How to Stop Drinking Alcohol

My early drinking and the impact it had on the way I drank for over thirty years.

How I used alcohol as a tool and a way of modifying my behaviour.

What is the reality of alcohol in our society? Why do we not treat alcohol as a drug? Why do we look at the use of this drug as normal?

Why do you drink alcohol? What is your motivation? What do you get out of it?

Are there any health benefits to drinking alcohol? If so, how do they apply to you? How does your brain fool you into believing these claims?

Who conducts alcohol health benefit studies? How are they funded? How does this affect you?

How does alcohol affect you? What is it? What is it really doing to your body? What does it mean to get drunk? What does it mean to have a hangover?

What is moderation? Can you moderate your alcohol use? What is alcohol tolerance? How does that affect your drinking? How does tolerance impact your body?

I take a look at some of my moderation attempts, how they usually unfolded, and what was the normal end result.

How are we brainwashed into believing that taking this drug is normal? When does the brainwashing start?

How does the language that you use, your choice of words and phrases, and how you interpret them, reshape your perceptions - for good or bad?

What do the words alcoholic, sober, recovery mean? How can your choice of words blind you to what's really going on with your habit?

What does the word alcoholic mean? What does alcoholism mean? Does using these words help people when they need help? Should you use these words to describe yourself?

When should you call yourself an alcoholic and when should you avoid using the term?

How most alcohol users are dependent on the drug. How mostt alcohol users repeatedly use alcohol excessively.
How most alcohol users suffer from withdrawal.

What are the first steps in changing your alcohol problem?

How is your decision to quit going to affect those around you? How will they react?

What is it to be known as an alcoholic? How can you deal with that?

How long does it take for you to build your alcohol habit? How long does it take to break the habit? Do you need help in quitting? Alcohol versus the alcohol lifestyle.

What is recovery? How long does recovery take? Will you be in recovery for the rest of your life? What is the process of recovery?

What are the likely symptoms and side-effects of quitting alcohol? Is it a medical issue? Should you see a doctor? Is it a disease or disorder? Can your doctor help you?

Where should you look for information about quitting? What type of information is out there?

There's such a thing as too much information. Do you need to know everything about quitting before you start?

Why using terms such as the demon drink can be detrimental to your new journey.

How can your thoughts lead to your actions which ultimately determine your behavior?

What is your concept of "rock bottom"? Do you have to get to rock bottom before you change? What do you need to do to avoid spirally downwards, out of control?

Fear is just a thought and thoughts can be changed.

Don't leave it until tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Why do we tend to procrastinate so much?

How can you get a grip on your fears?

Should you quit on your own or seek medical attention?

What kind of damage are you causing to yourself through alcohol? Here's a brief history of my alcohol damage.

What is alcohol tolerance? How does it help you? How does it harm you?

How do you handle yourself in social situations while you've been drinking? Are you sometimes embarrassed or ashamed of how you acted while drunk? Do you remember all the times you are drunk? Do you have blackouts? How long do your hangovers last? Do you feel they are worsening? How long do you think you can continue down this destructive path?

Where are you right now in your life because of your alcohol use? How bad are your hangovers? How do they compare with your hangovers from the past? What is the current state of your health? How do you see your health in the future? How are your finances and relationships?

What are the symptoms and side effects of your drinking? How are you feeling about yourself now?How well do you really sleep?
How do you feel physically?
How do you feel mentally?
How does this compare with past hangovers?

How things changed for me once I stopped boozing.

What were my expectations of quitting drinking, how my life would pan out once I didn't drink, and what life without alcohol would be really like?

What your alcohol use must be like for the other people in your life?
How do you think the people close to you are going to cope with you if you continue down the alcohol use path?
Will they stay?
Would you want them to stay, forcing on them the burden of your choices?

Your imagination is your greatest ally in your fight against any bad habits in your life.
Use your imagination to conjure up scenarios about your own future.
Put yourself through a Christmas Carol scenario, taking yourself on a journey into your past, a look at your present, and a peek into your future. It’s powerful stuff.

We have been raised to believe alcohol is only a drink.
We don't see it as a drug, us as drug users, or the sellers as drug dealers.
Because we don't see it as a drug, we can ignore the dangers.
Even when we understand the dangers, as they hit home to us, we want to continue to use because alcohol use is so embedded in our society. People from every walk of life are using alcohol.

Is alcoholism a disease or a genetic abnormality?

What will this type of belief do to your ability and efforts at stopping using alcohol?

How can you change if you are being directed at a genetic level?

What is recovery?

What is the best way of thinking about your recovery?

Cyclical recovery is the process your body goes through every time you drink. Use alcohol, recover, use alcohol, recover.
Alcohol also causes your body to go through other negative spirals such as the one we experience with alcohol tolerance.

During your drinking, your body is going through constant damage limitation.
When you finally stop using alcohol, your body is finally free to do it’s job.

How you respond dictates the road you will travel.

Good nutrition is the second fuel in helping you to quit drinking.

Your defenses against alcohol.

How do you change some of your basic mindsets about habits?

How do habits form and play out in the real world?

What is it that forms a habit, maintains it, and let's it programing work almost without your awareness?

A brief look at how your mind deals with the infinite amounts of data assaulting you every single day.

A look at how your brain filters information and keeps your habitual behaviour ticking over beneath the surface.

A look at three ways you can break your triggers.

How you can begin to change your automatic, habitual thinking.

The way you think leads to the way you behave. What can you do about it?

Why does change put us into unfamiliar territory and what can you do about it?

The fixed mindset and the growth mindset.

Change causes discomfort. How do you deal with that discomfort?

How long are you going to feel this discomfort and what can you do to accelerate it's passing?

The discomfort controls are in your hands. How do you use them?

How does discomfort that you'll go through once you feel stack up against the discomfort you're already going through or the discomfort you will go through if you don't quit?

How long do you think about alcohol after you've stopped drinking?

How to hit the restart button.

How to get the life you really want.