How to stop drinking

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Don't rely only on willpower.

If you have asked this question, then it really is an acute one. Perhaps you do not drink hard liquor, but every day. Perhaps you pause, but the degrees are getting higher.

Be that as it may, the decision to quit drinking is the right step. But the first one. The following can be tricky.

Why quitting drinking is difficult

A popular excuse that people use to allow themselves not to give up a glass or bottle is: "I can quit any time I want!" But this is self-deception. The problem is that often alcoholism cannot be defeated by willpower alone.

From a medical point of view, binge drinking is a kind of complex eating disorder, the causes of which often lie in a genetic predisposition. Thus, it was found that alcoholism and bulimia are associated with Coregasm: Why It Happens, How to Have One, and MoreGenetic Overlap between Alcohol Use Disorder and Bulimic Behaviors in European American and African American Women with the same genes. This means that both situations refer not only to behavioral, but also to psychophysiological disorders.

Essentially, alcoholism is a malfunction of the brain. Dangerous because alcohol builds up into chemical bonds within the gray matter. As a result, the brain is addicted to regular doses of C2H5OH, from which it is not so easy to remove it.

Trying to quit alcohol with sheer willpower is like trying to cure appendicitis with good thoughts.

So what are the Treatments for Alcohol Use Disorder? experts of the American medical resource WebMD.

How to stop drinking

Given the complexity of the situation, it is advisable to use several methods. Choose and combine them according to your personal needs.

1. Talk to your doctor

You can start with a therapist (if necessary, he will advise you on the next specialist - a narcologist). The medic will find out how serious your problem is.

As a rule, to diagnose alcohol problems, it is enough to get affirmative answers to three questions:

1. Do you regularly feel like you need a drink?
2. You can't control how much you drink and "literally 50 grams!" easily grow into glass by glass?
3. Are you annoyed and / or physically ill if you don't get alcohol when you feel like it?

In addition, your doctor will help you determine your goals. They can be different. Perhaps you just want to drink less. Or maybe you crave to quit alcohol completely. Based on this, as well as your physical condition, the therapist will offer you an individualized treatment plan.

2. Pause

Perhaps you are the lucky one who can really get rid of the craving for alcohol, simply by saying to yourself: "That's it, I don't drink from this day." Check it out.

Andy Ramage, author of the popular Internet program One Year No Beer, which helps people quit alcohol, recommends starting with a pause of 28 days. Or 90. Or 365. If you manage not to touch alcohol during this time, then you have a situation. under control.

This pause is enough to form a stable habit. And even if then you again indulge in a glass or two from time to time, it will still be a good step towards saying goodbye to the green serpent. Just remember to repeat the pauses.

Mobile applications can help you. They keep track of how long you have been without a bad habit, give you encouragement, report any health problems you have avoided, give simple homemade recipes for relief, and share motivating quotes from the greats.

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3. Be Prepared for Withdrawal Syndrome

If you can not stand the appointed pause, in any case, you will have to give up alcohol. Albeit for a shorter period. Doctors recommend What Are the Treatments for Alcohol Use Disorder? start with a few days a week.

The point of such breaks is to give the body time to slowly restore non-alcoholic metabolism.

When it comes to serious cases, the breaks can be painful. The so-called withdrawal syndrome often includes:

1. Tremors (tremors) in the limbs.
2. Hallucinations.
3. Cramps and headaches.

If this is about you, the best option would be to take a break at a specialized clinic. Or, at a minimum, ask your doctor to prescribe medications and procedures for you that might reduce your discomfort.

4. Use psychological techniques

The life hacker described them in detail in an article on how to drink less.

In difficult cases, psychotherapy may be required. A psychotherapist can help you see your goal more clearly, understand the benefits of not drinking, and deal with possible anxiety, irritability, and depression.

Since drunkenness also affects loved ones, you can go to an appointment with a psychotherapist together with a significant person for you. It will help build relationships and also give you the feeling that you are not alone.

So called coding is not worth spending money on.

Suggestion-based methods do not have the slightest scientific basis. Short-term intensive psychotherapeutic intervention in drug addiction from the standpoint of evidence-based medicine. And in some cases, they can even increase alcohol cravings. In this regard, back in 2015, coding as a method of treating alcohol dependence was banned. Coding was banned in drug dispensaries, the 25th frame and the Dovzhenko method in Moscow state drug treatment clinics.

5. Join group therapy

Alcoholics Anonymous just sounds ridiculous. In fact, such meetings are extremely important for those who are struggling with addiction to high-alcohol drinks. There you can find understanding, support and successful life examples.

Just enter the phrase "Alcoholics Anonymous" and the name of your settlement in the search box, and you will find out the place and time of meetings of the nearest group.

Or look for a suitable group in the open directory of Alcoholics Anonymous.

You can also call the toll-free hotline of the Healthy Russia service at 8 800 200 0 200. Professional psychologists and doctors will answer all your alcohol-related questions and support you in your desire to stop drinking.

6. Be prepared to take special medications

There are no drugs that can cure alcohol disorders. But there are medications that can make drinking less enjoyable.

For example, Disulfiram disulfiram. It causes extremely nasty sensations - nausea, vomiting, general malaise - every time you tip the glass. Or Acamprosate Calcium Acamprosate CALCIUM: Under certain conditions, it significantly reduces drinking cravings. Or naltrexone Naltrexone HCL: it blocks the production of endorphins from alcohol consumption.

Such funds are available both in the form of tablets and in the form of injections.

But it must be borne in mind that the drugs will be effective only with a change in lifestyle. In addition, they often have quite serious side effects. Therefore, only a doctor can prescribe them.

7. Be patient and persistent

It will take a long time to quit drinking, or at least make sure that alcohol is under control. Be prepared for this. And do not be discouraged if at some point you break off. Failures are just steps in the process of breaking the addiction.

As experts of WebMD assure What Are the Treatments for Alcohol Use Disorder?, five years after the start of the struggle, only one person in seven still has alcohol problems. So the treatment works. Just give it time.