Here are a few common-sense things to do that will immediately help you quit drinking alcohol. Make sure you memorize – and put into practice – these 10 Steps to Quit Drinking Alcohol, and before you know it you’ll be happier and healthier than you’ve been in a long, long time.
10 Steps to Quit Drinking Alcohol: #1 and #2
1. Empower Yourself, NOT Your Addiction: Despite what 12-step programs teach, you are NOT powerless before alcohol – alcohol is powerless before you. Do not let anyone tell you that you are powerless before your addiction, because this is learned helplessness, and will only lead you to a lifelong struggle against alcoholism. Recognize the fact that you have the power to decide what does or does not enter your body.
You must avoid AA’s 12-step program that empowers the addiction, while weakening you – because self-empowerment is the foundation for learning how to stop drinking. You must believe in yourself, and what you CAN do to change your life. Do NOT focus on your failings, past or present. Today YOU are in control, not alcohol. Look in the mirror and you will see the person who can change your life for the better!
Tip: Most people who have quit drinking have done so without the need for AA or rehab.
2. Recognize Your Weaknesses: There are many different kinds of alcohol, and many different circumstances under which we will drink it. Over the years you have probably gravitated toward one or two specific types of alcohol, and tend to drink it most often in one or two specific environments. Learn from your own experiences, and attack the part that is giving you the most trouble.
For instance, if during the week you drink a couple of glasses of wine with your dinner and on the weekends you’re getting drunk with your friends, then you know where the problem lies, don’t you? Why beat yourself up over those few glasses of wine when it’s the weekend binge drinking that’s causing you most of your problems? THAT is where you need to change. THAT is your weakness. How can you change your behavior around your friends so that you do not get drunk on the weekends?
Do you need to meet them in a different environment? Or earlier or later in the evening? Or, maybe it’s the TYPE of alcohol you’re drinking? Perhaps a couple of glasses of wine doesn’t cause you any problems, but you’re getting carried away with beer or hard liquor? Analyze the what, why and where of your drinking, and you’ll have a better understanding of your own weaknesses, and you’ll take a big step to overcoming your addiction.
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