How To Stop Alcohol Cravings And Stay Sober
When people start my course the question gets asked around how to stop alcohol cravings. It’s a common concern and understandably so.
The rumble of noise in a busy bar. The odour of whiskey on your colleague’s breath. Celebrating a birthday or anniversary with friends. Alcohol cravings may happen at any moment of the day or evening; when you most anticipate them and also when you least want them. Recognizing those triggers and conquering those yearnings throughout rehabilitation may often leave you feeling hopeless.
Don’t worry, alcohol cravings are simple to stop if you know why they are there in the first place. Let’s talk about that in today’s quit drinking blog post:
“Often if I’m tidying up after I throw a party and I get a powerful scent of gin or whiskey, it brings me back to that very first drink,” claims Craig Beck, the author of how to stop drinking book ‘Alcohol Lied To Me’.
Recognizing what takes place in the human brain is the initial step in comprehending how to cope going sober and learning how to stop alcohol cravings along the way.
It is entirely possible to suppress alcohol cravings and eliminate them. What you need to always remember as you come across an alcohol craving (which might materialize as a sentimental yearning, a desire, a trembling, stressful feeling, or a need to feel nothing at all or everything):
There is a logic behind the cravings for alcohol
Alcohol is a drug. When an addictive substance of any type enters into the system, it interrupts the body’s normal state. Everybody knows that drinking can influence a man or woman’s feelings, decision-making capabilities, and motor skills. However what goes on in the mind whenever somebody drinks alcohol over and over?
Alcohol, even though categorized as a sedative, serves as both a sedative and a stimulus (that is the reason that it delivers you both lows and highs). When alcohol is drunk, it immediately affects your central nervous system, including the glutamate process, which is specifically linked to mobility, learning, and recollection.
So, that’s why people pass out after drinking alcohol to excess? Yes, but it’s more complex than that.
Basically, persistent alcohol consumption specifically modifies the human brain’s neuroplasticity, that results in even more alcohol cravings and a surge in maladaptive actions. Consuming alcohol to evade stress and anxiety, for example, is a maladaptive habit.
This is why severe alcoholics are more prone to consuming alcohol again throughout the rehabilitation program. Many people fall off the wagon, it is expected and predicted.
Whenever the brain has been substantially modified (by alcohol for example), it takes more than the elimination of drinking to conquer the desire to consume alcohol once again. It takes a while, a great deal of work, and typically, expert assistance to teach someone how to stop alcohol cravings over the long run.
What creates a craving to drink?
” Whenever the mind gets data that it connects with drinking alcohol, such as an upsetting predicament or the odour of a local pub, it instantly recalls the favourable encounter with drinking and delivers flags, or cravings, that promote the behaviour,” states Craig Beck
Cravings don’t stay the same. Fortunately, what triggers you right now may not trigger you next month. But if you wish to conquer the triggers and eliminate, reduce, and beat the cravings, it is essential to acknowledge exactly what is triggering you.
Maybe you used alcohol in the past to relax or get a little dutch courage. Your cravings in the future may appear when you need to feel more relaxed (right after a difficult business meeting) or when you want to feel more self-assured (during the course of a first date).
Understanding your “alcohol cravings” is essential.
“Often it is not just the surroundings that may be making you want to drink alcohol. However, it can be as straightforward as something you eat. For instance, variations in blood glucose amounts stimulated by a specific type of food may be confused as an alcohol craving to a newly sober person,” states Mr Beck.
“We frequently urge people to maintain a craving log in which they can determine the moment of the day, where they are, who they are with, how they are feeling, and what the strength of their craving is on a scale of 0 to 100.”.
You might be shocked to discover what your triggers are. They will feel and look unique for each person. However, we understand problem drinking is complex therefore is the journey out of the alcohol loop.
How long you’ve been consuming alcohol (the number of years, decades), how frequently (every day, every week), where you’ve drunk (pubs, work, home), what you do for a living all alter how cravings will affect you.
“Restorative techniques like cognitive behavioural therapy and dialectic behaviour modification are useful to people who are experiencing strong cravings. These kinds of resources assist men and women pinpoint the intellectual techniques in the brain that are adding to their alcohol consumption and use problem management techniques to halt the behaviour,” clarifies Beck.
Your cravings are unique to you
“It is conceivable to guide your thoughts to stay clear of [alcohol cravings], but it takes work. Equally, as these links are created gradually, it takes some time to reverse links when they are created,” states Beck.
Sadly, cravings to drinking do not often vanish completely. They can come back years, even many years down the road. One of the best things you can do is identify them and react to them in a strong, constructive way.
“I’m not responsible for my initial thought,” states Beck, who still experiences alcohol cravings very occasionally.
“I’m responsible for how I respond to it'”.
On my how to stop drinking course I teach my clients four powerful techniques that show them how to stop alcohol cravings in less than 60 seconds. It’s powerful, easy and it works.
If you are ready to go sober and more importantly stay sober. Why not grab your place on my free quit drinking coaching session today? You will be completely anonymous and only I appear on the video.
Reading your book on Kindle Amazon prime membership! Really resonating along with the sad bit very true axiom that it does take time to rebuild our brains from the years of entrenched behavior and amazing homeostasis our bodies try to achieve while ingesting this poison!!!