How to Stop Drinking: 14 Tips for Success

Over time, drink­ing alco­hol can cause you to gain weight because your body process­es the alco­hol before oth­er nutri­ents. The unused nutri­ents, such as sug­ar, are con­vert­ed to fat and stored in your body. Alco­hol can also stim­u­late your appetite, caus­ing you to eat more than you nor­mal­ly would.

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Contributing to society may be the furthest thing from your mind when you finally enter rehab, but it’s a lasting, positive result from being drug and alcohol free. Drugs, alcohol and other substances kill dreams. Nothing compares to the feeling of finally following your star and achieving your full potential.

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For now, though, let’s focus on the positive changes you can experience by reducing the amount of alcohol you drink or cutting it out completely. No mat­ter what your rea­son is for con­sid­er­ing a sober-curi­ous lifestyle, there are many health ben­e­fits to lim­it­ing your alco­hol con­sump­tion. If you are strug­gling with sub­stance abuse, con­sult with your pri­ma­ry care physician. If you’ve stopped drinking and still can’t sleep, talk to your provider. There are many things that can affect your sleep—physically and mentally. But there are also things you can do to cope and improve your sleep.

Cognitive Benefits of Quitting Alcohol

I found that once I stopped drinking, my job was significantly easier than it was when I was drinking. But at the same time, I had clarity to say is this what I want in my life and if not, sort of the confidence to change it which I didn’t before. I was barely making In it, through my days, I felt https://ecosoberhouse.com/ like anything was going to blow me over. So, I think you know what, once you ditch the booze, then almost everyone starts to become really interested in all the other pieces. Because how will you not you know, once you start to like yourself, and you what you can start to focus on self-care.

So take some time to familiarize yourself with other types of support; the pandemic has led to the rise of virtual options that increase accessibility beyond what you can access in person. April is Alcohol Awareness Month, so it’s a good time to talk about how to quit drinking safely and what to expect if you’re going alcohol-free. It’s no secret that alcohol use increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, and that has caused some people to start questioning the role of alcohol in their life.

After you drink alcohol, Volpicelli explains that the small molecules inside it get absorbed by your gut. From there, they travel to other parts of your body and affect organ systems, including the cardiovascular, immune, and nervous systems, along the way. The vanity argument for stopping drinking motivates a lot of people alcohol free lifestyle and it should do. I get my students to take a picture at the beginning of their 6 week course and another at the end. Alcohol gives you a very brief, artificial high, followed by a long and painful low. You know how awful it is when you feel hungover, depressed and anxious; you spend all day beating yourself up.

Alco­hol can affect your brain func­tion by impair­ing the com­mu­ni­ca­tion between neu­rons, which can lead to short-term mem­o­ry loss. Exces­sive alco­hol con­sump­tion, espe­cial­ly over an extend­ed peri­od of time, can begin to alter your brain struc­ture. This can cause more severe long-term mem­o­ry loss and impact your abil­i­ty to learn new things. Reduc­ing the amount of alco­hol you drink can help keep your brain func­tion healthy and your mem­o­ry sharp. The term ​“sober-curi­ous” is used to describe the deci­sion to decrease the amount of alco­hol you con­sume.

I feel better about myself

• And even if your symptoms are mild, consider getting help to make you more comfortable.
• Although one glass of wine a day can improve your heart health, the risks far outweigh the benefits.
• In fact, alcohol is a top cause of preventable cancer after smoking and obesity – even when it’s packaged in a pretty bottle of Chardonnay.
• Remember, it’s a marathon and not a sprint – success always comes off the back of failure and isn’t always the clearest of paths.

If you’re a woman of child-bearing age, expect people to ask (or wonder) if pregnancy is the reason you’re not drinking. And, you know, now obviously, I’ve got the book out as well. I heard an ad on the radio, just today actually linked to the whole dry January thing.

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• Addiction uses up an enormous amount of physical and emotional energy.
• It may take one week to one month before you feel the benefits of not drinking.
• According to Volpicelli, the cognitive changes people can have from drinking—like memory trouble, slowed reaction time, difficulty controlling behavior, and poor concentration—get worse over time.

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