Tips for Resisting Drinking Alcohol

If you've managed to quit drinking or you are trying to stop, there will be a number of times when you feel tempted to have a drink.  Use these tips to help you resist the temptation.

Health

Think about your health and how much better you undoubtedly feel when you're not drinking. Consider too the illness and sickness you have probably been through because of alcohol – vomiting, headaches, sleeplessness and more – do you want to repeat that? If you've successfully undergone aown supervised alcohol detox you may also have experienced some unpleasant side effects which you're unlikely to want to repeat. Although with supervised alcohol detox, you're often given drugs to help you avoid the most severe and dangerous side effects, you may still experience symptoms such as shaking, nausea, sweating and hallucinations.

Focus on how bad you felt and remind yourself that you don't want it all to have been for nothing.

Hangovers

Relive in your mind the alcohol hangovers you've suffered in the past, waking up feeling tired, ill and regretful. What's the point? Hungover days are often wasted or clouded with depression about the wasted time and money you have caused yourself. 

Weight gain

Don't forget that alcohol can lead to significant weight gain with its empty calories and negative influence. It's not just the sugar that you're drinking that can lead to weight gain either. Many people find that they eat the wrong foods when they've been drinking, either during the session or the next day.

Common foods of choice are fatty, carbohydrate-heavy foods or sugary drinks and snacks.  In addition, heavy drinkers rarely feel like exercising much because they're drunk, tired or hungover. Think about how good exercise makes you feel and the negatives of lethargy and inactivity.

Waste

Drinking too much too can often result in you wasting a lot of time and money. Focus on that when you're tempted to drink and think about what else you could do with that time and money. Sometimes drinking can lead to hours, days and even whole weekends being wasted and can also result in a lack of motivation to do anything constructive when you're not drinking. Time is precious.

If you're drinking heavily you could be wasting hundreds of pounds each month on alcohol. Count your spending in the hours it would take you to earn it at work if it helps to focus your mind. Working towards something specific – a qualification or a sporting event, for example, could help you focus, as could saving up for something that you really want, like a holiday, a house or a gadget.

Relationships

Reflect on the problems which alcohol has caused in your relationships – unnecessary arguments, lies and resentment are common. Relationships and trust take time to build so don't risk losing them by drinking heavily again.

About the Author

Wellington Lodge is an established not-for-profit specialist alcohol rehab provider. We offer triage, screening and rehabilitation at our comfortable in-patient facility at Wellington Lodge in North London. We also offer out-patient facilities at specialist clinics in Harley Street, London or at Queens Square in Bath, Somerset.