Best Tips to Stop Drinking Today

When you want to stop drinking alcohol, your best chance of success comes through seeking professional help. Alcohol abuse is a chronic, acute disease that alters brain chemistry. Therefore, willpower alone isn’t enough to overcome this disease. Also, painful and possibly life-threatening withdrawal symptoms could occur, making professional help necessary to stop drinking alcohol safely. Fortunately, Beaches Recovery not only offers comprehensive and customized alcohol addiction treatment programs but also runs an extremely effective detox facility. We can help you or a loved one stop drinking alcohol and heal.

What Is Alcohol Use Disorder?

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has two scenarios. One is where a person drinks regularly, can’t control the amount or frequency of drinking, and experiences withdrawal symptoms when attempting to stop drinking alcohol.

The other scenario is someone who doesn’t become physically dependent on alcohol, but drinks to excess once drinking has begun. This is also known as binge drinking. Withdrawal symptoms may not appear when the person stops drinking alcohol, but the negative effects can be just as profound.

Both of these scenarios are instances of alcohol abuse and signs of what used to be termed alcoholism. In each scenario, individuals drink to excess causing their brain chemistry to change. As the nervous system becomes accustomed to alcohol, it naturally produces far fewer endorphins leaving it to the alcohol to trigger production. This is what leads individuals to develop at first a tolerance (needing to drink more often, for a longer time, or stronger drinks) and then a dependency or addiction.

An AUD Checklist

Here is a checklist to see if you need professional help to stop drinking alcohol:

• Have there been occasions when you drank more, or for longer than you intended?
• Have you tried several times to decrease or stop your drinking, but failed?
• Do you spend a significant amount of time drinking or combatting hangovers?
• Do you have strong needs or urges for alcohol?
• Does drinking or hangovers interfere often with home and family commitments?
• Does drinking interfere with your job or school responsibilities?
• Do you still drink despite the problems it causes with family, friends, and co-workers?
• Have you lost interest in activities that used to be important or pleasurable, so you can drink instead?
• Have you gotten into situations during or after drinking that put you at risk (driving, violent situations, unsafe sex)?
• Are you drinking despite the physical and psychological consequences like anxiety, depression, and other health issues?
• Have you experienced a blackout from drinking where you lost recall?
• Do you have to drink more to gain the same effects you used to feel?
• Have you found you had withdrawal symptoms, such as sleeplessness, shakiness, crankiness, anxiety, sadness, despair, agitation, nausea, excessive perspiring, or hallucinations?

If you or a loved one answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then reaching out for treatment is likely necessary. Alcohol addiction is very treatable. At Beaches Recovery, we provide a number of therapies that can help individuals identify, address, and overcome addiction such as:

• Family Therapy
• Individual Therapy
• Non-12-Step and 12 Step programs
• Trauma Therapy
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy
• Yoga Therapy

Stop Drinking Alcohol and Get Help for AUD

If you have had any of these symptoms within the past year, your drinking habits may be a cause for concern. The more symptoms you have, the more pressing it is for you to seek professional help as soon as possible. A health professional will assess your symptoms to see if you have an alcohol use disorder.

To get in touch with a health professional who can help, call Beaches Recovery at 866.605.0532, or contact us online today. Your recovery could be just one phone call away.