Pace / Control my drinking.

[NJxxxxJon]

I know it sounds dumb.
Is there a way to do it?
Ive tried drinking water in bewtween drinkings, calling friends/talking to roommates.
But.....the night gets later....and you know.
Your tips/tricks!

The problem is that alcohol lowers your inhibitions, so as you drink the rules tend to go out the window.

If you don't seem to have an internal off switch that tells you when to stop or slow down, it may be easier to just not drink.

If you cannot control your drinking,you are an Alcoholic.

Non-Alcoholics NEVER have to do that.I am an Alcoholic in recovery now for almost 19years.

You would find it easier to give up Alcohol altogether.

I don't find the term 'alcoholic' to be very helpful. It isn't used medically anymore. And many of us who struggle with alcohol are not 'alcoholics' in that we don't drink every day and therefore are not physiologically addicted to alcohol. And also it's entirely untrue to say that everyone who ever finds themselves drinking more than they intended has a problem with alcohol. It happens to even moderate drinkers on rare occasions. A person who often finds themselves drinking more than they intended, to an extent that it causes problems in their life, is more correctly described as having an 'alcohol use disorder'.

The times that I drink more alcohol than I realise at home are
1)when I'm already shattered so I don't notice the 'slump': don't have a drink if you are already virtually asleep.
2) when I'm on SSRIs: same thing, I don't get the initial '...and relax' feeling from the first one and just don't notice the effects. They will tell you that it's ok to drink with SSRIs but best not .
3) if I'm too thirsty by evening and have 2 drinks to slake my thirst before thinking about it.

All of these can be prevented by not drinking ( obviously) but if you want to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner you need to be more aware of your limits. Consider a dry month to reset, then make sure you drink 2 litres of water a day before any alcohol, don't mix with medicines and don't drink to unwind: it's a treat not a habit or a crutch.
There are other ideas like waiting until an hour before bed or never going over the drink drive limit but realistically sticking to the guidelines and setting limits before you have the first one is the way to go.
A pp has said that 'non alcoholics never need to do this'. I disagree: non alcoholics either don't drink or make a decision to just have one. It may be unconsciously done but a decision is still made.

I'm the same, never drink through the week only at a weekend perhaps Friday Saturday. At home it's too easy to drink at a faster pace when you're eating/chatting. I get hubby to pour my wine!

You can struggle with drink (eg you maybe wish you could just drink a bit less than you do) and not be an alcoholic. I agree with @TintagliaRises that labels like that aren't helpful. A friend of mine used to over drink. That was how she put it. Definitely not an alcoholic but she found it hard to drink less. She had success with a coach from 90dayslater.co. I don't know exactly what was involved but she ended up stopping drinking entirely even though she only wanted to cut back originally. She said she prefers it that way now. She still comes out with us to the bar and we still have fun so it's all worked out. It's definitely possible. Hope this helps.