How to Stop Drinking Alcohol

Alcohol addiction can seem like a major disaster. And often, it is, not only for the sufferers but also for their loved ones.

Fortunately, addiction is reversible, and many alcoholics who previously thought that they couldn't be helped have overcome and triumphed.

Read the article, or skip straight to resources.

Do you feel that alcohol has taken over your life? Do you crave the security and numbness that it gives you? Have you drunk until you've suffered amnesia (forgotten what happened)? Do you need a drink to get going in the morning? Is alcohol your "friend"?

How often have you done something while "under the influence" that later you've regretted? Have you started to feel like a failure?

If alcohol has taken over your life, you may feel overwhelmed by your problems. Alcohol makes you feel better — or at least not as bad — for a while. But do the problems go away, or do they steadily get worse?

Alcohol addiction sneaks up on you. It's easy to fall into the trap of drinking and then getting addicted. Alcohol, as with any seductive drug, makes you feel better for a while and charms you into drinking more and more.

The Effects of Alcohol

If you are addicted to alcohol, you don't need me to tell you the disastrous effects. It destroys your life and your self-esteem, and often creates huge problems for the people close to you, especially if you have children or a partner.

You try to give up; you fail; you promise yourself; you fail again; and so, on top of the other problems, you start a cycle of failure, of self-sabotage.

Make a change

If you think that this is a one-way street, and you can't back out…

Just STOP. And think about this: For every drinker who believes that he can't stop, there is someone else who got even worse and did stop. Someone else has dropped even lower than you, had an ever tougher time, and yet, that person is now free of that addiction.

I know it's hard if you have this addiction, so just stop for a moment and imagine:

What will life be like when you are free of this monster that you have created? What will change? Your health? Your mental health? Your loved one's lives? What else?

How would be to say, as one of my clients did, with all sincerity, "I've been dry for three weeks now, and I didn't think it was possible!"

Are you powerless to stop drinking alcohol?

Some people say that alcohol addiction is like a disease, and therefore you are powerless to overcome it. You will be addicted all your life, and all you can do is hope to stay off it.

Well, I have a different view. After all, do you really want to hand over your life to a bit of transparent poisonous liquid? Do you really think that it has power over you? No, of course not. You — and ONLY YOU — had the power to start drinking; you — and ONLY YOU — have the power to take back the power and control over your own life.

You can see yourself as powerless in your alcohol addiction, or you can see yourself as having all the power and resources that you need.

How to stop drinking alcohol

Addiction is not a disease. It's a state of mind.

By changing your mind, you change the addiction. Imagine, for a moment, that you would choose your addiction. How about if…

You choose to be addicted to fun, to peace, to excitement, to love.

How does that sound?

Is it really possible?

Let me tell you something that I've learned over the years. We have all been inundated with TV, Hollywood movies, newspapers, and even politician-speak. We're taught from an early age that our emotions are not ours to control, and that feeling good or bad is a matter of luck.

Well, that's nonsense.

Our mind, body, energy and spirit are all part of a magnificent machine called a "human". If you mistreat your car and keep crashing it, it will become unreliable and "dodgy", but if you look after it and treat it well, it will work reliably and faithfully and last a long time. In the same way, your brain is a machine that needs looking after.

We're not taught at school how to look after our brains. This is strange, because some people learned how to do this many years ago.

And that is precisely what you can do. It's not a matter of some complicated and arcane methods. Clients tend to be pleasantly surprised when they discover how simple it is, when you just know how.

So, what's the secret?

Well, there's no secret, actually. You may be aware of the power of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. There is also something called NLP — neurolinguistic programming — and this is especially designed to let you take control of your own mind and emotions.

When NLP and hypnotherapy are combined, they become a powerful force. If you can add to that some support, such as EFT (a tool you can use at home) and the encouragement of loved ones, it becomes a force to be reckoned with. And alcohol will start to lose its grip!

Getting Help

Before you do anything else, make a list of everyone who would support you. Now, it may be that you've made promises before, so no one is left. But you always have, at the very least, your doctor, who can refer to you support groups, if you can't get the help of a partner or close friends.

Then, get yourself professional help. A qualified and experienced hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner will be able both to work with you and to give you tools to "take home with you", so you can continue to improve.

If finances have become a problem, or you can't find suitably qualified help, then go for a cheaper option. It will give you the strength to change. Get a hypnotherapy CD track or download and use it. (This is a good option anyway, even if you do see a professional. It strengthens the change.) It's a good idea to choose a product from someone who has had tremendous success with other people.

And the last point — but an important point — is this: Make the decision. If you approach this half-heartedly, it will go nowhere. Remember toddlers learning to walk: They have made the decision to walk, and it doesn't matter how often they fall down, hurt their heads, or get frustrated. They don't give up the first time they fall down, do they? They just keep going until they get it. And they accept whatever help they can get.

Resources

Here are just a few ideas. The more you do, the more success you can have.

• Tell your doctor what are intending to do.
• Look in the phone book or on the Internet for a hypnotherapist near you.
• Your local bar — ask the owner to refuse to serve you alcohol.
• All your friends, acquaintances and loved ones — ask them to never offer you alcohol.
• Find someone who will allow you to give a daily feedback. Ensure that you are strictly honest, and so you choose someone who will not judge you but who will support you.
• The Samaritans.
• A hypnotherapy download for alcohol addiction that you can burn to CD or play on an MP3 player.
• A book on self-hypnosis (or for the UK) to help yourself with all sorts of issues.