Hey all, looking for tips and tricks for quitting drinking alcohol! If you are going to be an ass…please don’t respond. This is an honest question to those who have been there. If you feel better than responding for everyone to see…a PM is cool too.
Thank you to any assistance or advice you may have. I am sure others here have been there and battled out! Just looking for advice what you did. Thank you!
I drink now. But have stopped in the past (for long periods of time.) What worked for me was scaling back, i.e. stop mon, tues, have a couple wed. none thurs, fri, then a couple sat. none sun… then from there none during the week but a couple saturday. Then none at all. I have always found the cold turkey thing is a bit of a lifestyle shock. For me, it isn’t about withdrawl or cravings, its about habbit. So the other thing that helps is finding replacement habits. Walking the dog (a longer walk than normal) instead of a drink after work… yoga, hitting the gym, you get the idea. Replace one habit with another. Good luck in your pursuit. Always available for PM.
Thank you…good tip to try. Problem is I am trying to stop 6-12 a night not just a few…?
Thank you…good tip to try. Problem is I am trying to stop 6-12 a night not just a few. Shockingly I can still put in some great workouts…LOL
Do what Warwick said and on the days with zero drinking get on the treadmill with a 20 lb backpack and run for 4 min and then remove it and run without it. Then imagine that same effect when the built in weight jacket comes off. All the best.
Dev
i agree with warwicke36, i find its about breaking habits… for me, “a drink or two” on fridays would always turn into many more, and would usually end with the major munchies which then turn into a total calorie binge, often 4000-7000 deep…
now me and the lady have “Vietnamese Friday” and just check out another new Pho restaurant somewhere in town… sure, it’s not totally healthy, but is better than the alternative… I now actually quite look forward to the new habit, and find i don’t miss the alcohol at all…
I made it a habit to get up at 4 a.m. several mornings a week and get on the trainer for an hour or two, and some mornings run too. Then by 9 p.m. you are so tired all you want to do it sleep. I lost weight and got faster.
Based on the experiences of a few very close friends, you likely are not going to do it on your own and you arent going to do it until you actually really want to.
I suggest finding an AA meeting and taking it one day at a time. Good luck.
I’m an advocate of not quitting, but like the others I think you should scale back. The advantage of not quitting, is that if you ever accidentally have a drink you haven’t failed, which might give you an excuse like “well too late now, I may as well have another”. Just keep working at having 1 less beer. Train lots and you may find you are too tired to drink, and when you start getting really fit you may start to think that it is simply counter productive to be getting drunk while trying to improve your fitness. Best of luck.
I found it a little odd that you posed this question on ST, but if you are serious and sincere, then here is what I will tell you. First there are no “tips or tricks” to quit drinking. If you can’t quit then you have a problem and you need to get help. Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) is what works for a great many people with this problem. Go on the internet aa.org and find some local meetings. Check out a few in your area, introduce yourself by your first name, and explain that you are having trouble quitting/controlling your drinking. Ask for a “Big Book” and get a directory of meetings in the area and take it one day at a time and give the program a chance. Most mental health profesionals will tell you the same advice I just gave you, although they can help with other problems that sometimes accompany alcoholism, such as depression. AA is a simple and effective program but it requires honesty, commitment, and a genuine desire to change. I hope that you get well soon.
Cold turkey worked for me.
Alcohol was never a problem for me, however, it did get a hold of some family members. I said to myself that it wasn’t gonna get me. I was happy that I was able to tell my Dad that I quit, before he passed away. It’s been 10 years.
Cutting back?- look for tips here and other forums.
Quitting?- AA is a good place to start. the coffee sucks but there are worse ways to spend an hour.
For me, it isn’t about withdrawl or cravings, its about habbit. So the other thing that helps is finding replacement habits. Walking the dog (a longer walk than normal) instead of a drink after work… yoga, hitting the gym, you get the idea. Replace one habit with another. Good luck in your pursuit. Always available for PM.
I just read the book “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business”, which addresses this. It’s not only about replacing habits but also figuring out what triggers that habit. The author addresses quitting drinking and Alcohol Anonymous in the book. It might be worth taking the time to read it.
I never drank to excess, but I have a tendency to overheat, especially junk. I find that as long as it isn’t in the house, I’m not tempted by it.
If it is in the house, stick it somewhere that you aren’t going to constantly see it.
Switch to non-alcoholic beer. I quit drinking because even one drink had enough to give me major headaches, but since I like the taste of beer, non-alcoholic is a great option.
Drinking and drugs solved all my problems…got rid of that pesky wife,
Made a small fortune with my business-from a large fortune! Got to be good friends with some really awesome low life’s.
Figured out I had a problem and started exercising that led to tris. Didn’t stop drinking or drugs. A little bump at 4:30am before masters swim no problem. Quart of Bombay Sapphire and 3-4 bottles of wine a week after running or biking; I run faster just to get to that drink! I was one healthy substance abuser.
Thought about AA but don’t like the giving up control thing. And some research show recidivism is quite high AA. Also I didn’t want to quit completely, I wanted to manage it.
Found a substance abuse research project and joined. Actually got paid to participate. It was about accountability and a forum of others in the program. I would get on the forum at night (with cocktail in hand) and we all would share our struggles and successes.
After about a month my competitive spirit got the best of me and I wanted to be the best at getting control of my habits. I noticed that the same people kept having the same issues and I found some of them quite pathetic. I said I can beat those guys…
With in two weeks I cutback substantially. Then the effects of a few drinks were noticible to me. I was self canceling my workouts with the drinking. I was quite moody and depressed. I started spending more time with my tri friends and less time with the party friends. One day I just stopped. Dropped 20 lbs., my times improved, I was getting competitive.
I drink occasionally now, but, seldom crave it and seldom more than one drink (it’s like poison to me sometimes). Alcohol has been a big part of my life for over 40 years, and now I just don’t miss it, kinda weird.
Even found a healthier forum and I think I can beat some of these guys too.
Good luck with your efforts, feel free to PM me. Kick it’s ass.
+1 on this. Some great ones out there too.
Baclofen did the trick for me, it was similar to Chantix for smokers. I drank a little more while taking it, then I just no longer wanted to drink.
While I never drank 6-12 beers or drinks per night, I did acquire a high frequency drinking habit towards the end of college, in graduate school, and post graduate school. This was primarily social in origin, and I found that when I had to move away from my core group of friends the frequency diminished to 1-2 times a week. Notably, my friends who are still in the same area continue to maintain my old consumption.
I never drank to excess, but I have a tendency to overheat, especially junk. I find that as long as it isn’t in the house, I’m not tempted by it.
If it is in the house, stick it somewhere that you aren’t going to constantly see it.
Currently, if I don’t keep any alcohol in the house per this suggestion I almost never drink and don’t even think about it much. Approximately once per week or so when out with friends I’ll have 1-3 drinks, but I’ve found my desire for more is basically gone.
All that being said, there can be significant individual differences in this regard, and if you truly find it problematic to scale back your drinking as others have suggested here you should seek out resources in your area to help.
I have an addictive personality. It has always been something that I over-indulge in. In my 30’s, it was alcohol. Everyone drank after work. It progressed until I decided I had to stop the cycle. I changed jobs. I changed my social group. I quit drinking daily. Once I broke the cycle, I moved on to more productive activities to overdo. I haven’t been drunk in a decade. I still drink, at parties or such. But it may be a couple of weeks or even a couple of months between drinks. And then it is usually only one or two.
The key to me was changing my environment. BTW, that group has continued to drink, continued to spiral down. Several have failed at AA. Numerous ‘ex wives’ for each of them.
I think this is a common story.
I hung out with people in university that drank a lot! I ended up drinking a lot. When I moved from that social group…I never drank much at all. Never felt a desire to. To this day I might go weeks or months between having even a glass of wine or a beer.Many of the group that I hung out with never quit…20 years later…one death, split marriages, detox and rehab failures…those of us with a “problem” never got over it…those of us “enabling and socially over indulging” did. Funny thing is the alcoholics were kind of fun then and now they are just pathetic.
I hope the OP can find the right path.