How to Stop Drinking?
Our mental health refers to our emotional, psychological and social wellbeing. Picture this: you wake up with your hand clutching your head, a pounding ache drums around your temples, your throat is parched, it feels like your whole body is filled with lead, and getting up feels like an impossible chore.
When you’ve had too many drinks in one night, hangovers will often feel terrible the morning after. And while it’s physically taxing already to the body, studies show that 12% of people experience an uptick in anxiety after drinking.
This is because alcohol can lead to a surge of endorphins in the body, which lowers your stress and makes you feel good for the time being. However, the endorphins eventually drop, and it makes you prone to depressive thoughts and anxiousness, coupled with dehydration, lack of nutrients, and physical exhaustion.
Hangovers are terrible, and if you find yourself promising “I’m never drinking again,” below, you’ll find ways to stop drinking, problems you’ll face while trying to quit, and how to overcome them.
What Makes us Want to Stop Drinking?
Stopping alcohol consumption can be a challenge as it’s normalised so much. And while hangovers are terribly unpleasant, most people think it’s acceptable.
For some, the urge to stop drinking can be due to:
- How we function at work or school
- Embarrassment in your behaviour when intoxicated
- Wanting a clear head
- Taking care of finances and not overspending
- Better mental health
Why is it hard to stop drinking?
The reason why it can be so hard to stop drinking is due to societal pressures. In fact, a recent study shows that British people are more likely to consume alcohol than any culture around the world.
The most common reason is how alcohol is centred in pub culture, toasting to celebrations like birthdays and weddings, cheering for football games, and many more. The common belief is that having a good time is associated with drinking. Below, you’ll find the other reasons driving people to drink and why it can be hard to stop.
Stress
Most people think of alcohol as a stress reliever, especially when they are overwhelmed with work exhaustion, relationship stress, or personal problems. Getting reprieve from the stress is very appealing to most people, which is why they resort to drinking. This can lead people to self-medicate with alcohol, especially when they experience chronic stress in their lives.
Increasing self-confidence
Another reason is that alcohol is viewed as a way to lose your inhibitions and just freely have fun. Some people drink to feel confident, especially when they’re awkward during social events, and some may feel like their personality is only interesting when they have a drink. This can also become psychologically harmful when people believe that their identity is only acceptable thanks to alcohol.
Peer pressure
One of the underlying reasons is how most of us want to belong. If you don’t drink during a party, for example, you’ll be labelled as a killjoy. Most people want to feel included, and the best way to ‘fit in’ is to partake in drinking even if they originally were opposed to it. This can become a slippery slope and can turn into a bad habit just for the sake of satisfying the desire to feel ‘party of’.
Boredom
Most people are conditioned to associate having fun with drinking. And it has become the quickest way to escape the monotony of an exhausting job. If people don’t explore hobbies or other interests after a whole work week, they can find themselves gravitating to alcohol instead when they don’t know what to do.
Regulating unpleasant emotions
When faced with negative emotions like anger, loneliness, confusion, and extreme stress, drinking can be appealing to either help numb the pain or lull people to a sense of calm. However, this isn’t always true because alcohol can also worsen one’s current mood. This is why people can resort to aggression when they’re intoxicated.
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Addiction
If you find yourself relying too much on alcohol to escape unpleasant emotions, numb pain, and calm your nerves, you are likely to become heavily dependent on it. When you can no longer cope with other healthier ways to de-stress, then this can become an addiction problem.
As you continuously drink, your tolerance to alcohol goes up, and your brain works overtime to regulate the chemical imbalance that alcohol produces. It only worsens your dependency and takes away your ability to think clearly, cope healthily, and function normally in your daily life.
Underlying mental health factors often cause alcohol addiction, and the best way to stop this vicious cycle is through seeking professional treatment.
Solutions to stop drinking
Now that you know the common underlying factors that drive people to drink, let’s look at how to counter each. The best way is first to identify what drives you to drink and the appropriate coping mechanisms that can help you.
- Return to your past interests and hobbies, which give you joy, fulfilment and a sense of wonder.
- Explore new activities with friends or on your own instead of focusing on making your weekend productive.
- Spend some time in nature (walking, mountain hikes, going to riverbanks, swimming, etc.) as this helps you recenter and move away from the hustle and bustle of work or other stressors.
- Start doing light exercise, as this helps your physical health and regulates stress levels. Just focus on doing it one step at a time.
- Talk to a trusted friend, loved one, or a counsellor. Sometimes, taking your stress out of your system can make you feel much better.
- Focus on taking care of your mind and body. Eat well, prioritise sleep, and do minor exercises. Taking care of yourself is a great way to lessen the negative talk in your head.
- Pick up a new skill you’ve always wanted to do, no matter how trivial it may seem. Learning actively and accomplishing it can build up your confidence way better than any positive self-talk.
- Assess your strengths, especially the ones that people often say to you. Be objective about it and not mix in impostor syndrome or your insecurities. Having a collection of your strengths laid out on paper is a great way to build yourself up.
- Seek advice from a counsellor to help you root out why you have low self-confidence. You will then be able to unpack cognitive biases and find healthy ways to counter negative self-talk and thinking.
- Practice taking away the belief that fun = drinking. Focus instead on what activities genuinely make you happy.
- Explore exciting hobbies or activities with friends instead (going to the cinemas, hiking, travelling, reading, music, video games, cafe hopping, etc.) that don’t require alcohol.
- The key here is to redefine “fun” for you and actively seek them.
- List all the things that interest you and potential activities you want to do. This can be as varied as you want, and if you don’t know where to start, you can pick up inspiration online and look for lists.
- Set a goal to try to do at least one of these things every weekend.
- Start with a beginner’s mindset, and over time, you’ll have a collection of activities you do for fun outside of drinking.
- Reach out to friends or loved ones you trust. Talk to them about your problems; if it’s hard, you may seek a professional counsellor instead.
- When you seek help from a professional, you can create your toolkit to help you regulate your emotions and actively work on healing past traumas that may affect your present behaviours.
Trying to stop drinking alcohol has complex layers from one person to another. While the above solutions are all general, we hope you can at least try some of them and see where they lead you.
There’s no single cure to stop drinking, but trying out some of these solutions can help you start to pick yourself up again and move away from the harmful psychological and physical impact alcohol can have on you.
Notice how your mind and body feel when participating in activities that don’t require drinking to self-regulate or boost your confidence. Later, you’ll only see the benefits build up and help you live a healthy, full life.
Here are just some of the great benefits to expect once you stop drinking:
- Improved mental health
- Healthier weight
- Clearer and healthy skin
- Better sleep
- Clear thinking
- Stronger memory
- More physically active
- Increased sex drive
- Save money more effectively
- Reduced risks of cancer
- Better relationship with yourself and others
Stay Connected to Your “why”
While the above benefits are the most common motivators why people want to stop drinking, everyone has their own unique “why”. Most of the time, these reasons are exceptionally personal.
The best way to pinpoint your why is to come up with your own personal list of reasons. Laying it down on paper creates accountability and helps you define it better. This way, your intentions to stop drinking get more concrete and doable.
Every person will have a different list; some will want to focus on emotional regulation, finding their purpose again, wanting to feel healthier, and sometimes they want to have better relationships.
Having that list can help you stay true to your “why” and will remind you, especially during times when it’s very tough to say no to alcohol. Another way to maximise this is to reward yourself with every progress!
This way, you can create a healthy and more positive association with stopping alcohol consumption. The key here is to envision your future without alcohol and how you can live a better life from here.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are
tiny matters compared to what lies within us
What Should I do if I Cannot Stop Drinking?
Whether you have tried everything or find it difficult to stop drinking, just know that you’re not alone. There’s no shame in having this difficulty, especially since around 82% of people in the UK have no access to the treatment they need.
For some people, stopping alcohol use can be so simple to do, and others can feel like it’s an uphill battle. Alcohol addiction is not a moral failing, and everyone can be a victim of its vicious cycle.
The first and most crucial step is always admitting that you’re struggling and need support. This can be very difficult as most people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) can be in denial of their dependence.
However, the road towards recovery starts once this first step is taken. Most people will then undergo medically-assisted alcohol detox, especially if they have taken alcohol for years or in intense amounts. Then, a comprehensive and intensive treatment program will be done in an alcohol rehab centre.
This way, you or someone you know who struggles with alcohol use can reclaim their lives over alcohol dependence, spark joy back in their relationships, and start living with a renewed passion for life.
FREE Alcohol Addiction Assessment
If you or a loved one are struggling with alcohol addiction, we understand the challenges you’re facing and we’re here to offer compassionate help.
Our highly trained advisers are available to speak to you right away, simply call 0808 252 3379 today.
We can discuss your concerns in complete confidence, explore the options for treatment, and help you to understand what will work best for you.
We’ll also help you to book your free alcohol addiction assessment there and then, with appointments usually available within only a few days.
We understand that taking the first step can be the most difficult, but we’re here to support – with no pressure or judgement.
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