6 Ways to address your drinking habits

Are you worried that your drinking is problematic? If so then you are not alone. To get help and take action, speak to an experience Recovery Coach who will help support your treatment goals and consider enrolling in an Online Recovery Program specifically for Alcohol Recovery.

Additionally, see the tips below for reducing your drinking:

1. Keep track of how many drinks you have – You can’t begin to address a problem if you don’t know the extent of the problem. Start getting into the habit of recording the number of drinks you have per day.
2. Limit how much you drink – Decide on a limit of how much you will drink per day. We recommend that you set the limit to one drink per day as an ambitious goal. If that’s not realistic, think about how much you’re drinking per day currently and choose a realistic number of drinks per day. Overtime, slowly reduce the number of drinks per day.
3. Limit your temptations – If you know that when you get home you’ll be tempted to grab a drink from the cabinet, remove Alcohol from there, store non-alcoholic drinks instead.
4. Always have a Plan A and B – Always plan ahead, and be prepared for social situations and triggers that pushes you to drink. If you know you’re going to go somewhere or see someone that will be a trigger for you to drink, practice your response to handle to situation and pressure.

   Also have a back up plan, for your plan. Create a back up plan for in case your first plan doesn’t work.

   For example, if there is someone that you’ll see is trigger for you and you plan to be nice, take a few deep breaths and address them the best you can, and that plan doesn’t work.

   Then you should create a plan B incase that plan doesn’t work, for example, you’re plan B could be walking away, or making a call to a friend or a family member to meet up with them to distract you from that stressful situation.

   Remember, there are always others ways how to relieve stress otherwise from drinking.

5. Keep Motivated – Find the ‘why’ in you wanting to drink less. Think through the reason why it’s essential and beneficial for your to reduce your drinking so you’ll develop a natural motivation to drink less.
6. Lean on Someone – You don’t have to go through this journey alone, lean on a close and understanding family member, colleague or friend for support.