How to Drink Alcohol Again After a Break Without Getting Sick

Although everyone’s experience will be unique, below is a general timeline of what happens to you when you quit drinking alcohol. Please note that the experiences listed are what may occur among typical moderate and heavy drinkers. It’s always wise to check with your doctor — she should be able to help you decide whether it is best for you to cut back or to abstain.

Seek professional help

Once you’ve made the decision to change, the next step is establishing clear drinking goals. The more specific, realistic, and clear your goals, the better. You might be surprised to find that you don’t need alcohol to enjoy certain events and previously would drink out of habit.

Enjoy the benefits

The brain compensates for the depressive effects of alcohol by increasing its activity. When people who are dependent on alcohol drink, they feel normal. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms usually start within hours after you stop drinking, peak in a day or two, and improve within five days. But in some alcoholics, withdrawal is not just unpleasant—it can be life threatening.

Talking with an addiction therapist or medical specialist can assist you in your goal to stop drinking. The more supportive people you can involve in your quest to quit alcohol the better. Encouragement from family, friends, and others you trust can be an invaluable source of strength as you make this change in your life. The best way to stop drinking is the one that’s most helpful for you. The practical methods and tactics below are some of the ways people find success in quitting alcohol. Very often the people in your life — friends, family, co-workers — are affected by your drinking in ways you might not even realize.

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The first is to commit to the purpose of the decision to stop drinking alcohol. For some recovering alcoholics, individual therapy is necessary to develop the skills to reduce drinking and set achievable goals. Counseling can help a person with addiction change their thinking and behavior. By cutting alcohol out of your life completely, you may notice a number of improvements to the way you look and feel. Among other things, you might find you have more energy, that you’re sleeping better, or that you’ve lost a fair amount of weight. In the early stages, it’s a good idea to avoid situations where you may be tempted to drink.

• Maybe you don’t think you depend on alcohol exactly, but you still wonder whether you might be drinking too much.
• However, it is important to note that alcohol is very addictive.
• It ends up as torture and misery, and ‘old habits’ die hard but as we explain this is not a habit.
• Because alcohol is a sedative, it may help you to initially fall asleep at night.
• We do not offer individual medical advice, diagnosis or treatment plans.

Drink water.

But at the same time, you don’t want to negate the benefits of the dry month you successfully observed. But even if you weren’t drinking heavily beforehand and don’t plan to do so now, you may find that any amount of alcohol affects you differently after a monthlong break from it. And any positive changes you experienced from stopping drinking are bound to fizzle once you pick it back up again, especially if you go harder on the alc than you did before—which is a common temptation. Below, experts share what you should know about drinking again after a break, and how to smoothly reincorporate alcohol into your life, if you choose to do so. If someone you love has decided to try to reduce their drinking, what can you do to support them on the path to a healthier relationship with alcohol?

Prescription medications can be a useful tool in treating alcohol cravings. As with external triggers, you may or may not be aware that an internal trigger is what’s behind your urge to drink. These thoughts, feelings, sensations, and beliefs are not necessarily negative. You may drink to avoid certain feelings, for instance, but you also may drink to enhance certain feelings. It’s important to note that you may or may not be aware of these external triggers as reasons for your alcohol cravings. If certain Sober Houses Rules That You Should Follow environments, scenarios and places tempt you to drink, the simplest and most effective approach may be to avoid them, at least temporarily.

There is no shame in this — a chemical dependency on alcohol can cause severe withdrawal symptoms, and seeking medical attention is important to ensure recovery. One of the most common causes of relapse after a person has quit drinking is continuing the same lifestyle as before recovery. If an alcoholic has the same behaviors, goes to the same places and sees the same people as he did before he quit drinking, it will feel natural for him to start drinking again in all those familiar patterns. Additionally, once a person has quit drinking, a void appears in their life that alcohol used to fill.

Before beginning a tapering schedule, speak with your doctor about the risks of detoxing at home. Tapering off alcohol may complicate other medical conditions or co-occurring mental health disorders. The alcohol content in specific beer, wine and liquor products differs. You can use the guidelines to get an idea of how many standard drinks you’re used to. Experts at The HAMS Harm Reduction Network, which comprises doctors, social workers, therapists and other experts, recommend using beer to taper because it’s easier to get drunk from liquor or wine. “Just get a sparkling water, put a lime in it, and have fun,” he says.

Coping with Alcohol Cravings

In order to quit drinking, you may need proper medical support to detox safely. Before you quit drinking, it is essential to discuss your plans with a healthcare practitioner. If your alcohol consumption has been heavy https://yourhealthmagazine.net/article/addiction/sober-houses-rules-that-you-should-follow/ or chronic, you may be dependent on alcohol. This means that if you suddenly stop drinking, you may experience symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

Ways To Cut Back on Drinking Alcohol Without Quitting

Not everyone will warm up to the idea of sharing the problem at support groups or similar help programs. Drinkchat is a free online chat service with trained advisors offering confidential advice. If you’re worried about your drinking, get in touch with your local GP surgery, who will be able to help. In the longer term you may also be helping to reduce your risk of developing alcohol-related cancer, alcohol-related liver disease or alcohol-related heart disease or stroke and  lower your blood pressure.