Many things could hamper you meeting your goal to cut down on drinking ( prevent the urge to drink and stay sober ). Your best line of defense is to avoid stumbling blocks and peer pressure. By making your life free of beer you can better reach sobriety. You may need to give up certain friends and social connections in order to better your life. Don’t put yourself in an atmosphere that serves drink or if you can’t avoid it drink a soda or virgin beverage. Take fate into your own hands by leaving if you are tempted to drink in a social situation. Have an alcohol free drink instead of booze if you find yourself in a place that serves drinks. If you have to go to a bar to meet up with someone pick a place with the distractions of darts or billiards. Throw out all remaining bottles and cans as well as anything that will remind you of your old drinking days. If bars or liquor stores are constantly crossing your daily paths go a different way.
As you advance in stopping drinking liquor keep track of your progress in a diary
In your plan to give up drinking identify when you will evaluate your progress ( read here ). Take small steps and design a scheme for a minimum of a month and go from there. When in doubt re-read your list of motivations for why you reduce drinking. To assist you reach your goals keep a diary of your drinking. Keep track of how many drinks you have a week or every time you have urge to drink. You will be able to review what triggers you to drink and how much if you record everything in a journal. Examine how different your goal is from the amount you drink now. Reflect on previous attempts to discontinue consuming and pinpoint what functioned for you. Many people find that just keeping a diary makes them more keenly aware of their consuming habits. Although self-monitoring may appear time consuming keeping records of certain activities is not unusual.
Here are some helpful tips to aid you in giving up on wine forever
The idea that you could just give up your addiction and automatically live happily ever after is a myth. Rewards are critical to the overall recovery process as they can assist you to stay motivated. Giving yourself rewards from time to time for not consuming is an important part of recovery that is too often disregarded. How often you reward yourself depends on what you need to stay motivated. When you stop abusing alcohol you will notice how much money you had been spending on booze and can now use for other things. Use the money you would have spent on drinking to do something fun with your family or friends. If you have taken up a new hobby as part of your sobriety plan you could take extra money and purchase something related to your hobby. Make sure whatever activity you choose it does not have anything to do with consuming and will not place you in a location where you’ll be tempted to drink. Buy a necklace or a ring or something you could see as a sign of your sobriety so that you could remember that booze no longer has power over you. Also visualization could be extremely powerful in terms of helping you make correct decisions so visualize how you will feel in future when you are completely free of the grip of alcohol.
Alcoholics Anonymous provides encouragement for those seeking help to stop drinking
Some people attend Alcoholics Anonymous to help them stick to their plan to cut down on or stop drinking ( methods to cut back on drinking alcohol ). The well-known group Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement founded in 1930’s by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Ohio. The goal of AA is total abstinence from consuming which they try to achieve with a 12 step program and support. Members of AA are encouraged to find an experienced fellow alcoholic who will be their sponsor. To assist you fight urge to drink a sponsor helps you understand and follow the AA program. AA provides open meetings that are organized by fellow alcoholics. Some of AA’s meetings are devoted to studying and discussing the AA literature. Local AA directories list a variety of weekly meetings at various times. AA has meetings listed as closed for those with a desire to reduce consuming while there are also open meetings which are available to anyone. More informally AA's membership has helped popularize the concept that alcoholism is a disorder.