Allowing urges looks like noticing your body or your mind wanting a drink and just letting it be there. You don’t answer it. It’s not the same as white-knuckle willpower, it’s just allowing the urge to be there and letting it stay until it passes.

Pick your top few reasons for quitting and remind yourself of them when you feel the urge to go off your plan. Make sure they are compelling. Saving money is a good reason but may not be powerful enough when an urge comes up. Think about who you truly want to be. See what comes up and bring any questions or models back to AAC. We’re here to support you.