Below, we’ll offer seven tips for how to stop binge drinking, along with some helpful strategies to manage home and weekend alcohol use. It can be challenging (but also helpful) to talk openly about your concerns about binge drinking with trusted friends and family. These people can support you when you say no to an extra drink or ask to hang out in a different environment where you’re less likely to want a drink in hand. Drinking alcohol three days in a row is not good for you, but it’s not necessarily considered binge drinking either. Whether it’s considered binge drinking will depend on how much alcohol you consume each day and over a week or month.
- It’s not uncommon for people to undergo therapy multiple times before achieving sobriety.
- Celebrating successes and staying committed to these goals is vital for long-term recovery.
- Take the assessment and get matched with a therapist in as little as 48 hours.
Health Categories to Explore
Depending on your age, different factors may come into play, but some motivations are common among all age groups. As you start to prioritize your alcohol use, it can have a negative effect on your work, school, or social life. You might try cutting back on your drinking but find that you suffer headaches, fatigue, anxiety, or irritability on the days when you don’t drink. Slowly tapering your alcohol use can help you manage mild withdrawal symptoms and decrease the risk of AUD. However, you may experience withdrawal symptoms or relapse if you’re not tapering correctly and safely. If you’ve been drinking for a long time, you may experience withdrawal symptoms when you quit drinking.
Treatment for Alcohol Misuse & Addiction
Many people also use drinking to cope with difficult periods in their life, such as the death of a loved one or the end of a romantic relationship. However, alcohol is a depressant, so it will ultimately make you feel even worse. Many people use alcohol as a “social lubricant” when getting together with friends and family. Meeting for a happy hour or partaking in a prolonged dinner with several bottles of wine may be part of the norm of your current lifestyle. As part of learning how to quit binge drinking, it’ll require exploring other social options that don’t involve an alcoholic drink. You might also be pleasantly surprised how alcohol-free socializing creates more meaningful connections.
- To help an underage drinker drop the habit, you’ll need to understand their motivations and be willing to converse with them in a nonjudgmental way.
- These risks are greater at higher peak levels of consumption.
- You might convince yourself that you need to drink to impress someone or fit in with the crowd.
- And peer pressure doesn’t necessarily come in the form of friends loudly encouraging you to drink more.
- This strategy can also come in handy if you’re with a group of friends who want to play drinking games.
- If they’re going through a breakup or job loss, for example, be there to listen and assure them that things will get better.
Identifying Signs and Symptoms of Binge Drinking
It’s a scary proposition for some, but if you’re flirting with the idea, I encourage you to join some sober communities online and see if you can connect to other people’s experiences. Maybe you’ve discovered some deeper issues through this process. Or maybe you realize that your relationship with alcohol is more fraught than you previously understood. And incidentally, heavy drinking makes all of those issues worse.
Want to stop harmful drinking? AA versus SMART Recovery
Various treatment programs are available to help you recover from addiction. When you call our team, you will speak to a Recovery Advocate who will answer any questions and perform a pre-assessment to determine your eligibility for treatment. If eligible, we will create a treatment plan tailored to your specific needs. If The Recovery Village is not the right fit for how to stop binge drinking you or your loved one, we will help refer you to a facility that is. Keeping track of progress through recovery programs or relapse prevention workbooks can provide a sense of accomplishment and motivation to stay on the path to sobriety. Developing new hobbies and engaging in activities that don’t involve alcohol can provide healthier alternatives and distractions.
Immediate Physical Effects
This is one of the reasons binge drinking is so common on college campuses. People who binge drink to escape life’s challenges are especially susceptible to developing alcohol addiction. For some, binge drinking could be a way to cope with unresolved issues or trauma, an indication of alcohol addiction, or a matter of willpower. Although the risk of developing breast cancer under age 40 is still relatively low, your drinking habits in your youth could impact your chances of developing it later in life. There are a number of health and safety risks you should know if you’re prone to binge drinking.
Frustrating Ways Alcohol Makes You Gain Weight
- If you want to stop, you need to step back from the environments that trigger your bingeing.
- These risk factors do not guarantee that an individual will engage in binge drinking, and many people with these risk factors do not develop problematic drinking behaviors.
- To stop drinking alcohol, you first need to understand your relationship with drinking.
- It’s common for binge drinking to occur socially—for example, at a wedding reception, house party, or a night out.
While you can’t control how other adults handle alcohol, if you’re the parent of a teen who binges, you’ll want to take action. Alcohol use can have life-long effects https://ecosoberhouse.com/ on developing brains and bodies. Teens who drink are also more likely to struggle with school, use other risky substances, or experience alcohol poisoning.
What is a relaxing drink to replace alcohol?
If you drink and it is possible that you could become pregnant, frequent home pregnancy testing can help protect your child from prenatal alcohol exposure. If you do want to drink, you can purchase just enough to safely drink in moderation at the time. If you have a tendency to drink more than you should, do not keep alcohol within easy reach. For example, you can do this by not storing it in your house.
Binge drinking vs. alcoholism
- Digestive problems and liver disease are also potential long-term health risks that binge drinkers face.
- Hosted by Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares strategies for coping with alcohol cravings and other addictions, featuring addiction specialist John Umhau, MD.
- Teens who drink are also more likely to struggle with school, use other risky substances, or experience alcohol poisoning.
- Therefore, drinking more water won’t necessarily protect you from a hangover the next day.
However, it’s still possible to experience withdrawal symptoms. Alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of mortality in the United States, with approximately 95,000 people dying from alcohol-related causes each year. By gradually tapering off alcohol, you can lower your risk for alcohol-related accidents or death. Excessive drinking can weaken the immune system, increasing the body’s likelihood of developing an infection. Diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis are more frequent in individuals who chronically drink. If you’re struggling to wean off alcohol, it might be best to seek addiction treatment.
If your excessive alcohol use is a recurring issue, you might admonish yourself for your poor self-control or even develop a sense of self-loathing. Although drinking this much might not seem like a big deal in the moment, you may regret your choices later. You might struggle with the immediate physical consequences—headache, nausea, weakness, poor sleep quality. Or perhaps you later feel shame and embarrassment about things you said and did while under the influence.
