How to Drink Moderately

The path isn’t always a linear one, but it’s definitely rewarding. Changing your relationship with alcohol is an act of self-care, and you should be proud to embark on that journey, or continue along your path. Join the Monument Community, and get encouragement and advice throughout your moderation journey. An “adequate intake” of drug addiction water for adult men and women does exist, but it can vary from person to person. This adequate intake includes water from nonwater beverages, such as milk, sports drinks, tea and yes, even coffee.

Science around moderate alcohol use

As East Central Indiana’s population grows, we’re putting health care where people need it most. Besides Hancock Regional Hospital, ranked as one of the nation’s safest by the Lown Hospital Index, our network includes more than 30 other locations near your home or work. Get the help you need from a therapist near you–a FREE service from Psychology Today. It took me a moment to see clearly what the mirror of life was showing me. There’s great value in the 12 Steps; however, many people “over-use” alcohol, suffer negative consequences, want help, and don’t want to abstain. “eCHECKUP to-go” offers online evidence-based prevention and assessment tools for both alcohol use and marijuana use.

• Talk with a doctor or nurse if you’re having a hard time cutting back on your drinking.
• Participants are asked to take a realistic look at their drinking patterns and reasons.
• If you keep a lot of alcohol around, you may be tempted to go over the drinking limit you set for yourself when you’re at home.

Set Goals and Turn to the Support of Others

Similarly, make sure your drinks are standard sizes (12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits). This is easier to do at home, but you can try communicating your needs to the bartender or waiter. Past studies may have masked the health benefits of not drinking at all.

What is moderate drinking?

Alcohol’s inflammatory effects are particularly pronounced in the gut, negatively impacting the intestinal lining and the balance of microorganisms making up the gut microbiome. The impacts of alcohol on gut health alone are significant because of its ripple effect—the microbiome is closely linked to brain health, immune health, gastrointestinal health, and much more. If you’re unsure whether naltrexone is right for you, we can provide more information and refer you to a doctor for a consultation upon joining. You’re also welcome to consult with your own doctor to determine if naltrexone is a good fit for your needs. Naltrexone blocks the release of endorphins, the feel-good chemicals in the brain triggered by alcohol—the very chemicals that make alcohol addictive in the first place. Our program is private, accessible from anywhere through the app or your computer, and can easily be integrated into your life without having to tell anyone about it (if you don’t want to).

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.

Here are some strategies to help you cut back or stop drinking. If my clients can achieve those numbers on a monthly basis, that’s excellent—but that’s often unrealistic for many, which is perfectly OK. It’s important to meet yourself where you are and make small steps towards healthier practices from there. At Thrive, you set your own goals, and we help you achieve them. You get to choose the type of coaching support that suits you best. Depending on the plan you select, you can access coaching through unlimited private messaging support, live group meetings, and one-on-one sessions.

• Vacations, too, can be a time when drinking tends to be heavier.
• With Monument, you can feel empowered to make progress on your own terms, while knowing you have a holistic support network cheering you on.
• Join the Monument Community, and get encouragement and advice throughout your moderation journey.
• Whether you’re on the path to sobriety or drinking in moderation, it’s a rewarding result of self-reflection and the beginning of a new and healthy relationship with alcohol.
• Your ideal number of drinks for our purposes here is the number of drinks that brings you the most pleasure.
• While some studies have suggested a potential protective effect against heart disease, it’s essential to approach these findings with caution.
• A lot of people decide to start drinking in moderation for many different reasons.

What I actually wanted was for someone to wave a magic wand and fundamentally change alcohol. I wanted it not to be a highly addictive drug that was causing me misery, and worry. The Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) website provides information for people who are interested in achieving abstinence from alcohol, including how to find AA meetings in your area. In such circumstances, you can certainly talk to the other person about your decision to drink less than you have been, and ask if they might be willing to support you and perhaps limit their drinking when around you. If you state this in a respectful way, they will likely be considerate of your request.

Five Mindfulness Tips for Moderate Drinking

Rather, you can recognise that you have learned something important about yourself – and you can begin a different journey. There are many resources that can help you stop drinking; you can find some of these in the Links and Books section below. There will likely be times when you are faced with attending a social event that involves heavy drinking, such as a wedding, a sporting event, a barbeque, a holiday or a birthday party.

Benefits of Drinking in Moderation

Others may need additional support in order to drink in moderation or stop drinking entirely. You might find that, despite your best effort, there are times when you end up drinking more often or have more drinks than you wanted. If that happens, it is important to analyse how and why this occurred. You might find that there were high-risk situations that you did not initially identify that need to be avoided. Or maybe you started drinking too early in the day, and one or two became three or four. Perhaps you need to be mindful of the type of alcohol you drink, or should consider decreasing the number of days when you drink, or the number of drinks you have in a day – any of which might give you greater control.

Discover how our private, home-based program helps you reduce your drinking and reclaim your best self. Thrive’s program leverages neuroscience and behavior change to help transform your relationship with alcohol. You don’t have to do retroactive entries if you don’t want to do so; you can simply resume your log with your current day and let your log reflect that there are some missing days.