01 Mar ‘Sober Curious’? Taking A Break From Booze Is Trendy And Helps Health : Shots Health News : NPR
A glass of wine might feel like it’s helping with your anxiety, but it can’t provide real relief. Discover what’s really going on when you reach for a drink to feel less anxious, and what will help you feel better in the long-run. If your compelling reason for changing your drinking habit isn’t working, you don’t want to miss this episode. If you’re struggling to make progress on changing your drinking habit and you feel stuck in a rut, you need to listen in this week. When you’re taking a break from drinking yet you keep slipping up, real habit change seems impossible. This incredibly useful skill will help.
Ep #354: I Don’t Want to Miss Out
We tend to gauge how we should behave by our environment. By this metric, it’s easy to justify consuming alcohol to excess because so many people are doing it. When I was feeling stressed, I used to drink. Once this was no longer an option, I started to write instead.
Ep #379: I’ll Be Good Tomorrow
This can lead to moments just as fun as what’s depicted in those alcohol advertisements. But just as frequently things can become sloppy, or take a detrimental toll over time. The new year in January holds the potential to shed old baggage and cultivate new habits. And often that includes new ways to take agency over our health. For example, the concept of having a dry month (abstaining from alcohol during Dry January) has become more prevalent.
You become more aware and present to your life
So it’s not to go to the place of like, knowing ultimately doesn’t make things easier, which, you know, you’re probably not ready to be there or believe that yet. Well, I feel like we’ve covered a lot of things that aren’t always on the standard. Do I have a problem with drinking lists, hopefully things that that women listening to this can sort of have a light bulb go off and be like, Oh, yeah, that all sounds really familiar. Maybe it’s time for me to take a longer break from alcohol just to see how good I feel without it. Instead of trying to moderate trying to say, I’m not going to drink till Friday night. And then I’m only going to have two drinks, or I’m only gonna drink once a week, right?
Drinking a whole bottle of wine (when you know you’ll feel horrible the next day), not eating well, and passing out with a ton of unfinished to-dos? You wake up feeling disrespected and uncared for. It’s like the past version of how to take a break from drinking you had no love and respect for the future you.
Drinking is often the focus of social activities. If you’re having trouble doing the same things you used to do, try new hobbies to fill your time. Join a gym, learn a new skill, or find sober social groups you can enjoy.
So, you know, I used to do a lot of like happy hours after work with colleagues. I did our anniversary weekends were always at wine tasting weekend’s football games had a lot of beer. I mean, there is always a reason to drink. But yeah, if all of your activities involve alcohol, it’s, it’s really hard Halfway house to break away from it, and it’s a sign. So that would be really irritating to me. Another thing that was like, I did not realize this was a huge sign.
Ep #249: When One Isn’t Enough
Because I just couldn’t imagine my life without alcohol. So I wasted I mean, I always say that I spent 10 years in the moderation trap, as I call it now. Because I couldn’t face the thought of life with no alcohol. I ended up trying to cut down and I made all the rules and I failed all the rules. Don’t bother with cutting down, don’t bother with moderation, because the chances are that you can’t, you know, just ditch the stuff, do the work and go on to create a beautiful new life, because I wasted a decade in that place. I think the secret is that you actually need a combination of motivation, and accountability.
- If you keep looking backwards for evidence that you can’t change your drinking, you will never be able to change the habit.
- So it’s, it’s not that we all learn the same thing.
- Telling myself, sharing with my husband, hey, this is what’s going on inside of me, which feels incredibly vulnerable, instead of trying to say this is just a really serious matter, we got to be really serious about it.
- Yeah, I mean, the idea of no off switch.
- Just as you might think to yourself, “maybe I should get more sleep this week,” you can think, “maybe I should check in with myself about my alcohol consumption.” Here’s how to start.
Find a friend you can hang out with who doesn’t feel the need to drink to have fun. Your desire is not fixed even though I know it may feel that way, I promise you can change it. For a long time, I kind of thought like, well, I mean, I don’t know, I guess I am just going to have to go to a cabin in the woods, right? I mean if I want to not be tempted, if I don’t want to have to deal with temptation https://ecosoberhouse.com/ and deal with my desire, well the only way to do that is to sequester myself on top of the mountain.