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If you do not drink at all, you eliminate the possibility of incurring any additional adverse consequences (e.g., legal problems, health risks, etc.) caused directly or indirectly by your alcohol use. Do you want tocut downon your drinkingrather than give up alcohol completely? Dr. Washton offerspersonalized concierge carethat can help you learn how to moderate your drinking within safer limits. When you are ready, say to yourself, “I am not going to use again! ” Reinforce that commitment in any way possible and rational. One of the best ways is to remember why you are making the commitment.
Is moderate drinking healthier than abstinence?
Reasons Abstinence From Alcohol May Be the Best Choice
If you have health problems related to alcohol, it may be unsafe to drink at all, period. Even moderate drinking can make these problems worse. In this case, abstinence is the best way forward for your health and safety.
The founder of Moderation Management, Audrey Kishline, eventually wrote an open letter to her supporters explaining that she had come to realize that she suffered from severe alcoholism and that only abstinence could help her break her addiction. While she attempted to achieve lasting sobriety in AA, she killed a man and his son in a drunk driving accident. She spent some time in prison and never fully recovered from alcoholism. Heavy drinkers that are able to moderate their drinking may be more like people with early-stage heart disease.
Abstinence Or Moderation: Is There A Correct Choice?
Now, I’m not saying that you can’t decide what’s right for you. But if you’re trying to do it based on a number, if you’re trying to do it based on a rule, you are disconnecting from yourself. They’re just looking for someone to say, hey, here’s the magic number.
Abstinence is an effective method of treatment when maintained. Among individuals who remain abstinent for one to three years, only around 34 percent will end up relapsing. This number drops to 14 percent among those who manage to remain abstinent for five years. Among the 1% of Americans (2.8 million) who receive treatment for an alcohol use disorder each year, there are probably very few people with early-stage alcohol abstinence vs moderation alcoholism. Whether via self-talk or a conversation with a trusted friend, family member, or healthcare professional, it’s important to talk about your urges and remind yourself why you chose to moderate your drinking in the first place. Learning to accept these feelings, and finding healthy ways to distract yourself from them, will also go a long way toward helping you to handle any urges to drink.
The Cured Alcoholic
Mormons, Muslims, and Bahais—that forbid practitioners from consuming alcohol. Similarly, there were teetotalers and prohibitionists who tried to ban alcohol altogether throughout the twentieth century. Have something to eat before, during, and after drinking. Members should examine how drinking has affected their lives. Two strengths that drive the MM program are people helping other people, and people who help others also help themselves.
- Because once you start to do that, you start to see how your thinking is creating all this desire to drink and desire for more, and leading to deprivation and leading to judgment.
- Reducing alcohol intake is more difficult for an alcoholic than for a person struggling with less severe problematic drinking episodes.
- These medications minimize the endorphin release in the brain that usually accompanies drinking.
They will also learn to cope with stressors without alcohol, how to avoid drinking when desired, and how to control drinking and keep from overdrinking when drinking is reestablished. The group Moderation Management usually asks a person to evaluate their drinking, often through use of a journal or “drinking diary,” for a period of time initially. A person is to write down when and how much they drink, as well as any issues that alcohol has caused in their lives.