If you are planning to quit alcohol, you are certainly on the right path. Now all you need to do is to ensure that you are able to follow it all the way. Quitting alcohol, on your own, without any medical or institutional help might be difficult particularly if your habit has already taken over you. If you are a long time drinker and are habituated to heavy drinking, quitting it all alone might be difficult because you are most expected to face a range of withdrawal symptoms. On the other hand, if you are not a heavy drinker, but like to take up the glass during particular times, or if you have got the habit of drinking recently, quitting it all alone is surely much easier, because in this case you will have less withdrawal symptoms.
However, before we proceed to how to quit alcohol on your own, it is important to first take a look at the withdrawal symptoms of alcohol that might or might not appear in you depending on various factors. The severity of these symptoms also varies widely from person to person.
- Nausea
- Weakness
- Headache
- Irritability
- Lack of focus
- Hallucination
- Feeling scared
- Increased sensitivity to light and noise
- Seizures
- Sweating and Tremors
When you are trying to quit alcohol on your own, if you note any of the above symptoms that seems to go out of your control or tolerance limit, it is best to seek medical help immediately. Having mentioned about the word of caution at the very beginning, now we will move to How to quit alcohol on your own.
Find out and write down how alcohol is harming you and your life
In order to make your will for quitting alcohol rock solid, writing down how alcohol is affecting your health and your life and referring to it at short intervals can be really helpful. If you are addicted to alcohol you are sure to easily note a number of health conditions that must have originated from the habit. Being obese or losing weight quickly, high uric acid levels in the body are some of the very common health conditions related to alcoholism. This addiction is also sure to have affected your personal and professional life in negative ways, so write them down as well so that you can refer back to them whenever you feel like falling back on alcohol.
Set logical goals
Setting up short goals can be very helpful to get rid of alcohol. So, note down how you are planning to quit alcohol step by step and follow it line by line. Breaking up your final goal into short term achievable objectives can be very helpful to reach the end result.
Avoid the reasons that make you feel like having a drink
Often people fall back on alcohol to avoid different problems of life. Once you are out of the addiction, you will be able to take better measures to deal with those problems in better ways than immersing yourself in alcohol. However, for the time being, it is important that you distance yourself from the reasons. If it is your relationship or your job that is causing stress on you and making you depend on alcohol, take a break from it. Once you are able to come out of the addiction, you can get back to the problem in a more efficient way.
Shift to low ABV drinks
If you have been drinking for quite long, it might be really difficult for you to quit drinking all of a sudden. In such cases, shifting completely to lower alcohol by volume drinks and then quitting it slowly can be a more feasible way to cut back on the habit. The “low alcohol by volume drinks” is now easily available in the market and they can be very helpful to get rid of drinking in a more comfortable way. However, always make sure that you reduce the amount of consumption of the ABV drinks considerably over a fixed span of time, because while the low ABV drinks contain less alcohol by percentage but they are still harmful.
Get rid of your stock and everything related to drinking
If you are much into drinking, it is most expected that you have a good collection of drinks in your home. To quit alcohol, first get rid of the stock, no matter how expensive they are. Also discard the drink glasses that might make you remember about the habit. Anything that pulls you back to the old habit is better to remove from your sight. If you smoke as well, smoking is sure to make you remember about a drink, so it is better to quit smoking too, while you are trying to quit drinking.
Avoid the triggers
Avoiding the triggers is also important for quitting alcohol. Visiting a pub where drinks will be flowing all around you is certainly not a good idea when you are trying to quit drinking. It will only make you crave more for it. So, when you are trying to quit it, stay away from the places where people drink.
Stay away from friends who drink
We are not suggesting you to leave all your friends only because they drink, but when you are trying to quit alcohol, it is better that you are not in a company of people who enjoy drinking every now and then because that will make the quitting even more difficult for you. Inform your friends clearly about your goals and they are sure to understand.
Engage your time in creative activities
For many, drinking is a great time pass and in most of the cases people start with the habit just for entertainment. So, when you are trying to quit the habit it is best that you engage your time with something that is more interesting than drinking. Hanging out with friends who do not drink, taking up a new hobby or learning something new during the time when you used to drink otherwise can be a great way to engage your brain with something more creative and interesting that can help you stay away from drinking.
Learn meditation
Meditation can be a very effective way to quit drinking on your own. Meditation can make you more aware about yourself and will also relax your senses naturally, which is often a reason for having a drink. Meditation will also help you to have better control over yourself and to fight anxiety in a more reasonable way, which will enable you to deal with the everyday issues of life better, helping you to feel less depressed and much less in need of a drink. So, if you are trying to quit alcohol on your own, learning meditation and practicing it regularly can be very helpful.
Exercise can help you get rid of alcohol
Exercising can be another key way to get rid of alcohol. When you exercise, your brain releases the feel good hormone serotonin which not only makes you feel more relaxed but also helps in feeling good about yourself and boosts a nice mood. Taking up regular exercise can be extremely helpful to get rid of the alcohol as well as the damage alcohol has already done to your mind and body.
Take help of the home remedies
When you are trying to quit drinking on your own, some home remedies can be very helpful to control the urge of having a drink. You can have any of the below mentioned drinks or fruits when you are feeling like getting back to alcohol. These home remedies can be highly helpful to control the craving for alcohol,
Dates for controlling alcohol craving
Dates are believed to be highly effective in limiting the cravings for alcohol. You can have a date drink two to three times in a day to control the alcohol cravings. Here is how you can prepare the date drink,
- Take 5-6 ripe dates, remove the seeds and crush them
- Add the crushed dates in 1 glass of water, mix and it is ready to drink
You can drink this mixture anytime during the day when you are feeling like having a peg. This drink can also be helpful to get rid of toxins in your body.
Grapes for controlling alcohol addiction
Grape juice or grapes can be very effective in curing the cravings for alcohol. As many alcoholic drinks are prepared from grape juice, hence by having grapes you can have all the nourishment without the alcohol. Drink a glass of grape juice or munch on a bunch of grapes whenever you feel like having a glass of alcoholic drink.
Apples for alcohol cravings
Apples are the other fruits that are believed to be highly helpful in curing cravings for alcohol. So, eat as many apples as you want during the day. Apples will not only help you to control the alcohol craving but will also give you a bunch of health benefits along with its powerful nutrients to recover from the addiction quickly.
