Arrange for a ride home with a sober driver, or pre-book a cab or rideshare service. If that is too costly, plan your journey home via public transportation how to control drinking so you know when to leave while the buses or trains are still running. A sober life doesn’t have to mean more time at home as you try to block out triggers.

12-step programs alone do not usually address the underlying need that’s been suppressed through alcohol. Without addressing those needs, it’s like trying to cap an active volcano with a giant boulder. Sooner or later, the pressure will build up and the volcano will explode—or you will relapse. Moderation offers a path to sobriety without completely eliminating drinking. Limiting the amount of alcohol you drink, or taking breaks from drinking alcohol, are ways to get your alcohol problem under control while providing space for you to address the issues that power your drinking. Even if you're drinking at a sensible level, you should not drive.

How to make a plan to stop drinking that works for you

Moderation can open a window for you to defuse the emotional challenges that create the craving for relief that alcohol provides. If you use alcohol to manage stress or self-medicate, fear of how you’ll cope without alcohol might hamper your efforts to regain control of your drinking. If you consider alcohol as a coping strategy, then it makes sense why heading straight to abstinence would be terrifying.

CDC calculated descriptive statistics on characteristics of reported drinking water outbreaks. Data cleaning, management, and analysis were conducted using SAS (version 9.4; SAS Institute) and Microsoft Excel for Microsoft 365 Microsoft Office (version 2022; Microsoft Corporation). Outbreaks with multiple etiologies were classified and analyzed https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alcohol-withdrawal-seizure-causes-symptoms-treatment/ as one outbreak. In the long run, frequent binge drinking may lead to chronic illnesses such as liver disease, heart disease, and high blood pressure. It’s also linked to several types of cancer, memory and learning problems, and stroke. Not to mention that consistently drinking to excess puts you at risk for developing an alcohol use disorder.

How Moderation Management Programs Work

If you decide together that moderation is the right goal, there may be a program or support group that will support you in your new lifestyle. There are also medications that can be helpful for people who want to reduce their drinking. Many people, including some medical professionals, believe that abstinence is the only way. But medical research has shown that the cold-turkey approach may not be the best way for everyone.

Take this “getting back to normal” as a chance to rethink your relationship with alcohol. Doing a reality check with a simple online self-assessment might be the first step. Take the Alcohol Use Disorders Test (AUDIT) developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) online. She enjoys interviewing medical experts and researchers about their work and is passionate about communicating accurate and relevant health information to the public. If you tend to drink too much whenever there is any alcohol in the house, get rid of it altogether,  the NIAAA recommends.

Strategies to Stop Drinking

Instead of aiming for complete abstinence, for instance, aim to drink fewer than seven days a week. “Try sober Mondays or sober Mondays through Wednesdays,” he says. You'll get a 100% custom plan, then use daily texts to track your progress and help you stay on target. Long-term (chronic) emotional stress may contribute to high blood pressure. More research is needed on the effects of stress reduction techniques to find out whether they can reduce blood pressure. The effect of sodium intake on blood pressure varies among groups of people.

Only a small minority of people come to my practice with the expressed agenda of stopping their drinking altogether. If you turn to alcohol to manage emotional distress, the added overwhelm can prompt the urge to drink, making success seem even more out of reach. Research shows that most people believe that drinking can make them feel better. However, when alcohol makes up part of your typical routine, drinking can become something of an automatic response, especially when you feel stressed or overwhelmed.