Tips to help with drinking problems

Heavy drinking is bad for you in so many ways. You already know that. It increases your risk of liver disease, anemia, certain types of cancer, heart disease, and dementia. You can put on a huge amount of weight. Cutting back your consumption even by just a little, reduces these risks.

To manage problem drinking successfully, you need to make drinking a planned part of your life. Or no part of your life. Here are some ways that you can do that.

Decide how much you think is acceptable

if you are going to drink, then you really need to plan when, and where, and how much. It is a bad idea to just do what you feel like. If you want to have a drink, that's fine, but you need to plan how much you are going to drink. If you don't have a limit, then you won't know when you've reached it.

Give yourself a target. Become familiar with the recommended guidelines. You need to know how much a standard drink of alcohol is, and how many you can safely consume per day, or per week. That is the basis of managing your drinking. If you limit your drinking, you will probably enjoy it more.

Monitor how much you drink

If you are going to drink, you have to monitor it. Get yourself a little bit of cardboard, and keep it with you. You might want to slide it into your cigarette packet for example. You should also get another bit of card. On that write the reason(s) why you want to control your drinking.

Then every time you order a drink, or decide to pour one, take out both bits of card. On the first one you write down how many standard drinks that drink is, and why you are having it. At the same time look at what you wrote on the other card.

Have something to eat

If you drink on an empty stomach, you feel the effects of the alcohol much faster. That makes it much more likely that you will drink out of control. Before you have a drink, have something to eat. Eating before drinking will slow down the rate of absorption of alcohol.

If you eat something first, it will take between one and six hours for your body to feel the full effects of the alcohol. Very often you will be home and safely in bed before the full impact reaches your bloodstream.

Space your drinks

If you want to get control of your drinking then you should vary what you drink. If you are drinking wine, then after each glass of wine order a glass of orange juice. Or lemonade, sparkling water, or any other non-alcoholic drink.

If you normally drink beer, then alternate with a light or zero beer. It looks the same, lets you fit in, but it greatly slows down your alcohol consumption.

Keep a diary

To really control problem drinking it is a good idea to keep a drinking diary. Every day, record what you drank the previous day. Write down what it was, the number of standard drinks, where you consumed it. Then write down why you drank. One day a week add up all the standard drinks.

Count how many standard drinks you have drunk that week. You can then compare week to week, and month-to-month, and see if your drinking is getting worse or better. Then every month, compare your actual drinking with your planned drinking, and adjust one of them.

You need to measure something before you can control it.

Volunteer to stop drinking

If you are going out drinking with friends you can choose to be the designated driver. Even if you're not going to drive, you can volunteer to be the designated safekeeper. Your job is to make sure everyone else has a good time and gets home safely.

Your mates will respect you for doing that. And you get to join in and still stay sober.

Reach out for help with alcohol NZ:

Healthify NZ

Amohia te Wairoa

Health Promotion Agency