My simple alcohol control strategy

BlueKaftan · 04/08/2023 22:07

I completely understand this approach and wish you all the best. I’ve found that the psychological side of alcohol control is the most important but difficult!

Summer2424 · 04/08/2023 22:27

Hi @TonyPrice i can totally relate. If i write something down i remember it. Enjoy your day 🍻

coodawoodashooda · 04/08/2023 23:17

TonyPrice · 04/08/2023 22:04

Hello All.

New member here. I've been lurking for a while, and I've read some of your messages. I'd just like to say that I wish you all the best with your endeavours to either stop drinking or bring it under control.

I've joined this forum in order to tell you all that my next booze-up will be on 09-08-2023, and that I will drink only 5 x 500ml bottles of beer containing no more than 5% alcohol.

I know this sounds like a strange post, but when I actually tell someone other than myself that I'm going to do something, then I do it!

All the best,

Tony 😊

My guess is you are wasted right now!

fortheloveofroses · 07/08/2023 11:21

I've had a summer
Filled with too much indulgent food and majority of those nights were filled with wine and beer. I'm
Find shed my holiday now and have decided to cut it way back because it's become a habit but I think I will struggle as I am on my own from now
On every evening whereas I had company on holidays.
Can you advise the best way to
Cut back please? It's literally been 5 out of 7 nights sometimes as
Much as a bottle of wine or a truck load of beer .
I just don't know how to fill my lonely evenings with r how to adjust physically. Thanks. I want to be alcohol free sun to Thurs from now on or else it will escalate.

coodawoodashooda · 07/08/2023 12:18

I am having a year off alcohol to see what I want to do in the future. I did 4 months with absolutely nothing, I accepted I'd snack more. Since April I've had various af drinks which I now enjoy. If you are struggling then I don't think that cutting back will help you. Sorry.

mindutopia · 07/08/2023 14:26

The best thing to do - and I acknowledge it doesn't sound easy - is simply to stop for a period of time, say, 3 months. I found, and I think most people who drink too much will agree, that trying to moderate how much you drink is so much harder than not drinking. So if you have to create rules around drinking only on certain days or only so much per day, you're making it all much harder for yourself than you need to.

The hardest part of stopping drinking is the first few days. But when you moderate, you often end up doing the hard part over and over again. You don't get to the easy bit before you start drinking again. Plus it means you spend a lot of time thinking about when and under what circumstances and what you're going to drink. Instead of just getting on with an enjoying life.

Once I hadn't had a drink for awhile, and I was beyond those initial days, it was a lot easier to make a decision with clarity. After a point, it became rather than 'I can't drink' it was 'I don't want to drink'. Honestly, it doesn't appeal to me anymore at all. And I was a heavy every day drinker.

coodawoodashooda · 07/08/2023 14:34

mindutopia · 07/08/2023 14:26

The best thing to do - and I acknowledge it doesn't sound easy - is simply to stop for a period of time, say, 3 months. I found, and I think most people who drink too much will agree, that trying to moderate how much you drink is so much harder than not drinking. So if you have to create rules around drinking only on certain days or only so much per day, you're making it all much harder for yourself than you need to.

The hardest part of stopping drinking is the first few days. But when you moderate, you often end up doing the hard part over and over again. You don't get to the easy bit before you start drinking again. Plus it means you spend a lot of time thinking about when and under what circumstances and what you're going to drink. Instead of just getting on with an enjoying life.

Once I hadn't had a drink for awhile, and I was beyond those initial days, it was a lot easier to make a decision with clarity. After a point, it became rather than 'I can't drink' it was 'I don't want to drink'. Honestly, it doesn't appeal to me anymore at all. And I was a heavy every day drinker.

I agree. By stopping completely you get rid of the Wine Witch. It frees your headspace.