Moderate Drinking - The Seven Blog Series

Blog 3 of 7

Rethinking Drinking: Should I Cut Back, or Quit?

Preamble

If you’ve come here after searching on this issue, it’s likely that you’re wondering about your drinking and whether or not you should cut back to reduce alcohol-related problems or risks for problems.

If you’ve not yet read the first two blogs in this seven blog series on moderate drinking, we recommend doing so as the blogs all build on each other. The first blog provides an important introduction to the series and an outline of what each blog covers. The second blog defines moderate drinking based on solid empirical research over the years; it also addresses instances where attempting moderate drinking could be hazardous to your health and well-being and should therefore be avoided. If you haven’t yet read Blog 2, we recommend that you do so now.

Ready to change your relationship with alcohol?

Rethinking Your Drinking

Considering how to change your drinking to reduce alcohol-related problems or risk for problems without first deciding if you even want to change in the first place is like “putting the cart before the horse.” So let’s consider this first and most imporant question: “should I try to change my drinking?” The first step we recommend is asking yourself the question “Would it be a good thing for me to change my drinking?” Many people start to deal with this question by asking themselves what they like about drinking and what has concerned or bothered them about it. You can think of it as looking at the “good things” and the “not so good” things about drinking. Here’s an exercise to help you with this. First, use some post-it notes or slips of paper you can move around on a table in front of you. Second, write out the “good things” you like about drinking, putting one idea on each slip of paper or post-it note. Examples of “good things” include:

It relaxes me
It helps me be more open socially
It helps me forget my problems
I like the buzz
It helps me fall asleep
It’s the way my friends and I hang out
It tastes good

Now do the same thing with your list of “not so good” things. Include in this list any problems you’ve had as a result of your drinking and make these problems as specific and concrete as you can. The most often listed not-so-good reasons that we see in our programs include:

- - feeling guilty or ashamed
  - it affects my relationship with others
  - feeling dependent on alcohol
  - health symptoms or problems
  - weight gain

Third, take your slips of paper and put the most important reasons at the top of a column and list the others in their order of importance to you. Then put the 2 columns of reasons side by side. Now ask yourself the key question: How do the “good things” compare to the “not so good” things? Sit with yourself for a while and think about it. It may make you a bit uncomfortable and that’s OK.

Being uncomfortable helps resolve ambivalence and increase your internal motivation for change. You can also ask yourself the following questions:

- What good things could happen to me if I did decide to change?
- What bad things could happen to me if I decide not to change?

If you’re still feeling two ways about changing your drinking (or not changing), consider taking our CheckUp. This online, self-guided program is clinically proven to help people like you get an accurate, non-judgemental assessment of your drinking, and how specficially you might change things if you choose to. The CheckUp is completely confidential and takes only about 30 minutes to complete. We’re so confident that you’ll consider it money well spent that we offer a “no questions asked” money- back guarantee (which almost no one ever asks for).

If you’re not ready for the CheckUp, or don’t have time, but you are still wondering about your drinking, then at least take this free, 10-question assessment to estimate where you stand today.

Finally, continue on to our next and fourth blog in the Moderate Drinking series: “How Many Drinks Are Really In My Drink? Sizing Standard Drinks, Understanding Alcohol Percentages, and Using Our Free Drink Calculator to Figure It All Out”