How to stop drinking: ways to cope

Alcohol is cunning and dangerous, like a wolf in sheep's clothing, pretending to be your best friend. First, he gives you a carelessness and a vivid sensation of life, but then gradually deprives common sense and the ability to enjoy simple things. Do you still think that Uncle Vasya or Baba Manya, who are asking for a pretty penny on a bottle, is not about you? Once they thought so. No one is born with the need for alcohol in the blood and does not immediately become an alcoholic. But how to stop drinking, you ask?

When not enough motivation

The desire to abandon the use of alcohol from time to time arises even among drunken alcoholics. However, all these attempts are largely unsuccessful, because internally they are not ready to give up their addiction or do not understand the whole horror of the life in which they live. After all, alcohol overshadows the mind gradually, at first you don’t attach much importance to it, and then you don’t notice how he ousted all other interests and became the main point. Only relatives for some reason insist on medical treatment and are sent to be coded. But all attempts will be in vain, until you yourself realize what happened to you and you do not want to change your life.

Therefore, before you quit drinking, try to understand whether you really need it. Just answer a few simple questions:

Has life become better or worse with the advent of alcohol? What have you achieved, have your plans and dreams come true?
Have you become calmer or more fun? Got rid of the complexes?
Have your problems disappeared? Or do you have to drink more and more to forget about them?
Do you notice the singing of birds, the starry sky above your head, the warm breeze? Are you happy childish laughter? Or maybe you see happiness only at the bottom of the glass?
Did you see yourself drunk from the side? Maybe you have a photo or video? They are beautiful, aren't they?

For information. According to Wikipedia, ethanol (it is alcohol, it is alcohol) is a toxic, narcotic substance. Once in the body, it stimulates the increased production of endorphin - the pleasure hormone. As a result, nerve cells lose the ability to produce it independently, and a person loses the taste for life, becomes angry and irritable.

What about action?

I hope, now it became clear to you what I am getting at. If you have firmly decided that alcohol prevents you from fully living, it’s time to act:

Imagine how you want to see yourself in the future. Set yourself a goal, and then make a plan for the next six months. Maybe you have long dreamed of learning to scuba diving? Or wanted to learn English? Get right? Remember what you dreamed of as a child.
Enlist the support. Ask your relatives for help, and also find like-minded people, at least on the Internet. Read the real stories of abandoned alcohol. How do they live, how do they spend their time, what helped them to overcome addiction? Believe in yourself.
Get rid of "evidence." Throw out the empty bottles, favorite beer glass and thoroughly wash your home (you can make the furniture relocation). The social circle is also desirable to change. Why do you need drinking companions if you want to become a different person? Superfluous temptations to anything.
Do some sports. After heavy exercise, you don’t feel like drinking. Yes, and surely the alcohol pretty lump your body. Sign up in the gym, to fight, yoga, dance, hockey, or at least start to run.
Do not allow yourself to "relax" even on holidays. It is better to replace alcoholic beverages with tasty and healthy fresh juice, tea, fruit drink or another drink to taste. If you hold back very hard, you can ask all those present to make you a company and spend the evening without alcohol.
Give up on "self-blame". If you failed, then just admit it and try not to allow such a situation to continue. A strong sense of guilt will cause an even greater desire to get drunk, to forget.
Reward yourself. It is very important to encourage yourself after each victory over the temptation. Instead of a bottle of beer or vodka, order a kebab in a restaurant, go to a football match, etc.

Cleansing the body of alcohol

As long as alcohol flows through your veins, it will be hard to give up the habit. Therefore, it is desirable to clean the body. You can contact a specialized clinic and remove alcohol toxins with the help of droppers, or you can try to do it yourself. First of all, it is necessary to normalize the diet, you need to drink about 2 liters of clean water every day, eat light, easily digestible foods. But from the sharp, salty and smoked dishes it is better to refuse, they irritate the taste buds and cause the desire to drink.

There are also special folk recipes aimed at removing alcohol from the body. Here are some of them:

Sweet caffeinated beverages. You can drink green tea with lemon or coffee. They have a diuretic effect, contribute to the removal of toxins from the body.
Foods high in vitamin C. Orange, apple juice, dogrose decoction, or just fresh fruits and vegetables normalize metabolism and improve liver and heart function.
Herbs. You can brew diuretic decoctions of dandelion roots, burdock, nettle. To restore the work of the liver are good milk thistle seeds. And to relieve tension in the tea, you can add a little peppermint or lemon balm.
Water treatments. A warm shower, bath and sauna help speed up the elimination of alcoholic toxins. The pores during such procedures open and harmful compounds leave the body through the skin.
Full sleep. It is necessary to rest at least 8 hours a day. It is during sleep that the body recovers faster.

Now you know how to stop drinking alcohol, but the decision to do it or not, of course, is yours. From personal experience, I can say that thoughts about alcohol will disappear in about 3 weeks. Whether you can last so long or not is known only to you. Maybe you will find your way to deal with the problem. In any case, I want to wish good luck and good health!

Irina, Novosibirsk