Excessive drinking for a long time might lead you to try cutting back on your alcohol intake. It can be hard to avoid the urge to have a drink. However, there are some strategies you can use that can help you when it comes to avoiding alcohol…
Avoiding Alcohol: Keep Your Mind Off Drinking
Understand drinking triggers
Sometimes, certain situations might make you want to drink more than others. These are generally known as alcohol use triggers. Understanding what your own triggers might be is very helpful for avoiding alcohol.
Maybe you feel like drinking when you’re out with friends. Or, it could be you want a drink when you’re stressed. Understanding your triggers will help you know what kind of situations you should avoid or be more aware of so you can avoid wanting to drink.
Keep yourself busy
You might find it hard to stop thinking about having a drink initially. These kinds of thoughts are most prevalent when you have nothing to do. That’s why staying busy is good for avoiding alcohol.
This is a great time to explore a new hobby or learn a new skill. This will help keep your mind off of drinking, and help you improve yourself in the process. Over time, you’ll be thinking less and less about drinking until it no longer even crosses your mind.
Build a support network
It always helps to know you’re not going through this challenge alone. Having people to lean on always is helpful for those difficult days. That’s why building a support network is a good idea. It’s important to surround yourself with the right kind of people during this time.
Friends and family can be good sources of support. They can help you stay on track when you might be having your own doubts. Recovery groups can also help you with developing strategies and keeping away from alcohol. The amount of different groups out there means you have a lot of options to find the right one that works for you.
Avoiding alcohol can be difficult, but it is doable. After all, the hardest part was recognizing it’s time to take a break. Everything else is just more progress towards a healthier you. Using these strategies can help you in taking those every day steps of progress.