What is the best way to stop drinking?

Answer 1

If you don't drink you'll die.

It's called DEHYDRATION!

Answer 2

Stop drinking.

There are three reasons people drink 1) they're hungry, 2) their bored 3) habit.

Eat something and keep busy. You'll forget to drink. Once you're out of the habit, stay away. It's not easy, but it works. Also, the only way you'll really quit is if you want to. If you don't really want to, you never will.

Answer 3

I stopped drinking on 1st Januarty and I'm going to be working on answering that question for quite some time, I think.

For years I've struggled with applying rules and regulations in the never-ending search for moderation - I've been to AA, I see a specialist psychologist (alcoologue in France) and, more importantly I've ruined relationships with family, friends, girlfriends, colleagues and strangers as well as losing countless apartments, jobs, wallets, telephones, items of clothing, laptops, iPods, books, memories and blood. I've broken bones, ended up in hospital dozens of times and I've been arrested more times than I've had hot dinners. I'm not 30 yet and I have no intention of dragging all of this into my 30s so I've finally come to the conclusion, which took me about 5 years to reach, that there's simply no point in trying to accomodate alcohol and it's much better to treat it as an allergy.

If you were allergic to milk and it made you miss work, feel like sh!t and ruined your health and bank balance (not to mention destroy the people around you who love you) then you'd simply stop drinking milk. It would be a hassle as there are many products in daily life that contain milk - more than contain alcohol - but you'd do it; it would be insane to continue to drink milk, no matter how good it made you feel at the time.

I don't believe you can just stop drinking by "not putting alcohol into your system" as is the rather naïve response of the majority of people in the answers above (not that I think this is such a ridiculous concept, it is, in fact part of the solution). You must establish why you want to give up drinking and acknowledge the necessity before attacking each episode or event in your life which may lead you to drink, individually and intelligently.

Example. I've never watched a Six Nations rugby campaign without drinking heavily at some stage or other. I live in France and play rugby here so sometimes we go to Scotland and watch the game at Murrayfield with my team. The notion of spending that day without beer is almost inconceivable and to do so without the presence of alcohol would make an undeniable difference to the way in which I enjoyed the event. But I have to change that. I don't think the solution is to hide from bars and to stay in my hotel until kickoff, but nor is it to spend my every waking minute in a bar. Remove the alcohol and most people don't REALLY want to spend an entire day and night in a smoke filled room with a stale smell of beer. I smoke so this isn't a jibe at smokers, it's just a fact. I don't know exactly how I'm going to manage the up coming Six Nations campaign but I'm commtted to ensure that I don't drink.

A key is to find something else to drink. Stay away from shandy and non-alcoholic beer; besides anything you wouldn't have touched it when you were drinking so why start now. I drink lots of tea. Granted, it's quite easy in France as there's less of a beer drinking culture than there is in the UK/US/Germany etc. but you first need to accept that if you're giving up for yourself then you have to consider the possibility that you may never be capable of drinking reasonably. That's the hardest part but I've been off the sauce for 24 days and my life is already better. It will be even better if Scotland win the Six Nations.

Answer 4

sorry you are getting so many lame responses from people who dont understand. I, too, am battling the bottle and I know its not as simple as just quitting. I get extreme withdrawal symptoms when I refrain, so I end up going back to it. I have come to the conclusion that I may need inpatient treatment. If you dont have withdrawal symptoms, you might be able to do it on your own or with aa. I quit for 4 years. but having rough time quitting now. Get yourself the help you need, no matter what. God Bless. I wish I could be more helpful. Feel free to email me if you like

Answer 5

I stopped drinking because I dont want my liver to deteriorate. Anytime I think of drinking i just think of my health.
You have to have the strength and will power to not do it. Its hard but if you put your mind to it you really can accomplish anything.

Find new things to do, that doesnt involve drinking. If you like to go out and get drunk on the weekends= go to the movies, mall, out to eat, anything that will refrain you from drinking.

If it gets so bad go to AA meetings.

Good luck!

Answer 6

Stop drinking.

Answer 7

I think that the way to stop drinking has to do with what type of drinker you are, as excess drinking progresses in stages. In my own experience, I abused alchohol to help alleviate problems resulting from a long drawn out divorce. I spent a year and a half drinking heavily. Through that year and a half, I periodically wouldn't drink for a few days, and found that I couldn't sleep, sometimes for days. So I would go back to drinking so I could sleep. Drinking progressed and I soon realized I was in the middle stages of alchoholism as I was having blackouts, and drinking during the day. I alienated my family and friends for a time, and lost my job due to oversleeping after a night of heavy drinking. I decided enough was enough. My family deserved better, I deserved better. I decided to change my routine. I replaced drinking with other activities. I enrolled in school. I joined a running club. I keep myself occupied so I won't think about drinking. It's a gradual process but I'm definately winning the war. I was lucky to recognize my problem before it completely ruined my life.

The above info may or may not apply to you, but let me give you some tips that I think might help you, no matter what stage of drinking you may be in:

If you have a true dependancy on alchohol, as you have to have a drink or you have withdrawl symptoms, inpatient treatment is the very best way to go. If this is not an option, try to get someone you know and trust to help you through your own rehab. Do you live alone? Try to find a good friend or relative to move in with you for a period of time to help you through this. Have that loved one attend an AA meeting with you and state your situation. The directors at those meetings are all recovering alchoholics and will give you advice and tools. There are also many online chat sites where you can talk to others who have drinking problems...maybe you can find someone you can relate to that could talk you through this. Here's a good one:

http://www.sobercircle.com/index.asp?node=forums§ion=threadview&threadid=216

Change your cocktail. If your dependancy is low, try to replace your alchoholic beverage with sparkling water with lemon, or hot green tea. It doesn't sound like much, but Perrier with a lime wedge, a splash of cranberry, and a sugar rim can be a great alternative! For me, alchohol consumption was a habit...I had to have my cocktail at night, so I have been replacing that nightly cocktail with Perrier and two tylenol pms, works great.

Work out. Get out and run or go to the gym. Do yoga. You can go to the library and get workout tapes if you can't afford them. Get yourself physically exhausted...it works trust me.

Get educated. Keep yourself occupied with a new hobby, class or study. Join an art club, play tennis, go back to school. Exercise your mind instead of numbing it. Once you turn to exercising your mind on your own rather than letting the bottle think for you, your mind will be freed. You will start to do all kinds of interesting things, like think and feel, and heal.

And last, learn to love yourself. You are so not alone. There are many vices in the world to bring us down and many of us fall prey to them...it doesn't mean you're a bad person. People drink excessively to drown out that voice in their head that tells them they're not good enough, their job is too hard, their wife left them, their mate isn't attracted to them anymore, they're losing their youth, they're alone...on and on. Tell that voice to be quiet...enough already. Recognize that you began to drink excessively because you were trying to escape. Find out what you were trying to escape from. Whatever it is, don't let it hurt you anymore. Stand up for yourself and tell that voice that you care about yourself...why else would you have posted a question about drinking? Bring peace to that voice and you will regain control over drinking.

Here's a helpful link below about the various stages of alchoholism. Hope all this helps...peace

http://www.safemenopausesolutions.com/alcoholism-stages.html

Answer 8

One thing to do is drop the friends who help you participate in drinking.

Answer 9

Don't have access to drinks and have a strong will. Rehab or AA meetings may work.

Answer 10

go to a local club like a martial arts club

Answer 11

stop going to the pub and off licenses