No thanks, I don’t drink
The answer to the question “How to stop being an alcoholic?” lies within yourself. The first step to quitting alcohol is to admit you have a problem, the old mantra is true. Once you can acknowledge and identify that problem then the next step is to take full accountability for it.
You cannot blame anyone else, not your stressful job or family drama or trauma in your past. Yes, addiction is a disease but it is a disease that causes you to make choices and those choices are what you need to take accountability for.
Developing a personal action plan for alcohol addiction recovery
Once you are ready to get better, the next step is developing a plan of action. Most people will go straight to the extremes of rehabilitation centers or Alcoholics Anonymous, and these are very valid and helpful options. However, not everyone can speak openly in a group like that and not everyone can afford a full-time in-house rehab facility. They can cost thousands of dollars and state-run facilities can have year-long waiting lists or even more.
So, if you have found yourself in this circumstance, what should you do? You’ve admitted that you’re an alcoholic, you know that you cannot afford or take the time off for an in-house rehabilitation center and the idea of sitting with a group of strangers to divulge the deepest parts of your journey makes you cringe.
This is the time for something that experts call “spontaneous sobriety” in the sense that people spontaneously decide to quit without having professional help and aren’t sure of what they are in for.
Studies have shown that those who spontaneously decide to quit are actually between four and seven times more likely to remain sober. This could be because they are truly ready to stop and are deciding it out of their own desires to quit without influence from others.
This is part of why the prep work is so important so that you can be certain that you can quit on your own and stick to your plan. So how to stop being an alcoholic? There is a commonly used process that many people find effective called CORE: Commit, Objectify, Respond, and Enjoy. Keep reading and find out how this technique can help you put the bottle down for good!
How to stop being an alcoholic – the Prep Work
Admitting the problem and accepting responsibility are two parts of the preparation that you need to do before you can start implementing CORE. The next step is to get an understanding of the problem that you have. You need to do some self-reflecting to get to what drove you to drink in the first place, what triggers in your daily life make you want to drink, why have any other attempts in your past failed and what do you need to do this time to make it stick.
Part of why addiction is hard to shake is because the chemical imbalance that substances cause in our brains becomes normalized. This tricks your brain into a survival instinct that allows it to think that the chemical substance is a necessity to its function. That means that the more dependent your body becomes on a substance, the more your brain tells your body that it needs that substance to survive.
Getting to the root of why you began drinking can help give you the foundation to rewire your brain to run interference when it starts telling you that you crave alcohol. It will also help you to develop a plan of action for each step of the CORE recovery process.
Getting to the CORE of Addiction
Now it’s time to get started on the first step of CORE – Commit.
You need to make a commitment mentally to your goal, no more “Well, I’ll quite this weekend” or “I’ll just stick to beer”. You need to say it out loud to yourself, “I will never drink again”. You have to acknowledge this from an honest place and that comes from the prep work.
You know that there are withdrawal symptoms with weening off of any substance in your life, so alcohol will not be an exception to that rule. When you make the commitment to stop drinking then you also need to commit to going through the physical pain and discomfort that the detox process is. You need to make a commitment to having a support system around you, the type of meal plan that you will use, ensuring that you have a sufficient supply of drinking water or herbal teas that will help you flush your system out.
The detox experience will depend on how heavily dependent you have been on the substance and for how long. Alcohol is a depressant but dependency on it destabilizes your emotions. As a result, you can get depressed while your body is detoxing from alcohol and you can become very melancholy. If you have a higher dependency on alcohol, your experience could be more extreme than others.
If you are concerned about being on the higher end of this spectrum, then you should consult your doctor prior to detoxing. Remember that the detox process is not curing your alcoholism, it is simply allowing your body to start over without physically interacting with the substance. If you are severely dependent then the withdrawal process can cause tremors, seizures or hallucinations and all of that can cause other medical concerns if they are not monitored correctly.
Let’s get to step two in the CORE process – Objectify.
This part may sound a little silly, but it is rooted in psychology that rewires your brain so it really does work! If you objectify the part of your brain that is dependent on alcohol as something outside of yourself, it can help your ability to cope. This helps your brain view the craving as something that “it” wants rather than something that “you” want and that will help you feel like you are in more control.
The process of objectifying the part of your brain that craves alcohol is intended to teach your brain that the need for alcohol is unnatural. It is not a part of how your body actually operates in a healthy way so that craving in itself is like an invader. That invader needs to be controlled and kept in check and that part is done by the healthy part of your brain, which is seen as a part of you. So, start thinking to yourself that “it” wants you to drink but “you” want to go to a yoga class instead!
The third step in the CORE process is to Respond.
This is where you start capitalizing on that commitment and the objectification of your cravings. Remember, that part of your brain is not a part of you, it is an invader and needs communication from you to be put in check so don’t be afraid to respond. Don’t respond with any hemming or hawing before giving a weak “no”, instead give a full-throated and determined “never” as your answer.
And keep bringing these conversations back to that initial commitment. Next time that your brain says that it wants a drink, respond to it by saying that you never want a drink again. Think of it as that annoying college buddy who always wants to relive the glory days and let that friend know that you have made a commitment to your sobriety. This will help you for when you are in social settings and providing a more polite response while in your head screaming “NEVER” at the top of your lungs.
The final step in the CORE process is the best part and this is the part that will set you up for years to come – Enjoy.
This is when you start to replace alcohol with things that make you happy but that are also good for you. Whether it’s joining a book club to exercise your brain or a cooking class to learn a healthier recipe to enjoy, you need to start filling your life with things that improve your health and are also fun.
They say that idle hands are the devil’s playground, and idle minds are that for addiction cravings. Do not be afraid of a relapse, because that is the addicted part of your brain trying to convince you that doing the work isn’t worth it or that you are not capable of quitting.
Keep working through these steps and over time you will see a world of difference, but try adding new tools every time that you relapse to see if there are natural supporters that you can work into these steps.
What Else Can Help?
- Breathing techniques: We mentioned a yoga class earlier, and that was no accident. Part of the benefit of yoga is taking the time to learn about your own body. The positions being held and being able to move from one to the next all the while focusing on your breathing forces you to listen to your body and feel more in control. This process of becoming more in tune with your body can help you feel more in control of your addiction and recovery.
- Acupuncture: There are also natural supplements and therapies that can assist you with the detox process as well as the lifestyle change that comes with recovery. Acupuncture is one that has been proven to support circulation and flow of the blood in your body. This is effective for repairing liver damage and making it function better after your detoxing. This also allows you to feel the positive effects of life without alcohol more deeply and feel healthier as you move into this new chapter of your life.
- Light therapy: One of the side effects of alcoholism is the problem with sleeping. It is typical to develop insomnia as time moves forward. Light therapy is a great natural remedy for those who are struggling with this issue because not being able to sleep can be an easy trigger to give in to. Light therapy will help your brain fall asleep with more ease and consistency.
- Cayenne pepper: There are foods that can assist the detox process as well, and yes they tend to be the standard healthy foods but they are even more important than normal when you decide to quit drinking. Cayenne pepper has been proven to suppress cravings so try adding it to your meals that first week. Many people will drink water infused with lemon and ginger as a cleansing version of regular water to drink throughout the day. If you are interested in the infused water, then add cayenne pepper to it and put it in your water bottle to have a handy tool against cravings throughout the day.
- Low-fat proteins: While you are detoxing, part of the planning process when you make that commitment is to have healthy foods around that will give your body strength and maintain as healthy of a balance as possible. Make sure that you have a lot of low-fat proteins around the house like eggs or fish to keep your body strong.
- Fruits and vegetables: Also be sure to have replacement sugars that are healthy for you like fruit. This will help curb the cravings for those sugar-laced cocktails or that glass of wine. The vegetables are also important in the detox process because the fiber will also support your body in the cleansing process.
- Kudzu: If all else fails and you are still relapsing repeatedly or if you are struggling to be in social settings or are afraid to re-enter social settings then there is another natural product that can help you. There is a Chinese herb called kudzu that has been demonstrated to help people curb their drinking. It has been proven to increase blood flow to your brain and because of that, people who take it prior to drinking will drink significantly less quantities at a much slower pace.
This will help you stave off getting drunk or at least will cause you to feel the effects differently which can help you sip your drink rather than drinking the way that you used to.
Final thoughts: How to stop being an alcoholic?
At the end of the day, nothing works until you do. You have to be ready to make a change, to be healthier and to be happy in the truest sense of the word.
These remedies should help you succeed, but hopefully, the first step will come from within you because that is the only way to guarantee that success.