Moderate Drinking - The Seven Blog Series

Blog 7 of 7

Considering Your Progress in Moderate Drinking:
What if Moderation isn’t Working for You?

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.

Achieving or Maintaining Moderate Drinking

This post is for those who have been working to cut back on their drinking and are not making the progress they’d hoped for. And wondering whether abstinence may be a better goal. Are you having difficulty achieving or maintaining moderation?

Tips for Making a Decision to Change Your Drinking Goals

Deciding to abstain is a decision that only you can make.

If you’re undecided, consider talking with others: supportive friends; family members who genuinely care about you; members of Moderation Management; your doctor; and/or your therapist (if you’re seeing one). Try to find someone with whom you can talk about how you’re feeling about this. Find someone who’s not going to be judgmental or try to push you one way or the other.
You might also consider seeing a therapist who specializes in Motivational Interviewing (MI). MI is a client-centered counseling approach that is effective in helping people resolve their mixed feelings about changing their drinking. Here is a “Find a Therapist” search engine to help you find someone in your area ABCT’s Find A CBT Therapist. Another option is to locate an MI trainer and ask him or her to recommend a therapist. MI therapists are most likely to be open to discussing your goals and challenges to achieving them.

Trying Out a Goal of Abstaining

You do not need to make a life-long commitment to abstaining. Short-term goals can be helpful. You can choose to not drink for a day at a time, a week at a time, or a month at a time. It’s up to you. Many people who decide to abstain focus on doing it one day at a time. It’s a more manageable bit of time and can help you from being overwhelmed. Get through today without drinking and deal with tomorrow tomorrow.

So, as a next step you could consider “doing a 30”. This means taking a clean break from drinking for 30 days. (And if 30 days seems unrealistic to you, consider 15, or 10, or 7.) What, you say, what’s that got to do with drinking moderately? The answer is that for many people, especially those who drink daily, drinking is a well-engrained habit. And one powerful way to break a habit is to avoid it entirely for a period of time. Psychologists call this “breaking the behavioral chain.”

Advantages of a Trial Period of Staying Sober

There are other good reasons to take a break.

Doing so reduces your tolerance (a good thing) so that when you do resume drinking you’ll feel the effects of alcohol at lower blood alcohol levels.
Not drinking for a while can free up your time that you can use to enjoy other activities that you enjoy or used to enjoy, or have wondered about trying but haven’t taken the time.
One way to moderate drinking is to not drink every day. So this gives you a head start with that.
While it may seem scary to consider not drinking for a while, you might discover, as many people do, that they enjoy feeling better, sleeping better, having more free time, and decide to continue with not drinking at all.

Keep Your Eye on the Big Picture

Remember, your ultimate goal is to reduce or rid yourself of alcohol-related problems or risks. And not drinking is just as valid a way of getting there as moderate drinking. There is no shame in switching goals and it can be liberating. So why not give it a try?

Getting By with a Little Help from Friends

A final note on considering abstinence. Many people on the Moderation Management mutual support group site have chosen this route and are given support from others in that community. And an alternative is SMART Recovery that is abstinence focused and uses cognitive behavioral strategies in their 4 point program.