How I Quit Drinking Alcohol

The urge can pop up when you have your usual triggers OR it can pop up unexpectedly, from driving past the bottle shop, to the loss of a job, to an argument with a loved one or someone you work with, to Friday night, to 4pm ever day to every morning when you wake up, or when the thought to drink happens to cross your mind.

When you are hit by a painful thought or feeling, an urge can rise up like an emotional storm inside your mind and body. Here’s what you can do to survive and thrive: 

Surf The Urge

S - Slow Your Breathing
U - Understand Your Thoughts/Feelings
R - Ride That Wave
F - Find Your Values

This is a simple acronym you can use whenever you feel the urge to drink. It will allow you to surf the urge like a wave, and if you do it right, the urge should only last for a couple of minutes.

S - Slow your breathing

Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, and mindfully observe the breath flowing in and flowing out. This will help to anchor you in the present.

U - Understand your thoughts and feelings

Take note of your experience in this moment. Notice what you are thinking. Notice what you are feeling. Notice what you are doing. Notice how your thoughts and feelings are swirling around, and can easily carry you away if you allow them.

Write it down.

Describe the physical sensations: 

Is your mouth watering? 

Is your stomach grumbling? 

Is your heart beating faster? 

What else can you feel in your body?

See the thoughts and feelings for what they are, they are just thoughts and feelings that will dissipate when they are ready, rather than believing in and acting on them.

R - Ride that wave

Give yourself the chance to REALLY feel your feelings fully. Breathe into them. Open up to your thoughts too, without holding onto them or trying to push them away. Don't fight the urge, don't argue with it, don't suppress it, don't try to ignore it.... FEEL IT! Let it flow through you, sit in the discomfort, WITHOUT taking the action. Be compassionate with yourself, do not get upset at or disappointed in yourself for having the urge.

F - Find your values

Once you’ve done the above three steps, you will be in a mental state of mindfulness. The next step is to respond to the urge by pursuing a valued course of action.

Connect with your values and ask yourself,

"What is important to me?"

"What kind of person do I really want to be?"

"What do I want to stand for?"

"How would I like to act, so that I can look back years from now and feel proud of my response?"

Now feel free to make your decision to drink or not to drink and to do something else instead. And know that you have made your choice and that makes you powerful, no matter what that choice is.

Well done!

You have just created and strengthened a new neural pathway in your brain. 

This new pathway connects the original trigger to a different response. The more you practice this, the stronger it will get... and the weaker the OLD neural pathway will become. If you continue to use this tool whenever you feel the urge, you WILL unlearn the habit of drinking alcohol.

Do it over and over again until it become part of who you are.

REMEMBER: Every time you do this, every time you strengthen this new response, DRINK WATER!! Your brain requires lots of water to function, to process things, and to create new neural pathways. Drink a lot of water and get a good night sleep to let the new cells develop fully!

If you want to learn more about other strategies you can use to help yourself stop drinking, join us in the How I Quit Drinking Alcohol Membership Program. Here we provide many more tools, motivation, inspiration and strategies to quit drinking!