Different Therapies to Help You Stop Drinking

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There are millions of people in the US with an alcohol abuse problem. The vast majority of them will not even admit they have a problem. However, once there is the recognition that one is an alcoholic and a person sets a firm goal to stop drinking, they can begin their journey on the path to sobriety and a normal, healthy life. For those willing to undertake this journey, there are a variety of therapies that can help them reach their destination.

Stop Drinking

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For the most severe alcoholics, a visit to an alcohol detoxification center is highly recommended. If a person if highly addicted to alcohol, they can potentially die from withdrawal symptoms. As a result, there are many inpatient rehab centers specially designed to deal with these adverse withdrawal symptoms. Often the patient will receive sedatives to help them deal with the major alcohol side effects on health such as shaking, impaired speech, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, depression, severe ataxia, unconsciousness, and hallucinations. The process generally takes two to seven days.

For people who have much less severe conditions, there are more options available to help. Psychological counseling can be very helpful in helping one to get off the habit. This can be done in a one-on-one situation with a licensed therapist, friends, or with family members. The latter can be particularly effective if there are some interpersonal issues that are contributing to the alcoholism. A psychological counselor can suggest ways of setting concrete goals, establishing new habits, and avoiding people, places, and situations that reinforce the need to drink.


Hypnosis can be an effective way of helping one to control his urge to drink. It is known that many of our bad habits are caused by our subconscious mind, and that a willful act or attitude from the conscious mind is not always enough to overcome these habits. By implanting carefully worded suggestions in a state of deep relaxation, a hypnotherapist can essentially reprogram a person’s subconscious to get into line with the conscious goal of living a sober lifestyle.

Alcoholism support group therapy such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has been shown to be highly effective in transitioning someone to a sober lifestyle. In these groups, others share their struggles to cope with the habit, share things that have helped them, and provide positive reinforcement. As it is known that peer pressure can play a role in drinking, the group support can provide a powerful influence to counter negative social relationships one might have. This can be particularly true if difficult life circumstances pop up that tempt person to drown his feelings back in a bottle.

Stop Drinking Dietary Supplements

There are also a variety of stop drinking medications that can help ease along the recovery process. Antabuse (disulfiram) is one drug you can take as a powerful deterrent to drinking. When one is on this medication and one drinks, the body will experience a dramatic physical reaction such as a headache or vomiting. These provide important negative reinforcements against taking that drink, and can offset a lot of the positive psychological triggers that kick in when one drinks.

Revia (naltrexone) is another drug that can be quite useful to a person looking to stop drinking. In addition to providing a negative stimulus when someone takes a drink, this drug tends to remove the positive feelings an alcoholic experiences while drinking.

Campral (acamprosate) is another pharmacological alternative which only serves to block the positive feelings from drinking, but does not result in negative side effects if a drink is taken. As a result, many patients might feel more comfortable taking this knowing that they might not feel like crap if they fall off the wagon, although this approach might not be as effective as the other agents.

Of course, these medications listed above only work if they are taken on a regular basis. As one might expect, an alcoholic might be tempted to go off such medication, especially if they experienced one of those nasty side effects from taking a drink. For this reason Vivitrol was developed. This a long lasting injection of naltrexone. A doctor will typically administer one of these shots once per month, which will should dramatically increase compliance, and thus the effectiveness of the pharmacological remedy.

Sometimes, alcoholism is a result of another more severe psychological problem. As a result, to effectively control the alcoholism, one will need to treat the underlying condition that reinforces the alcohol addiction. These conditions could include depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety. Psychological counseling or medical intervention would likely be needed to solve these issues.

The path to sobriety is not an easy one. Luckily with the advance of modern medicine and a better understanding of human psychology, we now know a lot more about effective methods to stop drinking. The key is to take that first step and commit to taking some action, while getting the support of others in following through with the new lifestyle.

The Studies: Why Do People Drink Alcohol?

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Why do people drink alcohol

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Every restaurant offers it, every movie flaunts it, every store carries it, every person has tried it – yes, alcohol is very common in today’s society and for this reason, it has become a topic of debate due to the great number of individuals who have a problem controlling how much they drink.

Still, many wonder, “Why?”- a lot of individuals do not even enjoy the taste of alcohol or the feeling of being out of control. NIH Studies have proven the detrimental effects of alcohol on both long and short term health. So, why some people become heavy binge drinkers?

To begin with, most people are not even aware of the actual reason that is motivating them to drink. They may have ideas or beliefs as to the issue, but in reality it is usually a reason that they are not aware of. There are many unconscious reasonings that commonly cause people to drink alcoholic beverages, even when they know it can be bad for their health.


If you ask a professional, “Why do people drink alcohol?” one of the first things they will tell you is that it is for mood regulation. Some people instinctively feel that they can use alcohol to escape from the state, stressful day or problem that they have, and enjoy temporarily a state that makes them feel better. Others drink to have more courage – courage to approach others, courage to say what they want to say.

The second reason is to let other people see them differently. People want to create a new identity; people who are shy may drink to become more outgoing, people with tomboy personalities may drink to show she can be “careless” like a man, men trying to impress women think that having some drinks will make them look cooler or more attractive. Whatever the identity they crave is, they have the goal to force others to see them in this new light.

Finally, some group of people using alcohol to prove something to themselves, or in their minds “to the world.” They may feel like they want to appear to be happier or more social. There have been individuals who said they were atheist and they enjoyed drinking to prove religions who didn’t approve of alcohol wrong.

You can even blame the increase of drinking on the media. They portray binge drinking as a fun, normal everyday occurrence. You can’t watch a television show without seeing commercials advertising for a beer or liquor company. No magazine is without similar advertisements either. These billion dollar companies want drinking to seem commonplace, so the consumers have less inhibitions about drinking more – it is a very dangerous pressure that we see getting worse and worse.

In conclusion, there are countless numbers of reasons you can use to answer the question, “Why Do Some People Drink Alcohol?” No matter what the reason is the fact remains the same that it is extremely dangerous; anyone who is struggling with an addiction of this sort needs to consult a professional (or alcoholism rehab center) so they can find the exact root cause of the issue, and subsequently work on fixing it.

Check also article on living with an alcoholic.

Learn How to Quit Drinking : The Strategies

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How to quit drinking

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Many suffer with alcoholism in the times that we are living in. This may be due to the fact that someone in the family is an alcoholic or that it is just a way to hide from the problems that are upon all of us every day.

How to quit drinking as been a question that has weighed heavily on peoples minds for years. You can stop drinking by changing your attitude and being more positive, changing the group of friends you associate with, taking up a new hobby and talking to someone about your problem and strategies.

Many people do not want to change their personality, however, there is a very popular saying that you have to strip off the old personality and put on the new. When that is applied, it can change and even save a person’s life. Attitude is everything when dealing with any addictive habit like alcoholism. When one thinks positively about his life and all the good things he has to enjoy, he can be happy without drinking.


Strategies for quitting drinking

Mind over power is not just a saying and when you set your mind to something it can change where your heart its set. The best way to learn how to stop drinking is by starting with your attitude and think more positively.

Many times the group of friends you hang out with can tear you down without you even realizing it. They may consider themselves a friend, but in the end they are encouraging you to do harmful things to your body like drinking too many such beverages. Looking for new friends that are into doing fun things outside and having a good time without alcohol can help you tremendously.

Taking up a new hobby can be the answer to how to give up drinking in large amounts. For example, if you pick something new to do like hiking, your body will not allow you to take on this new adventure if your system is full of alcohol.

Your body needs and will crave water when engaging in an activity like this. You can even look for a hobby such as painting that will help relieve stress and may in the end even curve the cravings for alcohol.

Most importantly, it is important in being honest with yourself if you do have a problem and talk to someone else about. Don’t keep it all to yourself! Honesty is the best policy as we teach our children, yet for sometimes it may be the hardest policy to live up to themselves. Talk to a doctor, neighbor or family member about your problem and you will be on the way to success.

Usual symptoms of alcohol addiction are tremor, shaking, nausea and vomiting, psychosis, depression, social anxiety, panic attacks, sweating, migraines, headaches, problems with sleeping, etc. Drugs used in detox treatment are: Acamprosate, Nalmefene, Selincro, Campral, Disulfiram, Antabuse, Naltrexone and Revia.

According to nih.gov :

For healthy adults in general, drinking more than these single-day or weekly limits is considered “at-risk” or “heavy” drinking:
Men: More than 4 drinks on any day or 14 per week
Women: More than 3 drinks on any day or 7 per week
About 1 in 4 people who exceed these limits already has alcoholism or alcohol abuse, and the rest are at greater risk for developing these and other problems.

Heavy drinking as affected over 12 million United States citizens with an average of 197 million dollars spent on beer, vodka, tequila, cider, wine each day! Just think how this money could be spent on other more important things. If you want success in quitting drinking than change your attitude, change your friends, join an alcoholics anonymous group in your area, get some hobby and talk to someone because doing these four things will definitely put you on the road to success.