How to stop drinking alcohol altogether. Awareness of the problem by a man. Do not drink alcohol: it is an addiction

This article is devoted to a very acute and relevant, in our Russian realities, the issue of alcohol addiction. Here we will talk about how to stop drinking forever and do it yourself. I won't talk about emergency measures, like coding: this post is dedicated to those who want to cope with this ailment on their own and never return to alcohol again.

The primary goal of this article is not just to help you get rid of alcohol addiction, but to show you how to achieve a psychological state in which alcohol is not needed! This is the qualitative difference between my methods and many others: I will tell you how to live and enjoy life without alcohol, instead of talking about how, under the influence of external stimuli, including negative ones (like coding), stop drinking for some time, with the risk of returning to the bottle again in the future.

This article is focused rather on young people who do not have the most advanced stage of alcoholism and still have the strength and ability to fight. But, nevertheless, I advise everyone to read it, no matter how strong your addiction is - the conclusions of this article will be useful to you, in any case.

Even if you think you don't have a drinking problem, I still recommend that you familiarize yourself with the conclusions presented here. It often happens that the absence of a problem is an illusion that has appeared due to prevailing social stereotypes: after all, in Russian realities, drinking from time to time is considered normal, and no one thinks until this habit passes into the terminal stage. Although, apparently, you need to think much earlier.

If you drink “on holidays”, “having a reason”, “to relax”, then you are still at risk: almost all alcoholics started this way, very few people abruptly and suddenly sank to the very bottom of the alcoholic abyss.

This is a very large article, you may find it more convenient to read it in several visits. But I assure you that the volume of this text is the very minimum of the volume that this acute problem needs to be considered.

Worth considering if

• You drink more than once a month
• If you drink, then you bring yourself to a state of drunkenness (this is not limited to one glass of wine)
• Without alcohol, you cannot relax, have fun or relax.

The presence of at least a few of the above factors indicates the danger and risk of alcoholism (if it has not already occurred). An alcoholic is not only a person lying drunk on the street, who plaintively asks for money for a bottle. Alcoholism occurs much earlier than this stage, and the prerequisites for it are formed even earlier.

The phenomenon of drinking is shrouded in many myths and misconceptions within our culture. I will break these myths, so many of my conclusions may seem radical and even, in some way, offensive, since they do not correspond to the usual ideas about alcohol. But if you want to stop drinking, you'd better learn about it.

My personal alcohol experience is about five years. During this period, I drank alcohol, almost every day, including in the morning. And every time I brought myself to a very drunk state. Many people with a long history of drinking alcohol will say that this is not such a long time. But believe me, this was enough for me to realize from my own experience all the features of alcohol addiction, to understand what the psychology of an alcoholic is. And I managed to get out.

I've only had a few drinks in the last year (but I still don't think it's the most best result), in the future, I'm sure I won't drink at all. Update 10/24/13: I don't drink at all since New Year 2013. I consider myself a non-drinker. Non-drinkers, not only because I don’t drink, but because I don’t feel the need for alcohol: I feel good without it, wherever I am, at home or at a noisy party in a drinking company. I don't feel any sense of loss, I don't feel like I'm missing out on some special fun or relaxation by not drinking, because I feel comfortable and relaxed anyway.

(Forewarning a possible question, I will immediately say that I do not use other drugs, that is, I do not replace the absence of alcohol with anything.)

In short, "non-drinker" is a state of mind, coupled with the fact of complete rejection of alcohol. How to achieve this state, and will be discussed in this article. Let's start with the destruction of myths that accompany the culture of drinking and the perception of this disease.

7 myths about alcohol

Myth 1 Alcohol is not a drug

“According to observations for the period from 1990 to 2001. more than half of male Russians aged 15 to 54 died from causes directly related to alcohol abuse" - wikipedia

No, friends, alcohol is a drug, and one of the most dangerous in the world. Based on a survey of leading narcologists, the medical journal The Lancet ranked alcohol fifth among other drugs, ranking them by degree. harmful effects on the body and the risk of addiction. Heroin, cocaine, methadone (an opiate like morphine and heroin) and barbiturates (a kind of sedative drugs) “lead” in this list. After alcohol, you can see ketamine, amphetamines (CNS stimulants) and tobacco on the list.

And it doesn’t matter that alcohol is legal, and that drinking drinks from beautiful glasses is much more aesthetically pleasing than an intravenous injection, know that, emptying the fourth bottle of beer in the kitchen, according to the daily ritual, you are not much different from a heroin addict pumping another dose into his vein powder solution. Yes, addiction to heroin seems to happen faster (but it is also not instantaneous, the belief that after the first injection you will immediately run to the pawnshop to sell your things to get a dose is a myth. It also takes time for physical dependence to form) and addiction is, in its consequences, more destructive, though not by much.

You have seen complete alcoholics who will do anything just to drink, because the desire has become unbearable, it can be stronger than the need for sleep and food! You know about broken families, alcohol murders. Why do you think that this will not affect you, since you supposedly know when to stop? Do you believe that a young man who gets his first dose of heroin is already just dreaming about how he will begin to steal and do all sorts of humiliating acts because of the drug? Of course not! He is sure that all these horrors that everyone is talking about will pass him by, because he is smart, controls himself and will never allow trouble. The funny thing is that almost all novice drug addicts think this way, and you know what happens to this majority ...

Of course, alcohol will not lead to this so quickly: someone who has started drinking is more likely than someone who has started using opiates. But, according to statistics, alcoholization in 76% of cases begins before the age of 20! Active alcoholics are not only some social elements who have always been anti-social and culturally limited and therefore began to drink. For many of them, everything also began with a "harmless" beer on weekends and on Fridays. Moreover, alcoholism begins much earlier the moment you're lying drunk on the street. It can go on for a long time in a more “moderate”, “civilized” phase, when you are not on the social bottom, but still drink quite often.

Alcohol = legal heroin

An alcohol addict is not much different from a heroin addict. In terms of their relationship to pleasure, certainly nothing! Both are ready to sacrifice their health, the comfort of their loved ones, children for the sake of momentary pleasure and a sense of comfort! At the heart of any addiction is acute selfishness: “I don’t care about anything except my own pleasure!”

There are many similarities between alcohol and heroin. I drew this conclusion from my own experience of drinking alcohol and someone else's experience of heroin addiction. One person who used to use heroin and was addicted to it told me about how it happens that decent, intelligent people suddenly slide down to the most social and moral bottom, being under the influence of addiction.

The biggest insidiousness of addiction lies in the fact that it does not come immediately, but is formed smoothly and gradually, and, therefore, imperceptibly. After the first narcotic experiences, a person usually does not feel the so-called “breaking” and addiction. Everything turns out to be much easier than what he was promised by all sorts of drug fighters on TV. This gives him false optimism about his drug future, and he embarks on new heroin adventures with confidence.

Then, as a result of dependence, some kind of awareness, a critical perception of oneself and surrounding things gradually begins to disappear: what previously seemed immoral, unacceptable, is now seen as self-evident. The addict can no longer remember the moment when he began to constantly ask for money from friends. This passed unconsciously, as if past him, and he himself did not notice how he stopped seeing something reprehensible in being constantly in debt: money is needed and that's it, although he could not even think of such a thing before. This is the most dangerous moment!

The addict thinks that everything is fine, although everything is no longer normal at all! He seems to be in control even though he already uses the drug every day! And all this is due to the fact that addiction occurs imperceptibly to consciousness. It is not at all accompanied by repentance: “Oh, what am I doing, it’s time to stop!”. Although such remorse would be very helpful.

I noticed the same effect in myself and in other people from the systematic use of alcohol. If before my strong alcoholic hobby I drank, then I did it no more than once a month. And there was no question of drinking every weekend! But after a while it began to seem to me that drinking every Friday and Saturday is not something that, not often, it's just what God himself ordered! It's like you don't drink at all! (I will touch on the psychological effect associated with the misperception of the frequency of drinking ethyl alcohol.)

I did not notice how I stopped seeing something very bad in what I drink every day. I did not notice how much I got fat from the beer, how my face was swollen. It seemed normal. It began to seem normal that every evening, and even in the morning, I was very drunk, that with my obscene behavior I strained my friends and people close to me. I didn't even think about whether it was normal or not. All my physical, mental, moral metamorphoses, going along the path of degradation, eluded my consciousness! The process of self-development proceeds consciously, in contrast to degradation: a person notices how to become better. But when you get worse, you don't notice it!

What is the pleasure of alcohol?

There is another similarity between heroin and alcohol addiction. The fact is that, contrary to popular belief, the action of heroin does not bring a feeling of unearthly pleasure, an unbridled high that drug addicts chase after, wanting to get a new dose every day. Judging by the reviews of former addicts, the whole effect comes down to some kind of stupefying feeling of animal comfort, which many do not even give any pleasure at the first experience of use. What is the secret, you ask. Why do people keep using and dying from it?

And the secret lies in the strongest addiction and the breakdowns that accompany it. A person gets high not from heroin itself, but from the satisfaction of an intense desire and the instant removal of symptoms of sharp physical and psychological discomfort (withdrawal). Imagine that you have a severe headache, it’s unbearable. Suddenly you are injected with some kind of harmless painkiller intravenously, the action of which in itself does not give any pleasure. But you instantly pass the head! What do you feel? Pleasure!

Only a heroin addict has not only a headache, but his whole body, and the desire to get a dose is stronger than thirst and hunger! In short, the “high” from heroin comes only when people are already “addicted” to it and will relieve them of the pain caused by withdrawal and satisfy their strongest desire.

The same happens with alcohol. Think back to your first experiences with alcohol. How much fun did you get? Perhaps for the first time you managed to evoke unusual sensations of an altered consciousness, you were probably drawn to adventures, which you then discussed with friends for a long time, so you will surely remember this experience. But I'm not talking about this, but about the very action of a narcotic substance called ethyl alcohol. Did you really enjoy the effect? As for the physical symptoms, you felt dizzy, lack of coordination, heaviness in the head, and the psychological effect was reduced to the appearance of swagger in communication, confusion of thoughts, dulling of some feelings, increased mood ...

Tell me, is there a lot of buzz in this? I don't think so, especially if you compare the pleasure with the consequences. People get real pleasure from alcohol when they satisfy an already developed addiction or other desires (for example, to relieve nervousness, mental pain, etc.). The effect of alcohol is actually stupefying and uninteresting, but when you want to drink, because you are used to drinking, you are on edge, nervous, then emptying a few bottles of beer is a real pleasure. Or maybe you're experiencing alcohol withdrawal (hangover) and feel relieved when you take it off with a shot.

There is no big buzz in alcohol itself. To get this buzz, you need to get hooked on alcohol.

Unfortunately, many drinking people miss this moment and therefore it is difficult for them to stop drinking. They think that since alcohol brings such a feeling of pleasure and relief, how can I live without these feelings?

Many people can't stop drinking, not because they lack the willpower to pick it up and stop it, but because fear comes over them when they try to imagine a future without alcohol. But these feelings are caused only by the addiction itself, both psychological and physical. It is worth getting rid of addiction, alcohol will no longer be a pleasure, on the contrary, its use will be accompanied by a feeling of discomfort and wasted time, health and strength. This must be kept in mind if you want to stop drinking.

Alcohol and heroin are some of the most dangerous drugs known to mankind! They cause the strongest addiction and breaking and lead to strong personal degradation!

And a strong desire makes an obedient animal out of a person, who resignedly obey their instincts, without the right to choose. First-hand information about the characteristics of heroin addiction had a much stronger effect on me than any anti-drug propaganda, in terms of forming an aversion to heroin and understanding that a person who drinks is not very different from an addicted to opiates.

So I think people want the truth about drugs, not the exaggerated truth. The real truth is always scarier, because it is more logical, more consistent with the realities of life. And the truth is not only that heroin addiction is not formed immediately, but also that the latter is not much more dangerous than alcohol, which, in turn, is extremely dangerous and is also a drug! For some reason, our valiant media do not touch this fact. Perhaps this is due to the fact that no taxes are paid on the sale of heroin, while a huge quitrent is paid to the state on the amount of sales of alcoholic beverages.

Myth 2 - There is a reason for drinking

We are accustomed to the fact that any joyful or sad event is accompanied by a collective drinking of alcohol. This is how traditions develop in our culture, the expediency of which we do not even think about. But one has only to try to abstract from the way of thinking imposed on us by culture, as all the sheer absurdity of these traditions catches the eye. Well, what could be the connection between some joyful event and the use of alcohol in drinks?

Try to mentally go beyond your culture and capture this connection. If you managed to abstract from traditions, then you will not be able to find a connection, because it does not exist! There are no reasons for alcoholic libations, we ourselves came up with these reasons to justify our weaknesses, wrapping them in tinsel of pompous rituals! There may be a desire to drink and arise in grief, as a result of the need to dull the pain. But this is also not the best way out, since alcohol will only temporarily eliminate suffering. After that, they return with renewed vigor.

Traditions are very relative things and they differ greatly in different cultures. For example, in India, the culture of drinking alcohol is not as common as ours. Yes, the problem of alcoholism exists there too, but the attitude of people is completely different. When my friends tried to buy rum in this country as a gift and began to ask the locals where they could buy it (they didn’t sell alcohol in stores there, at least in the place where my friends were (not GOA)), they somehow reluctantly went towards. One of them nevertheless agreed to help and took them to some kind of gloomy basement without a sign, without any identification marks.

The guide himself nervously looked around, demonstrating with all his appearance that he seemed not to be with Russian tourists and ended up in that place by accident. It was clear that the Indian was very ashamed and he was afraid that he would not be seen next to the point selling alcohol. In that basement, there was a store where rum was bought in a plastic bottle.

This example demonstrates the very relativity of culture. Somewhere alcohol is treated differently than in our country, its use in any form is a socially condemned action, just like in our country the use of illegal drugs! A completely unusual attitude for a Russian person! In our country, drunkenness is masked by the words “reason”, “feast”, we are used to believing that no holiday can do without alcohol. But we think so, because this is how traditions developed, and these traditions developed spontaneously, arbitrarily, they initially had no meaning other than justifying themselves! After all, somewhere they are treated differently!

Do you really want to be bearers of such absurd traditions and, moreover, to pass them on to future generations, to your children? After all, the logical link "holiday - celebrate - drink" (as well as, "tired - drink", "upset - drink", "meet friends - drink") is laid in us in childhood, when we see our drinkers, "in honor" some event, parents. And already in a more conscious life, this begins to manifest itself as a social reflex, leading to the worst consequences.

Regular drinking is not normal! The tradition that justifies this is the barbaric tradition.

Myth 3 - Alcohol helps to cope with stress and relax.

I already wrote an article on this topic. You can read it later, I will give a link to it below, when we analyze what causes lead to alcoholism. Briefly, I will give here its main content. Stress is determined not only by external factors, but by our sensitivity to it. After all different people experience the same stimuli in different ways. Someone will easily survive a quarrel at work, but for someone it will be a blow. So, alcohol is able to drown out the symptoms of stress, push the problem into the background, that's right.

But, when we get used to relieve stress in this way, firstly, we lose the ability to relax on our own, without alcohol, as a certain habit is developed. Secondly, because of our habit of easy and quick relief, our sensitivity to stress increases, and this is also due to the destructive effect of alcohol on the nervous system - people who drink are more nervous and sensitive. Thirdly, instead of working on ourselves, solving problems, we, through drunkenness, push them into the background, which in essence is ignoring the problem.

I often heard complaints from my acquaintances that the daily stress created by work and the atmosphere of life in the city is to blame for everything, which is why they resort to alcohol. This is not true. The more you drink to relax, the worse you can relax without alcohol and the more you have to drink - a vicious cycle. It's all about someone's individual sensitivity, which determines how much tension and stress a person will receive. If he knows how to relax on his own and not let stress into himself, then everything will be nothing to him!

But for this you need to work on yourself. How to learn this will be discussed in this article.

Alcohol suppresses any desire to find the right and reliable ways to relax and feel better. Imagine that all alcoholic beverages suddenly disappeared from the stores in a magical way. And everything that can replace them has disappeared: poppy and hemp no longer grow. What will you do? At first, it will be difficult for many without the usual means of relaxation. But then, the most savvy will understand that you need to look for other ways to feel better, relieving fatigue and stress. They simply have no choice but to find these ways.

Someone will find the wonderful property of sports, relieve stress and fatigue. Someone realizes that in order to feel good, you need to work on yourself and discover things like yoga and meditation. In short, lack of access to the lungs and quick solutions will force people to look for something else, something that is beneficial, not harmful!

But if you know that you can always, without any effort or labor, relax and cheer yourself up just by drinking a couple of glasses, then you lose the incentive to look for other, more effective, but less easy solutions! You do not think about how to strengthen the nervous system, how to make it so that you do not worry over trifles, what methods exist to calm the mind and be cheerful and cheerful. Why think about it? If you can always have a drink! In this regard, alcohol acts as a strong “brake” for self-development, and the point is not only in its harm, but in the fact that drinking is the path of least resistance!

This is also why alcohol leads to personal degradation: a person gets used to the lungs and fast ways, does not see an incentive to work on himself, and this is reflected in many aspects of his life.

Also wrong is the notion that you are "resting" when you drink. This is not true, the body spends a lot of resources to combat the consequences of drinking alcohol. disruption of the brain, heart and nervous system. It exhausts you, takes away strength. You do not rest at all, but on the contrary, come to exhaustion.

Myth 4 - Alcohol makes me feel confident. Alcohol promotes communication

If you can’t look without alcohol, then this means that you need to work on yourself, and not resort to “social lubricant”. And the same as in the previous point: when you start drinking to gain self-confidence, your ability to control yourself soberly decreases.

Perhaps you are used to drinking in company, and without drinking you get bored. The problem may lie with the company itself. Or maybe the point is in you, in the fact that you do not know how to enjoy communication on a sober head. Or maybe both at the same time.

For example, after I stopped drinking so much and learned to enjoy sober communication, I became interested in having long conversations with many people and not drinking alcohol, even if these people themselves drank in front of me! It used to be unrealistic for me. But in the company of some people, I still felt out of place. As if something was missing.

This was due to the fact that the purpose of meeting some people is drinking, not communication: they meet then to fill the pauses between sips with on-duty conversations and jokes. Drinking is always more fun with someone...

The need for such “communication” disappeared after I stopped drinking. But with other people, I was still interested, even if they were drinking ... It depends on the people themselves, on what they want from communication: to find a company of drinking buddies or to talk, chat and exchange opinions. In short, I want to say that not every “drinking” company gathers just to drink.

But every drinker in the company runs the risk of crossing the line when friends gradually turn into drinking companions. When frantically looking for company for the evening, just to have someone to drink with. Personally, I did not manage to notice when I crossed this line, during the time of my passion for alcohol, and began to meet people only in order to “succumb”.

But, fortunately, since then, with some acquaintances who were exclusively drinking buddies, I completely stopped communicating, and with others I began to learn to have an interesting time without beer.

Remember how interesting it was for us to communicate with friends in childhood without any "doping" and "social lubricant"! What heartfelt and interesting conversations we spent the whole day! Why is it not possible for many now?

I was incredibly happy when I was able to rediscover the joy of direct communication! I assure you that it is possible to communicate in a sober way and easily, and exciting, and interesting, and frankly, and for the benefit of oneself.

The fact that we have forgotten how to communicate in this way is a consequence of habits and social complexes, and children are more spontaneous and less bashful, so they get it easier. Any is characterized by moments of mutual awkwardness, but as soon as you overcome yourself a little, stop being afraid to be frank, everything will go like clockwork.

Yes, alcohol helps to cross the line of awkwardness, but this is the easiest way. You need to learn to cope with your complexes on your own and overcome restraining barriers. This shows the strength of your personality.

Alcohol, after all, is a drug and changes perception. Communication under it is not entirely real. Maybe you become more frank and liberated under the influence of alcohol, but at the same time, there is a confusion of thoughts, a craving for exaggeration, a desire to impress everyone, a suppressed critical ability - in short, all the symptoms of a drunken state that wrap your conversations in a haze, making their unnatural, grotesque, exaggerated and comical.

Myth 5 - I rarely drink (how often can I drink)

This is more of a personal misconception than a public myth. But this delusion is based, after all, on the peculiarities of our culture. It is customary for us to drink often, therefore, against the background of everyone else, it seems to us that drinking on weekends is normal and not so often.

And the longer the experience of addiction to alcohol becomes, the more the ideas about the “normal” frequency of drinking alcohol are distorted in an erroneous direction. For example, if someone is used to drinking every day, then it will seem to him that drinking alcohol twice a week is very rare, it is generally “almost not drinking”, although some time ago, before he got used to drinking regularly , the thought of drinking twice a week might seem unacceptable to him!

This conclusion is based on my example and the example of people I know. Let's tell a story from my life. To pass the military department at the institute, I had to undergo a medical examination in a number of dispensaries, including the narcological one. In the last one, I was seen by a doctor, and when she asked if I drink and how often I do it, I answered: “Yes, I drink, once a week.”

At that time, I drank almost every day, driving myself to a rather drunken state. Naturally, I decided not to talk about it, and, in order not to lie at all, I said that I drink once a week. I didn’t even think that such an answer would cause any kind of reaction, because drinking alcohol once every seven days really seemed to me rare, episodic and “normal”, against the background of my real “schedule”.

But the doctor was not satisfied with this answer. She asked me: “Why so often? why are you drinking?" I didn’t expect such a question and answered: “well, how can I say ... it’s just that there is a reason.” Her: “What kind of occasion is once a week?” Me: “uuu… meeting friends.” She: “young man, this is not a reason! There is no reason for drunkenness, don't you know how many people die from it?

As a result, I received the necessary certificate, but left the dispensary with a heavy heart: this reaction of the narcologist left an unpleasant aftertaste in me. I must say right away that after that I did not stop drinking, but I had some doubts about my lifestyle. Indeed, when many friends drink regularly, it seems that this regularity is the norm, but here I was faced with the opposite opinion about the "norm", which I did not expect at all ...

Many regular drinkers mistakenly consider themselves to be moderate drinkers. As soon as a person stops drinking every day and starts drinking only on weekends, moreover, not limited to a glass of wine, he beats his chest with the words: “Yes, I almost don’t drink at all.” Be aware that this is an illusion born of the habit of drinking alcoholic beverages. Below I have given a graph that illustrates this psychological effect. The graph is conditional and does not claim to be accurate or any scientific value. This is just an explanation. The vertical axis is the scale of alcohol consumption experience. The horizontal axis is subjective ideas about how often to drink - this is normal.

Of course, the true relationship between these quantities is not linear and varies from person to person. But the graph is just an example that shows how much our views are distorted when we get used to drinking. These views are wrong.

Drinking on weekends is not normal, it is very common! To be honest, I find it difficult to say how often it is normal to drink, because I think that it is better not to drink at all. I think "drinking rarely" means drinking several times a year. But, as a rule, if you drink with such frequency and can do without alcohol the rest of the time, then most of the meaning of intoxication is lost for you, since, as we saw above, the “meaning” of drinking ethanol appears only when you are in it. you get used to it and / or satisfy some of your needs with it and cannot do without it.

Myth 6 – Moderate alcohol consumption has health benefits

To understand how this conclusion is true, you can sometime read the Wikipedia article called "Ethanol Toxicology". It comprehensively considers the situation that has emerged in academic circles around the issue of the "usefulness" of moderate doses of alcohol. I see no point in retelling this article in detail here, I will give only the main conclusions.

So, in scientific circles, there is no definite conviction about whether alcohol in small doses is good or not. First, those studies that allegedly prove this benefit are actively criticized. Basically, criticism is directed at the research methodology. That is, the benefits of alcohol have not been proven exactly and, with all certainty and unambiguity. Secondly, even if there is some health benefit, it is accompanied by harm (for example, if a glass of wine a day has a beneficial effect on the vascular system, then it also increases the risk of diseases associated with ethanol). And thirdly, and most importantly, moderate drinking threatens to become regular and chronic. There is always this risk!

And, as we found out earlier, a drinker may not always realize that he has turned from a moderate drinker into a drunkard.

As a result, doctors agree that if you do not drink alcohol, then you should not start drinking it just because of health concerns. And for those who drink, it is recommended to adhere to established medical standards for daily intake.

Myth 7 - I drink because I'm an alcoholic

This is the last myth we will cover in this article. It lies in the belief in some irresistible force (in this case, alcohol addiction), with which a person cannot always cope. This misconception lies in the perception of alcoholism as some kind of disease, the development of which does not depend on a person. Of course, alcohol cravings can be very strong and manifest even at the level of physical need (in advanced cases). But each person is able to cope with it, this is confirmed by the examples of many who got rid of addiction (not only alcohol).

Your friends, your parents, your living conditions, your “alcoholism” are not to blame for the fact that you drink and cannot stop. You are solely responsible for this! This should not be a depressing discovery for you, on the contrary, it follows from this that it is in your power to get rid of addiction, since you yourself are to blame for it! There is no need to attribute responsibility for your weaknesses to some kind of alcoholism: if you want to quit, you quit, if you don’t want to, then it’s only your fault ...

Addiction is caused not only by what you drink, drink and get used to. It also lies in the fact that through the use of ethanol you satisfy some of your desires, paralyze fears, kill doubts! The roots of addiction are formed both in the very physical mechanism of addiction and in the psychological structure of your personality. The latter can play a more significant role in the development of addiction, because no matter how much you quit drinking, until you get rid of the psychological reasons for loving the drug, you will not get rid of addiction, but will return to it again and again, after every failed quit attempt.

How to find these causes and get rid of them will be discussed further. This is the main idea of ​​this article, that you need to get rid of not the addiction itself, but the reasons that caused it. And the elimination of these causes lies only in your power, you can!

Stop drinking

If you read my article about how, then it will be easy for you to grasp this idea. But I think you will understand well that you need to fight the cause, not the effect. The consequence is the very use of ethanol, but what about the cause ..? Let's figure it out. Why do many people tend to use any drug, one of which is alcohol? If we find these reasons, then it will be clear to us what we need to work with in order not to feel the need for the use of drugs.

It is a mistake to think that the tendency to self-intoxication is inherent in the very nature of man. If this were the case, then everyone would drink, but we see a different picture: someone does fine without it (although in many countries the vast majority of the adult population drinks). There are some of the most common causes of addiction to alcohol. I will analyze each of them and give advice on how to get rid of these reasons.

But before that, to stay consistent, let me tell you about the things that you should be aware of if you plan to quit drinking (I have already written about some of them earlier, including in an article on how to quit smoking, but I did not I see the point in not mentioning such important things again)

What you need to know before you stop drinking

Do not be afraid of the prospect of a life without alcohol!

Do not be afraid that you will lose something important and very interesting if you stop drinking. I know that many people are afraid of being sober and this is the main reason why they can't stop drinking. Well, they will quit, well, they will suffer for some time without drinking, but then what? How are the holidays? What about kebabs, they think ... It used to frighten me before myself, in those days when I drank every day. Sometimes, I took breaks, tried to live, for example, a month without alcohol. Rarely have I been able to keep my promise to myself and I broke down on the second or third day. But it also happened that it was possible to stretch for several weeks without drinking.

But this time was not very fun, I tell you. “Free” evenings immediately formed, and I did not understand what to do with this time. I tried to read, watch movies, but it didn't give me any pleasure. I was nervous and constantly thinking about how nice it would be to open a bottle of beer, drink it and after it use seven more bottles of foamy drink ... Then everything would immediately acquire both meaning and purpose - the evening would be lived with pleasure.

In those moments, I thought, is this really how the whole sober life will go, in such eternal dissatisfaction and boredom? After all, if so, then why stop drinking? Yes, alcohol is harmful, dangerous, but how to live without it? It turns out not life, but some kind of existence, devoid of moments of familiar pleasure and desired comfort. It's like giving up sex forever, it seems to be feasible, but you have to live in eternal dissatisfaction.

So I thought then and after the break I started drinking again. At the same time, at first, with a vengeance, because I thought that since I was taking such a “great” break, not drinking for two whole weeks (then it seemed to me that the time spent without alcohol was an astronomical period!), then I have earned every right to go on a drinking binge for a few days.

What was my mistake, which is manifested in many drinking people who reason now in the same way as I reasoned then? It lies in not understanding that this discomfort without alcohol, in part, is a consequence of addiction.

Addictions not only in terms of getting used to the narcotic substance itself, but in terms of the habit of spending time in a certain way: all sorts of gatherings in bars, heart-to-heart conversations from the “do you respect me?” series, violent holidays, barbecue, a cozy bottle of beer in a cozy kitchen, meeting colleagues at corporate parties, pleasant relaxation after a busy day and all that we used to get from alcohol.

You get very attached to these things and for some time you don’t even know what to replace them with when you deprive yourself of a drink. In general, in order to feel good again without alcohol, some time must pass. Not a month or even two. First, the body itself, accustomed to ethanol, must be rebuilt. Second, you must change by rediscovering the pleasure of life without alcohol.

You possessed such a skill in childhood, and then lost it.

Our brains get used to associating feelings of pleasure and a whole range of other positive emotions with certain things, in this case, drinking. It will take time to break this imaginary connection.

Gradually, you will learn to find this pleasure and do without drinking, you will begin to succeed in relaxing in a sober way, you will discover a lot of ways to have fun and have a great time! But it won't come right away, you'll have to be patient. It will take time and some work on yourself.

About what needs to be done for this, I will talk further.

An alcoholic, like any drug addict, develops an acute dependence on pleasure, on a sense of comfort. If an ordinary person, not a drug addict, as a rule, endures the moments when he does not feel very good, then the addict is much more pampered, sensitive to the lack of psychological comfort. In such situations, he tries at all costs to get rid of this feeling and resorts to the most familiar means for himself. The drug addict does not know how to endure and wait.

That is why it is still so difficult, at first, to be content with life without the usual narcotic substance. The absence of the usual buzz seems to the addict as something terrible, some kind of critical problem that needs to be eliminated immediately, otherwise something irreparable will happen and the day will be lost! Get ready for this, you just need to wait it out and stop obsessing over your pleasure.

I have seen from my own experience that life without alcohol is much more joyful and happier than life under the yoke of addiction. It is very good to wake up fresh and full of energy, and not broken, with a fumes in your mouth and a headache. Great to have good health and lots of strength. It is great to have a clear mind and control over yourself and not regret your words and deeds. It's great to spend time on self-development, on education, or just on a good rest, and not on stupid, animal pleasure!

Don't be self-deceiving

If you decide to get rid of addiction, then you need to learn how to keep your promises to yourself. Let's take a familiar scenario as an example. You wake up with a wild ringing in your head. From fragments of memories, you begin to restore what happened to you the day before when you were drunk: you did a lot of stupid things, said nasty things, etc. etc.

You can repent and lament, promise yourself that this will not happen again. A decisive impulse begins to ripen in you, a noble enthusiasm, under the influence of which you make a bold promise to yourself: "I will not drink anymore."

At this moment, it seems to you that the power of your will will crush everything and everything, since your desire to get rid of a bad habit, reinforced by disgusting well-being and moral repentance, is very great. A feeling of some new life wakes up in you, and you give yourself up to this feeling with all pleasure, forgetting about yesterday's incidents. Everything would be fine, but only after a few days the memories will become more faded, the feeling of shame will dull, the hangover will pass, and the feeling of a new life and that same noble enthusiasm will begin to evaporate, since they were only phenomena of the current moment. And, as a result, almost nothing will remain of the past impulse.

You will again find yourself alone with a boring evening. Thoughts will begin to creep in: “why not drink a couple of beers, I haven’t drunk for several days, but what’s there from a couple of bottles, it’s okay.” You will already forget about the promise, everything is in the past, because your memory cannot for a long time supply you with feelings about the past shame and disgusting well-being and, thereby, constantly feed your impulse.

Needless to say, "a couple of beers" turns into X bottles, where X is the amount that makes you pretty drunk. And again, everything is on knurled.

What is the conclusion to be drawn here? Do not count on inspiration, on impulse - this phenomenon is temporary, transient. When you are inspired, everything seems easy to you, but you need to tune in to what will be difficult. Therefore, we made a promise - keep it, no matter what! You can’t get rid of addiction on inspiration alone: ​​it will pass, and you will again have thoughts from the category “why not have a drink, because it’s a holiday, because it’s a reason, because you haven’t drunk for a long time.” And there will no longer be an emotional fuse to easily resist these thoughts. I talked about this in an interview with Yulia Ulyanova's "sober blog".

Eliminate the causes of addiction

“Prolonged use of alcohol can lead to a decrease in brain volume. At long-term use alcohol on the surface of the cerebral cortex observed organic changes in neurons. These changes occur in places of hemorrhage and necrosis of areas of the brain substance. When drinking large amounts of alcohol, rupture of the capillaries of the brain can occur.- wikipedia

So here we come to the main part. You have decided to stop drinking and have read up to this point. I hope that you are convinced that there is no need to be afraid sober life, prepare for the fight and start working on yourself, getting rid of the psychological causes of addiction. What this work is, I will now tell.

Learn to relax

The ability to relax on your own is one of the most valuable life skills. In this I never cease to be convinced. When you are relaxed and not tense, you feel good and calm, you are comfortable with yourself and your mind works well. When you are tense, your body burns a lot of resources, thinking rushes from side to side, unable to stay on one subject, you feel the need to run somewhere, do something to relieve this tension or direct it somewhere.

By relaxation, I mean something broader than what is usually understood by it. Relaxation is serenity and peace of mind, it is self-sufficiency, it is freedom from emotions, fears and experiences. Knowing how to put yourself into this state will save you from the need to drink, since you will already feel good without it. People drink, among other things, in order to relieve tension, feel calm and stabilize emotional well-being.

If you learn to relieve stress on your own, then you will have less reason to drink alcohol. And the inability to relax is perhaps the main cause of alcoholism, in my opinion. We all get tired, worry, experience stress and need some kind of relaxation, calm. The lightest comes to the rescue and available remedy. You don’t need to learn anything, make any efforts, just drank and that’s it, I felt better. This is the path of least resistance, which attracts people. The social roots of alcoholism, in my opinion, lie in the fact that society, within the framework of general education, does not teach people some kind of relaxation science.

Well, a person stopped drinking, suppose. And what should he do when he is tired, when he experiences nervous exhaustion, when he worries about stress? He doesn't know, so he goes back to the bottle. This is not taught in school. But since childhood, we have seen films in which a heartbroken or tired person spends his time over a glass. Some look at their parents and see what they do when they want to relax - they drink. As a result, when we reach adulthood, we know only one remedy that we can use if we want to relax.

This, in my opinion, is a big problem for the entire education system: the school and the institute teach academic knowledge, in addition, they instill some kind of morality, concepts of good and bad. But we are not told what to do to be happy, not to experience stress, to maintain in ourselves good health and mood.

This is a huge gap that I want to somehow fill with information on my blog. How to learn to relax on your own, relieve stress and stop being nervous? This will be taught to you by the articles on my site, which you can read after reading this article.

There is not much information. But take your time, you don't have to read it all in one sitting. Today, suppose you decide that you will no longer drink. And now read an article a day, learn to relax, use the suggested techniques and gradually form yourself the skill of getting rid of stress without the help of alcohol. With these techniques it is much easier to endure alcohol withdrawal, I assure you!

If you need some kind of sequence in doing the exercises, then I recommend starting with. It tells in detail, step by step, with examples, what needs to be done in order to live a happier and more conscious life. True, these exercises are not only aimed at getting rid of addiction, but they will also help you with this. What could be their meaning if you decide to stop drinking?

These exercises will help bring some positive changes into your life. And these new trends, like bread, are necessary for those who stop drinking, because this person needs to feel and understand that there is joy and peace on the other side of alcohol. You can’t stop drinking without changing your life, otherwise you will return to a bad habit later. And my recommendations will help you gradually and smoothly begin to change your life, your attitude to things and, thereby, help old destructive habits to gradually die off.

Personally, I did not stop drinking overnight: I drank and drank, and then suddenly stopped. It wasn't exactly like that, but I'll tell you how. Due to problems with my psychological well-being (attacks of the blues, sudden mood swings), I decided that I needed to change something in my life. By that time, I stopped drinking every day, but still, I drank quite often and it seemed normal to me. I didn't think about stopping doing it at all. I started practicing meditation.

The practice taught me to relax and, after a while, I felt better. Some kind of thing began to wake up in me, I began to understand what exactly I need to change in my life and how to do it in order to find harmony and get rid of suffering. I realized that it is possible to live without alcohol and gradually, with practice, I discovered new methods of relaxation and achieving a state of inner comfort. This state before that brought me only booze.

Gradually I drank less and less and got better and better in control of my cravings for alcohol. I didn't drink as much, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to. When I woke up with a hangover and walked around broken all day, a thought rushed through my head, haunting me: “was it really worth it? this stupid pleasure cost me a whole wasted day! When you drink constantly, you somehow get used to a hangover, but the less often this happens, the stronger and more intolerable the symptoms of alcoholic "waste" seem and the pleasure from ethanol becomes less.

My need for alcohol simply began to die off: I found a lot of other joys that were simply incompatible with drinking, I began to feel very good, psychologically, so the desire to drink disappeared. It used to be nice being nervous and tired to have a beer and relax. But when I am so calm, relaxed and I have good mood then why drink? Why bring down this mood with a stupefying intoxication? If I'm tired, I can meditate, go for a run, listen to music, take a relaxing shower and feel good, why would I ruin my health and put myself in some unpleasant altered state?

For me, the meaning of alcohol just disappeared. I realized that I don't need it. Of course, this did not go without resistance, at first it was hard for me not to drink on holidays, birthdays, but then I learned to have fun and relax without alcohol.

go in for sports

Physical activity releases endorphins that make you feel good. Go skiing on some forest track, pay attention to other athletes, how they smile and how happy they look. This is how the effect of sports loads on the biochemistry of our brain is manifested. This will allow you to feel joy beyond any drug intoxication. In addition, sports perfectly relieve stress: an evening run will give you good spirits and calmness. This is also a good way to relax and at the same time not harm your health, but create only benefits.

Of course, sports alone are not enough in terms of eliminating addiction, but physical activity can significantly facilitate the withdrawal of alcohol and put the body into a mode of self-production of substances responsible for the feeling of pleasure. Going in for sports does not mean setting records and exhausting yourself, it’s enough to start small: with morning exercises and daily short runs or pull-ups on the horizontal bar. It is not so difficult to start doing this, even if you are not used to loading yourself physically, drinking and smoking.

Get rid of boredom

One of the causes of addiction to drugs is boredom, the desire to do something. An ordinary sober life seems to many people faded, gray and uninteresting. And when they drink or use something, everything immediately acquires some meaning. Drinking alcohol quickly and calmly passes evenings and weekends, which without it would turn into boring and monotonous periods of time.

The feeling of boredom becomes quite dangerous when it goes into an unhealthy, extreme form. And it passes into this form when it turns from a harmless search for interesting activities into a fanatical, convulsive need for any activity that is aimed only at not being idle, alone with oneself.

If you cannot be alone for a long time, you are constantly looking for something to do, you cannot live without work, because it occupies you with something, even if it is not loved, then this is not normal and this speaks of internal emotional and nervous tension, which they don’t let you sit still and force you to constantly look for some kind of activity for yourself.

This activity results, among other things, in drug addiction, a special case of which is addiction to alcohol. This pathological boredom can have several causes.

Lack of any interests or hobbies

You don't care about much other than drinking. You don't know how to enjoy other things. You don't know what else to do when you have free time. Alcohol is your main pastime.

How to get rid of?

Find useful hobbies and activities. It can be books, chess, some kind of sport that interests you. Do you love football? Stop sucking beer in bars while watching matches, better get on with it interesting view sports!

But, I warn you, at first a new hobby may not be a substitute for alcohol for you. You will still feel bored and need a drink. It takes time for your brain to get used to new ways of spending time, relaxing and having fun.

So show perseverance and patience in mastering new hobbies. It may be that they will not immediately bring you joy, but you need to endure this moment.
It is better to look for hobbies incompatible with alcohol.

Internal tension and vanity

You are bored because you have some kind of small motor inside you, you cannot sit idle for a long time, you need to constantly run somewhere. This should not be confused with energy, it is rather a symptom of intense tension, inability to relax and stop the inertia of an excited organism.

In this mode, the body quickly wears out, and you are in constant nervous tension. Alcohol, on the other hand, helps to calm down, and when you drink, you finally get to relax and feel calm.

How to get rid?

Stiffness, shyness, self-doubt

It is not as common a cause of alcoholism as the ones listed above. But still it takes place among young people. You are shy, shy in front of people and you manage to communicate normally only when you are "high". It may not even be the main reason why you drink, but alcohol makes it easier for you to connect with people and makes quitting more difficult for you.

How to get rid?

If so, then read this.

Causes of "beer alcoholism"

What is beer alcoholism? What is its feature. It is a mistake to think that the cause of beer alcoholism is only a crazy love for foamy drink. It happens so, but this phenomenon is not only due to this.

I myself was a "beer" alcoholic and I know why I drank mainly beer, and not something else. The fact is that beer, unlike more strong drinks, you can drink, constantly applying to the bottle and slowly getting drunk. If you drink something strong at this rate, you will get drunk very quickly.

This is the essence of drinking beer, it allows you to constantly occupy your hands, mouth and attention with something (especially if you seize it with something and smoke in between). This desire is based on the need for constant stimulation of the senses. This is often associated with nicotine addiction. I think there are more smokers among beer alcoholics than among hard drinkers.

But, nevertheless, despite my love for beer, I did not refuse other drinks if I was at some kind of holiday and everyone made toasts and clinked glasses. It’s just that between toasts I continued to drink beer and, mixing drinks, got drunk faster than anyone.

Why did I do this? Because I was bored in the intervals between toasts, I experienced some discomfort and a desire to constantly maintain a drunken state, fiddle with something in my hands and take sips. Beer came to the rescue.

Actually, this, in my opinion, is the essence of beer alcoholism and the difference from other types of this disease.

How to get rid?

You need to get rid of the need for constant stimulation of the senses. You will find a lot of useful information in the article about Attention Deficit Disorder (I gave a link to it a few paragraphs above), even if the main subject of the article does not quite apply to you.

Here, in my opinion, are the main reasons for people's love for drugs and alcohol, including.

If you have read up to this point, you might think that this is already a huge article, in which I also set tasks to read other articles, isn't it a lot? No, not much, even a little. Getting rid of addiction means a lot of work on yourself and changing your personality.

Without this, you will not be able to get rid of the need for self-intoxication. You will quit for a while and then come back again or replace one bad habit with another (for example, start smoking marijuana instead of drinking beer), because you will not get rid of the root causes of your addiction.

In this case, the dependence will remain, it will simply lose its object for a while! But she will still pester you and attract other objects to her.

But if you work on the causes of your addiction and eliminate them, then you may not be afraid that you will ever break loose and go into all serious trouble again. Since for you the meaning of the pastime associated with alcohol will already be lost. You won't need to drink it!

You can be sure that you will never use other drugs! it excellent result, worth the time, and effort, and patience that must be spent on it.

So I wish you good luck, everything is in your hands and depends only on you, and not on some foreign will and uncontrolled arbitrariness! If you want to stop drinking, then you will do it and you will enjoy life again, no matter how difficult and neglected the stage of your addiction is.

This is the end of this great article. In conclusion, I want to say a few more words that may inspire you and open your eyes to some things.

No need to isolate yourself from people who drink

Some advise not to come to a drinking company if you decide to quit. I don't quite agree with this advice. In addition to situations of an advanced stage of addiction, when the view drinking man will automatically make you grab a glass, I do not advise you to avoid drinking companies. Of course, you can do this, but only at first, during the most acute phase of withdrawal.

I have already said that the essence of weaning from alcohol is not only the abolition of physical dependence, but also getting used to a new sober lifestyle. You need to learn to have fun and. What's the use of quitting if you break down at home without seeing your friends, and then, a couple of months later, at the first party on the occasion of your new life, you get drunk until you lose your pulse?

This will happen because you have not felt the strongest temptation before and you did not have to fight it. And then suddenly a holiday and everyone drinks. How to hold on? Therefore, you need to accustom yourself immediately to not drinking in companies that drink. Yes, at first you will be bored, you will leave the holiday earlier. But then everything will be easier.

I believe that you should learn to deal with the strongest temptation as early as possible. If you learn not to drink when you want it the most, then under other circumstances it will be much easier for you to contain this need.

Think about the next generation. Information for parents

It is clear that if you are going to have children soon, then there should be no question of drinking. If you already have children, then you should not think that they are small, unintelligent and do not understand and notice anything.

They notice how you drink, see you in a drunken state and "soak up" all these unpleasant impressions.

The drunkenness of parents, even the most, in their opinion, harmless, leaves a painful imprint in the memory of the child and is a prerequisite for alcoholism in grown-up offspring.

Therefore, if you drink and you have children, try not to let them see you doing this activity. Better stop drinking. If you do not think about yourself and your health, then at least think about your offspring.

Program for those who decide to stop drinking

If you decide to stop drinking, then I have prepared for you a special 30-day experiment that will help you learn to pass the time and relax without alcohol. You can find a description of this experiment in the second part of the article.

Alcohol is so quickly becoming a part of our lives that many do not even notice its constant presence and at the same time do not consider themselves addicted. If it is not difficult to live a day without alcohol, then it is already more difficult to talk about a week, a month and more.

It is believed that it takes 21 days to completely cleanse the body after. Some who wanted to “clean up” after a short-term passion for alcohol were surprised that it was quite difficult to pause.

Few people realize that drinking alcohol a couple of times a week is already household drunkenness. This is not alcohol addiction yet, but it is already a well-formed problem, the solution of which requires serious efforts. .

The best way to talk about how not to drink alcohol in general is the reviews of those who have already managed to abandon the influence of alcohol.

Sober living experience

According to the subjects, the first days are the hardest. All thoughts during this period revolve around alcohol. Gradually, the desire to drink recedes, and vigorous activity allows you to distract from the problem.

The matter is complicated by the fact that friends and acquaintances, out of habit, continue to invite to drunken parties, holidays and Sabantu. It's hard to say no, especially when loved ones start to play pranks and discredit the idea of ​​a sober lifestyle. If you manage to resist, then it will be easier. For real Good friends will not turn away if you announce them to refuse alcohol. Some will begin to respect even more for at least the same willpower. And if friends start to scoff, then why are they needed at all? It turns out that they see you not as a friend, but as a drinking companion. Parting with them will be an additional bonus to a healthy life without alcohol.

What can a person who has spent thirty sober days expect:

• taste sensations change familiar dishes become tastier, food ceases to be a “snack”, but begins to be an additional source of positive emotions;
• concentration increases - after 30 days without alcohol, brain activity improves by almost 18%, which affects not only concentration and attention, but also memory, the ability to make decisions quickly, etc .;
• sleep normalizes - someone begins to have vivid dreams, and someone just sleeps like a log all night, and in the morning feels well rested;
• stress resistance increases - contrary to popular belief, alcohol is a strong depressant, which means that drinkers are more difficult to endure blows of fate and force majeure. Already after 35 days of a sober life, the solution of complex life tasks is easier, and stressful situations are not taken to heart;
• physical performance improves - those who play sports note that the complete rejection of alcohol gives a good impetus to physical development. But even those who are far from physical education admit: it becomes easier to climb the stairs, walking is pleasing, and physical labor brings pleasant fatigue, and not excruciating weakness.

Those who dare not drink alcohol for a month eventually realize that there is neither desire nor need to start drinking again. Comparing a drunken and sober life, many choose the latter and become pathological teetotalers.

Is it possible to live without alcohol at all

Fans of experiments often set themselves a deadline of one month, but after this period, there is a desire to continue a positive experience. What happens to the body if you do not drink for 41 or more days? This is already a fairly long period for which the body is fully restored. A person can lose weight if he had extra pounds, or gain weight in case of exhaustion. Many smokers note that after giving up alcohol, the need for nicotine decreases. And this is also a big plus for health.

After a hundred days of sober life comes the understanding that alcohol is not needed at all. Acquaintances stop joking and already perceive a sober friend as a person with an iron will and unshakable principles. There is a desire to improve the result, and a sober life is usually added proper nutrition, thoughtful daily routine, sports and active leisure activities.

But all this can be said only if a person does not have a real dependence on the beginning of alcohol abstinence. Chronic drinkers can take up a bottle even after 7 months without alcohol, and they can undergo coding or other treatment to help overcome alcohol cravings. So that such a person does not break, it is necessary to conduct a supportive anti-alcohol course. In this sense, drugs for the treatment of alcoholism sold on the Internet are useful. They are natural and non-addictive.

Experts are sure that if a person could live 100 days without alcohol, then the old settings have already been destroyed, and there is no need to start re-accustoming yourself to alcohol. In the process of searching for motivation, a person discovers new opportunities, new hobbies and interests, and alcohol often contradicts them. A teetotaler is more often successful at work, he has stronger relationships in the family, others are drawn to him. Many are not ready to lose all this for the sake of alcohol, so a short-term experiment quickly turns into a way of life. But do not think that everything will be fine right away if at the time of giving up alcohol the person was a chronic alcoholic. In this case, you will have to deal with exacerbation of chronic diseases and depression, which require serious medical treatment.

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Alcohol addiction is a disease of mind and body. If you really want to stop drinking, but all your attempts have been in vain, there is a risk that you will soon join the ranks of alcoholics. And even if you try to close your eyes to reality, the problem will not disappear by itself.

You need to sound the alarm if alcohol has taken control of your life and because of it your health, work and personal life suffer. You are sick, and alcoholism, like any disease, requires proper treatment. Some people were able to give up a bad habit on their own, it all depends on your desire and willpower.

How not to drink alcohol at all?

If you find yourself drinking more and more at parties or even at home, you need to urgently take matters into your own hands. Otherwise, drinking alcohol will become a habit and you won't be able to stop it.

The problem is that alcoholism develops almost imperceptibly. You drink and enjoy it, your mood rises. And to feel good, you drink the day after tomorrow and a week later. It would seem - well, what's wrong with 2-3 glasses of your favorite drink?

Over time, alcohol consumption comes to the fore, becomes an important part of communication. You drink with friends and girlfriends, at corporate parties and even at home, after work. If you are aware of your problem and are ready to pull yourself together, our advice will help you.

How to stop drinking alcohol altogether:

The tips below do help many, but this does not mean that they are a panacea. If even after using them you understand that nothing has changed, you need to seek help from professionals.

Get started today. No need to put it off until later, stop drinking today. Your promises that you will stop drinking in a week or a year will remain promises. Get started as quickly as possible.

Reduce the amount of alcohol you drink. At first, it will be difficult to completely give up drinks. In the first week, reduce the amount of alcohol you drink by half, after a week - twice more. Well, after such preparation, you can stop drinking without much suffering.

Go in for sports. By regularly attending training, you will not have time to drink alcohol. Now you will always have something to do, besides, in the hall you will get acquainted with interesting people who lead a healthy lifestyle.

Change environment. Many people start drinking more because the people around them do it too. If you have to drink frequently at work or with friends, change workplace and friends. In addition, as practice shows, such drinking companions have nothing to do with true friendship, and they will forget about you in a week.

Find a hobby. If for some reason playing sports is not suitable for you, find other hobbies for yourself. Thanks to them, you will not sit in the four walls of the house and drink, because now you will definitely have something to do.

Travel. Try to choose new places every weekend, after work do not sit at home, but take a walk in the nearest park.

Get rid of alcohol. Surely you have several bottles of alcohol at home? To avoid temptation, throw them in the trash. And in supermarkets, try to bypass the departments with booze as far as possible.

Imagine how bad it will be for you in the morning. If nothing stops you, we advise you to close your eyes and imagine how your head will hurt and how you will feel sick in a few hours.

Drink more fluids. In this case, we mean water, herbal teas, juices. This way you will reduce the desire to "take" something stronger. Also forget about low-alcohol drinks and cocktails.

Chewing gum. Wanted a drink? Fill your mouth with chewing gum - this will distract you and reduce your thirst.

Set aside money. The next time you manage to give up alcohol, put in a piggy bank money that you could spend on alcohol. For a month you will get a good amount!

Stimulate yourself. Promise yourself that you will buy something nice for yourself in case you don't drink anything for a month or any other period. It can be both a pleasant trifle, and a purchase more substantial.

Keep a diary. Write down how you feel when you quit alcohol and how long you have been abstaining so far.

Communicate with loved ones. Your family and friends wish you the best, and they will be happy to support you at this difficult time. Try to communicate more often with loved ones who can support and reassure you.

Willpower and great desire will help you cope with addiction. If our advice does not give the desired result, you need to see a doctor and undergo a course of treatment. Take care of your health!

You have probably heard about the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption, as well as its dangers. We understand how to build a relationship with alcohol (if you have one) with the help of our translation of an article from the authoritative Presicion Nutrition.

How much does alcohol consumption affect your health and your fitness activities? How much alcohol interferes with achieving results? Can drinking alcohol have a positive effect? Camille DePutter, the author of the Presicion Nutrition project, tries to answer these questions from her personal point of view.

“Should I stop drinking?”

Alcoholic beverages have become firmly established in everyday life. A cocktail on a Friday at the bar, a beer at a football game in the evening, or a glass of chardonnay to take the edge off a tough day at work. Alcohol consumption is easily justified on psychological grounds.

But perhaps we justify what we shouldn't? Is it not in vain that we believe that red contains antioxidants that will help us in some way?

If we want to be healthy and in great physical shape, how should our relationship with alcohol develop? Looking ahead, I will say that from a scientific point of view, not everything is so simple.

What is useful alcohol

Moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of diabetes, kidney stones gallbladder and ischemic heart disease.

A small amount of alcohol seems to have a positive effect on the circulatory system and reduce the risk of a heart attack or cardiac arrest by 25-40%.

And there are even studies showing that those who drink alcohol, on average, live longer than those who do not drink. Periodically, such headlines slip as soon as another study on this topic comes out.

But there is one important clarification if you do not drink, then health experts advise not to start.

Wait, what?! If there is research showing the positive effects of alcohol, why not add a glass of antioxidant-rich red wine to your diet? Just instead of milk!

No one can claim that any amount of alcohol is actually good for us.

The fact is that most of the studies on the positive effects of alcohol on health are detailed, long-term, epidemiological studies. This type of research does not prove anything for sure. Instead of saying that "A" leads to "B", these studies say that "A is more likely to correlate with B."

That is, despite the fact that these studies show that moderate drinkers have fewer problems with the diseases listed above, nevertheless they do not prove that the absence of alcohol in the diet causes these diseases.

In reality, this could mean, for example, that moderate drinking reduces stress levels. Or that moderate drinking does not have any positive effect on health at all. Or, people who drink are, on average, less stressed by nature and have more social connections, which increases their survivability. In any case, we don't know for sure.

In addition, most studies show benefit only in the absence of periods of heavy drinking.

What does “moderate” alcohol consumption mean?

The definition of “moderate” alcohol consumption varies by country and by the organization that makes the recommendations.

But here is the definition of “moderate” consumption from the United States Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee:

• For women : up to 7 “drinks” per week (and up to 3 in one day),
• For men : up to 14 “drinks” per week (and up to 4 in one day).

And here is what 1 “drink” looks like in different alcoholic beverages:

Think you're drinking within the normal range? But when you really beat up your alcohol “account”, and even adjusted for the fact that beer is much stronger than 5%.

Research shows that people often tend to grossly underestimate the amount of alcohol they consume. And in this case it is easy to fall into the category of "many drinkers."

This picture is an example of how, for girls, a seemingly harmless amount of alcohol can turn into a serious bust at the end of the week:

A glass of wine in the evening on Mon, Wed and Thu + 3 martini shots and one light beer at the bar on Friday + 1 gin and tonic and a couple of glasses of wine on Saturday. And now you are already a heavy drinker (according to the norms for women).

And here the problems with alcohol already begin, since the category of “heavy drinkers” shows Negative consequences for good health.

Risks associated with moderate and heavy alcohol consumption:

* If there is a predisposition (someone in the family suffers from alcoholism).

Besides, high level Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of accidental injury or sudden death in young people. Especially if you combine the “knee-deep sea” effect with reduced self-control and complex dangerous mechanisms (for example, cars).

Ideal amounts of alcohol

Technically, alcohol is a poison for our body, which the body first of all processes into less dangerous substances so that we can benefit from libations with minimal harm.

There are 2 main mechanisms for getting rid of ethanol:

1. With a series chemical reactions the body converts alcohol to acetaldehyde and then to acetate, which is then broken down into carbon dioxide and water.
2. The second system for getting rid of ethanol is called the microsomal ethanol oxidizing system (MEOS), which uses a group of special enzymes that can chemically deal with a wide range toxic molecules.

In moderate drinkers, only about 10% of the alcohol is processed using the second method - MEOS. But when alcohol is abused, the MEOS system turns on more actively, which reduces the resources needed to deal with other toxic substances that enter our body. Hence the risks described in the table above.

At the same time, the ability of the body to process alcohol depends on many factors:

• age,
• body size,
• genetic resistance to alcohol,
• ethnicity (for example, many Asian peoples have a genetically reduced level of enzymes that process ethanol).

So where is the balance of benefit (and sometimes joy) and harm / poisoning from alcohol? The above limits of the norm of "moderate" alcohol consumption show the statistical volumes at which the risk to health is minimal.

By the way, this does not mean that even moderate alcohol consumption does not carry risks.

Alcohol and psychological comfort

In the modern world, mental health is no less important: the overall quality of life, the amount of joy experienced, social connections are very important for health. And for many people, moderate alcohol consumption contributes to psychological comfort.

In the US, about 65% of the population drink alcohol, 3/4 of them drink at least once a week. In continental Europe, a glass of wine or beer with dinner is quite the norm. In the UK or Japan, it is often customary to go to a pub after work. For many people around the world, alcohol is a habitual product.

Alcohol relaxes, inspires creativity, helps to maintain social connections - all this contributes to mental health, this is much more important than physical benefits. Moreover, you can reduce the risk of heart disease much more effectively in many other ways: eat right, exercise, and stop smoking.

To drink or not to drink

Alcohol is just one of the factors that affect body condition, training progress, and so on. Whether to drink at all and how much exactly is a matter of your personal priorities..

For example, what are you willing to sacrifice for the sake of socialization on alcohol fuel?

For example:

• If you want to see a 6 pack on your stomach, then you need to say no to going to the bar.
• If you went to a bar on Friday, you sacrifice Saturday's workout,
• If you want to prepare well for a marathon, then it is better to give up Saturday libations and so on ...

This is a prioritization.

How much alcohol can be ideal is impossible to say, this is your personal question and answer.

7 tips from Precision Nutrition on how to be smart about alcohol

1. Research how much you drink. Record all the alcohol that you drank in 1-2 weeks and realize what kind of volume it is, answer the questions for yourself:

• Am I drinking more than I thought?
• Am I in a hurry to drink more for a short time? How many drinks do I drink in a row and quickly? How much is drinking a habit, and how much is a pleasure?
• What are my drinking patterns? After what events, on what days do I usually drink?
• Does alcohol bring me pleasure or does it cause stress?
• Does alcohol have an additional negative effect on me? (For example, you overeat because of drinking, do drugs, or call an ex).

If a red flag was raised when answering these questions, it makes sense to reconsider your relationship with alcohol.

2. Listen to your body - how it reacts to alcohol

For these purposes, a standard questionnaire “Does this work for me?” Is suitable:

• How do I generally feel when I do this?
• Am I able to recover? Am I ready to go to the gym on Saturday after Friday?
• What are the consequences for my body? Do I feel hungover, indigestion, insomnia or any other discomfort?
• How does the extra energy affect me? Are the calories from alcohol within my norm?
• What do health indicators show? What does a blood test show, how does pressure and any other indicators change?

3. Pay attention to how alcohol affects thoughts, emotions, judgments, outlook on life

And again, it is important to answer the question for yourself - how does it work for me.

• Am I in control of the drinking process? Do I make a conscious choice, or do I suddenly find myself with a glass of alcohol in my hand?
• What kind of person am I when I drink? Does drinking make me relax? Or makes it aggressive? Kind and funny or evil?
• If I stopped drinking completely for a week, what would it look like for me? Is it easy for me to deal with this? Or will I feel panic if I have to give up the habit?

4. Play the game “My priorities”

Arrange your life priorities What is more important to you, what is less important. There are no right answers - it's just your life, choices and compromises.

Roughly speaking, what is more important to you: cubes and a dry body or chatting with friends over beer?

5. Turn off autopilot

In general, in life it is useful to move from automatic actions to conscious decisions.

Here are a few tricks to turn off your autopilot for drinking:

• Postpone ordering a drink (or just filling a glass) for 10 minutes. And watch yourself, make sure that you really consciously want it.
• Look for ways to bypass habitual patterns of behavior. For example, if you're used to going to a bar on a Friday night, try scheduling and paying for an interesting non-alcoholic activity. Or limit yourself to the store, it's easier not to buy than to buy and fight the temptation.
• Relish. Tune in to the sensations of the drink.
• Swap quantity for quality. Drink less, but once you drink, choose something better for yourself.

6. Consult

• Talk to your doctor about your amounts and behaviors with alcohol.
• Do a genetic test to find out the degree of your predisposition to alcoholism and the ability to process alcohol.

7. If you choose to drink - enjoy

Take your time, if you already drink - enjoy, enjoy consciously.

Making the decision not to drink alcohol at all is difficult. There are many acquaintances around who will always find a reason to drink. People who find themselves in harsh weather conditions, at sub-zero temperatures, refer to the fact that alcohol helps them warm up quickly. Among Koreans, it's common to end up at a bar at work. Various myths about alcohol are passed from one generation to another. But the meaning of such legends is the same: if you want to drink, then there will always be a reason.

Common myths about alcohol

Myth #1: Alcohol is pleasurable. Ethanol is a strong nervous system depressant. The substance enters the bloodstream and immediately “starts” the inhibition of the central nervous system. The person relaxes, he loses coordination, his speech becomes confused. At the same time, alcohol provokes the production of endorphins (“hormone of happiness”). But after a few hours, symptoms of intoxication begin to appear:

• nausea, vomiting);
• trembling of the limbs;
• increased sensitivity to sounds and light;
• headache;
• strong thirst;
• chills;
• sweating (dryness);
• general weakness.

The consequences of alcohol intake negatively affect the functioning of the body. Alcohol-containing drinks are especially dangerous for the liver, brain, central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract. Hangovers also exacerbate chronic diseases.

Myth #2: All significant events in life count. great occasion to drink. The holiday should bring positive impressions, joy. Alcohol in this situation acts as a temporary way to cheer up. The tradition of drinking alcohol at a cemetery, funeral, commemoration is not a tribute to ancient traditions, but a modern stereotype. After all, the church has a negative attitude towards the use of alcohol.

Myth #3: Alcohol relaxes you. Ethanol dulls feelings of fear, anxiety, self-preservation. A person forgets about problems due to the release of endorphins. However, the feeling of relaxation, good mood is an illusion that will disappear after a couple of hours.

Myth #4: Moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages is healthy. Regular drinking of alcohol is harmful to health. People have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diseases associated with the urinary system, digestive tract, liver, central nervous system. The ability to give birth to a healthy child decreases, in men the likelihood of problems with potency increases.

Myth number 5: heredity is one of the causes of alcoholism. Only the ability of enzymes to break down ethanol is inherited. For some people, the speed of the process is high, for others it is low.

To maintain your health, it is better not to drink alcohol at all. Alcohol can always be replaced with similar-tasting cocktails. And to cheer yourself up, just find some hobby or business that you like.

How not to drink alcohol: step by step instructions

The patient lives in illusions. Why do something, change, if everything around suits him. There is only one problem in a person's life - the lack of money for alcohol. Therefore, it is difficult for the patient to make a decision to stop drinking. But in fact, being a teetotaler is better than constantly depending on the presence / absence of alcohol.

There are many obstacles to overcome on the way to a new life, because dependence on ethanol has been formed for more than 1 month. Understanding the problem is step #1. The patient must understand that he is sick. And it's time to make the final decision to stop drinking alcohol. To facilitate the recovery process, it is necessary to think about the motivation of the patient. The reason for refusing ethanol should be clear, obvious to the patient, and not to any of his relatives.

Change company - step number 2. Often a person is influenced by the people around him. Therefore, you should change your circle of friends, work or move.

Finding an interesting hobby is step number 3. Instead of drinking alcohol, go to the movies, bowling, go-karting, or play on a game console.

Step number 4 - compliance with the rule of the first glass. It is enough for a person to refuse the first glass in order not to get drunk. It is necessary to remember everything that happens to the state of health after the last one (nausea, abdominal pain and other symptoms of poisoning).

Reconsider your lifestyle - step number 5. You should immediately give up alcohol, never drink beer, vodka. Start eating right and regularly, increase physical activity(It is better to go in for sports). It must be remembered that it is normal to be afraid of change. Every person in ordinary life has doubts “if it doesn’t work out”.

Step #6 - Survive withdrawal symptoms. Those who stop drinking often talk about the appearance of unreasonable anxiety, inexplicable fear, and relatives complain about sudden mood swings in the patient. These conditions are referred to as withdrawal symptoms. Over time, a person's well-being will improve.

If it is difficult for the patient to fight the disease on his own, you can resort to step number 7 - coding. Treatment of alcoholism with this method helps to cope with the desire to drink, but does not eliminate the causes that led to the disease. For treatment, chemical preparations and psychotherapeutic manipulations are used that affect the human subconscious.

What happens if you don't drink alcohol at all

Every day without ethanol abuse is a small victory. The first positive changes are noticeable after 30 days of life without alcohol:

• Taste sensations change. Habitual food becomes tastier, food ceases to be a snack, but begins to be perceived as a source of positive emotions.
• The quality of sleep improves. In the morning the patient feels rested.
• The concentration rises. It is easier for a person to make decisions, to concentrate attention.