Often, people with alcohol use disorder find that other people in their lives spot their addiction long before they do. In order to change your drinking habits, your first step is to take a close look at your current behaviors and find patterns. Whatever your reason to quit drinking, know that you’re doing yourself a favor.

Acquire new information to outweigh the dissonant beliefs.

When I quit drinking, I was lucky to have a spouse that supported my decision. It’s important to have the right mindset drinking out of boredom about sobriety. When I was a heavy drinker, everything involved alcohol. If I was hanging out with friends, we were getting drunk.

Additional resources to fight boredom in sobriety:

There is a comprehensive legal, educational, and commercial empire that prefers if you keep drinking. Drinkers get into more expensive legal trouble, they spend more money at restaurants, and schools are often attended based on their reputation as a party school alone. Alcohol is the only drug where people think you have a problem if you don’t do it. It also allows you to overcome the fear of change.

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But if you can’t or aren’t able to do a group class, at the very least, take a tech-free 30-minute walk every day. I promise it will do wonders for your mental health, which, in turn, will help you feel motivated to do more things. Forming healthy connections with other people is an important of this process. It’s one of the many ways you will relearn how to enjoy life again without alcohol. Your friends are out getting drunk, the same as they always do.

In particular, she’s committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues. If you’re having difficulty sticking to your goal or just want some extra guidance, consider reaching out for professional support. Maybe you don’t think you depend on alcohol exactly, but you still wonder whether you might be drinking too much.

How to stop binge drinking

BetterHelp is an online therapy service that matches you to licensed, accredited therapists who can help with depression, anxiety, relationships, and more. Take the assessment and get matched with a therapist in as little as 48 hours. Avoid storing beer, liquor, and wine in your kitchen. It might seem convenient when you have company over, but it also makes it easier to reach for multiple drinks while you’re alone. If you do end up storing alcohol at home, keep in the back of the fridge or in a high cabinet—somewhere out of immediate sight.

Alcohol artificially boosts serotonin and dopamine in your brain.

• At first glance, this option can feel quite threatening.
• That said, If you’ve been drinking excessively, then stopping drinking cold turkey can lead to withdrawal symptoms.
• But if you don’t want to take that big of a step, there are ways to drink more responsibly.
• If they continue to engage in the same unhealthy patterns, you could revisit the conversation later.
• People often use binge drinking as a way to self-medicate symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.

It’s common to have a difficult time when making big changes, but good self-care practices can help you manage overwhelming feelings and take care of your mind and body. It’s possible to develop a better relationship with alcohol and make more mindful, informed choices about drinking without total sobriety. Say you don’t have any cravings when you go without drinking.

If nothing else, it starts to chip away at any notion you might have that you’re unworthy. When I was finished, it was like someone had hit the refresh button on my brain. I could go back and re-read what I wrote and approach it from the perspective of an outside observer. Pursue outdoor activities like kayaking or fishing. I found myself planning little outings when I got sober because I needed to figure out what it meant to have fun again. Plus, you might meet some cool people, and that’s always a double win.

These statistics remind you that you’re often one bad decision away from completely ruining your life. One thing that has kept me sober is that I no longer wanted to be the person I was as a drinker. I’m not just referring to how I behaved while under the influence, but my general demeanor, reputation, and options for life were all begging for a massive change.