Deal With Drinking Too Much

If you are concerned you are drinking too much, you are not alone. As many as one-third of all Americans could be diagnosed with an alcohol-use disorder during their lifetimes. Fortunately, the prevalence of problem drinking also means that there are many resources for help at your disposal. You can take some steps by yourself to reduce (or quit) your drinking, and reach out for help to ensure you stay on track.

Steps

Deciding to Cut Down or Quit

1. Cut down on your drinking if it is safe. Give yourself a trial to see if you can maintain a lower level of alcohol consumption for two or three months. Keep track of what you are doing in a journal in order to remember what worked and didn’t work at the end of the trial. Before beginning, you should determine if you have a physical dependency on alcohol; if this is the case, it can be dangerous to reduce your alcohol intake without the help of a physician.
   • Signs that you have a physical dependency on alcohol include anxiety; nausea; abdominal pain; vomiting; irregular heart rate; increased blood pressure, body temperature, and respiration; and mood swings. Severe side effects can actually be fatal and include hallucinations, fever, seizures, severe confusion, and agitation. If you experience any of these symptoms, consult with a doctor before attempting to cut down on your drinking.
   • If you are not physically dependent, cut back a little each day. Have one less drink per day for a week. Then reduce the amount by another drink per day over the next week, and so on until you are within safe drinking limits.
   • Decide which days you will drink and how many drinks you will have. For example, you may know your office is going out for happy hour on Tuesday. You don’t want to avoid it, so you will go and have two drinks.
   • Give yourself only a certain amount of money to spend on drinks.
   • Drink only with dinner. Pairing wine or beer with food can enhance the enjoyment of your meal, and is a way to set a time limit on your drinking.
   • Drink a smaller-size drink, or a drink with a lower percentage of alcohol in it.
2. Avoid triggering situations. Avoid places or people that make you want to drink. If you find yourself feeling stressed out, or another emotion that triggers your drinking, find other alternatives to help you handle those emotions instead.
   • For example, you may want to go over to a friend’s house to watch the game, instead of your favorite sports bar where you are more likely to drink too much.
   • If you always come home from work with a powerful craving for a drink, make a detour to the gym on the way home and work out to release your stress.
   • Let your friends know you are trying to cut back, and propose alcohol-free activities instead.
3. Consider quitting. If you have given yourself a couple of months to try to reduce your drinking, but are still struggling, it is probably best that you consider quitting drinking. You can develop an alcohol addiction and some serious health problems from drinking too much. Other reasons you may wish to quit include:
   • Pregnancy.
   • Taking a medication that interacts with alcohol.
   • A family history of alcohol problems.
   • Have a condition (physical or mental) that gets worse when you drink.
4. See your doctor. Talk to your doctor about your concerns about your drinking. Your doctor can put you in touch with other people who can help you and help you consider courses of treatment, as well as give you a medical examination to make sure you do not have any physical problems related to your drinking.
5. Attend a meeting. Consider attending an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting to find support. AA has meetings all over the world, and is the best known resource for recovery for alcoholism and alcohol problems.
   • To find one near you, try searching at http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/find-aa-resources.
   • You can also contact your local community health agency or religious institution to find a meeting.
   • If AA isn't right for you, there are other support options. Look into SMART Recovery, Secular Organizations for Sobriety, or Women for Sobriety.
6. Talk to a counselor. Find a counselor who can work with you on addiction issues, managing the problem behavior, as well as addressing the underlying causes. You may have an employee assistance program through your employer that can help you find a counselor in your area. If you are a student, contact your school’s student health service for assistance.

Maintaining Your New Lifestyle

1. Reach out to your support network. Let your family, friends, or religious community support you as you take steps to reduce or quit drinking. They can celebrate your successes, help you on hard days, and do things with you where alcohol will not be present.
   • Be honest about what you are facing. If you have decided to stay sober, make sure you let your friends and family know.
   • Try saying, “You may know that I am trying to stop drinking. So next week can we go to the movies instead of out to lunch? If we go to out to eat, I’m going to be tempted to get a beer.”
2. Stay busy. Fill your time with other activities that do not involve drinking. Consider exercise, learning a new skill, or playing a new game.
   • Try to get other friends and family involved in new activities to help hold you accountable to them. You could say, “Hey, remember how you mentioned you wanted to train for a 5K last year? Do you want to do that with me? It would be great for me to get in shape, and it would help me keep my mind off drinking.”
3. Learn to say no. Practice saying no to alcohol until you feel comfortable doing so. People, especially friends with whom you’ve shared many drinks in the past, may not understand your change of heart.
   • Just say no. “No thanks, I’ll stick with coffee.”
   • Change the subject. For example, “No, I’m good. So, where did you say your sister was going to school next year?”
   • Make a joke. Try saying, “I’ve got to lose this beer gut! I’ll pass.”
4. Minimize activities that may involve drinking. Until you know you can resist the lure of a drink, it might be best to stay away from places you know alcohol will be served.
   • If you have a group of friends that likes to spend long hours at the bar, you might want to look for another group of people to spend time with, at least until your drinking is under control.
   • If many of your hobbies go hand-in-hand with drinking (getting a beer after a softball game, bowling, book clubs), it may be wise to avoid these activities or find new ones until you are better used to saying no to alcohol.
   • Once you feel confident you can say no to a drink, it is okay to slowly re-enter these environments. Make sure others around you are aware of your resolve so that they can help you avoid the temptation.

Determining if You Have a Problem

1. Consider the amount you are drinking. The amount of alcohol considered low-risk is different based on your sex. Your alcohol use may be considered “heavy” or “at-risk” if you are drinking:
   • More than four drinks on any day or fourteen per week if you are a man.
   • More than three drinks on any day or seven per week if you are a woman.
   • Make sure you are measuring standard-sized drinks. You may be drinking more units than you realize. A standard serving is 12 ounces of beer, 8 – 9 ounces of malt liquor, 5 ounces of wine, and 1.5 ounces of liquor.
   • In order to know how much you are drinking, try keeping a log of your drinking behavior over a period of a week or two. Keep track of both the number of drinks you have and how many days a week you are drinking.
2. Take the CAGE questionnaire. There are several different self-administered tests available online that can help you determine if you, or someone in your life, is drinking too much. One simple test is the CAGE questionnaire, which is used around the world to help identify alcohol addictions. Note that answering yes to one question indicates there may be a problem, and yes to more than one question indicates that you need to get help.
   • Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking?
   • Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
   • Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your drinking?
   • Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover?
3. See if you meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder. There are specific criteria outlined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is a manual used by mental health professionals, that mean you have alcohol use disorder, or AUD. This diagnosis can only be given by a mental health professional, but the guidelines may be helpful if you are unsure whether or not you have a drinking problem. Ask yourself if, in the past year, you have:
   • Had times when you ended up drinking more, or longer than you intended?
   • More than once wanted to cut down or stop drinking, or tried to, but couldn’t?
   • Spent a lot of time drinking? Or being sick or getting over the aftereffects?
   • Experienced craving — a strong need, or urge, to drink?
   • Found that drinking — or being sick from drinking — often interfered with taking care of your home or family? Or caused job troubles? Or school problems?
   • Continued to drink even though it was causing trouble with your family or friends?
   • Given up or cut back on activities that were important or interesting to you, or gave you pleasure, in order to drink?
   • More than once gotten into situations while or after drinking that increased your chances of getting hurt (such as driving, swimming, using machinery, walking in a dangerous area, or having unsafe sex)?
   • Continued to drink even though it was making you feel depressed or anxious or adding to another health problem? Or after having had a memory blackout?
   • Had to drink much more than you once did to get the effect you want? Or found that your usual number of drinks had much less effect than before?
   • Found that when the effects of alcohol were wearing off, you had withdrawal symptoms, such as trouble sleeping, shakiness, irritability, anxiety, depression, restlessness, nausea, or sweating? Or sensed things that were not there?
   • If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, speak with your physician or a mental health professional about being evaluated for AUD.
4. Pay attention to your physical health. You may be experiencing some physical side effects to drinking that are beyond typical hangover symptoms. These symptoms can start to occur when your drinking still may seem quite “normal” to others, but can indicate that your liver is having a difficult time processing the excess alcohol. You may notice:
   • Looking tan in spite of staying out of the sun. This can be a sign of mild jaundice.
   • Forgetfulness. This goes beyond forgetting how much you drank or blacking out, and includes mild day-to-day forgetfulness. Alcohol disrupts a chemical in our brains that helps with memory.
   • Cravings. If you experience a strong need or urge to drink, you may be dependent on alcohol.
   • Poor sleep. Insomnia is extremely common among heavy drinkers, because alcohol interferes with neurotransmitters that help us sleep.
   • Diarrhea. Loose, watery stools can indicate that your liver is not processing fat efficiently; it is too busy processing the alcohol.
5. Ask your family and friends. Perhaps your family and friends have previously indicated to you that you are drinking too much. They also can help you hone in on any problem drinking behavior.
   • For example, you could ask, “Can you tell me honestly if you think I drink too much? I had a rough weekend, and I’m beginning to get concerned I have a problem.”
   • Ask them to tell you about your behavior while you are drinking. You might not be aware if your behavior is obnoxious, aggressive, or depressed.
   • You may also not be aware how much you are drinking. Since alcohol lowers your inhibitions and impairs your judgement, you may not realize that your plan for two drinks at the bar easily turned into four.

Related Articles

• Quit Drinking Alcohol
• Deal With Someone Who Is Having Problems With Drugs or Drinking
• Overcome an Addiction
• Beat Drug Addiction
• Quit Drinking Alcohol Using Anti Craving Medication
• Quit Drinking without Alcoholics Anonymous

Sources and Citations

See also

• Quit Drinking Alcohol
• Stop Drinking Beer
• Prevent a Hangover
• Get Rid of a Hangover
• Stay Sober
• Go Working After a Long Drinking Night
• Heal Liver from Alcoholism
• Treat a Hangover
• Avoid Alcoholism
• Get Through Your First Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

Read more ...

What links here

• Take Care of a Drunk Person
• Deal With Someone Who Is Having Problems With Drugs or Drinking
• Interview for a Job when You Have a Hangover
• Quit Drinking Alcohol Using Anti Craving Medication
• Throw a Graduation Party