You can still go to parties

Perhaps you’ve been drinking every day and have just decided to take a break for a week when you remember a friend’s birthday party is planned for Saturday! What will you do?

The idea of attending a party and not drinking can be hard to imagine for many regular drinkers. In reality it’s a perfect way to experiment with a small change in your routine. What might the party be like without drinking?

Most likely you’ll find it at least at fun as usual, and without drinking you will be at your best.

The most challenging part is when someone offers you a drink. With an alcohol craving in the back of your mind, habit will tend to kick in.

Go prepared. Work on building your drink refusal skills and script your “no” in advance. Remember that if you accept even one drink it will become far more difficult to reject the second.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald one said, “first you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you”.

Outwit yourself

Grabbing a beer from the fridge is a lot harder if you haven’t put any there. Consider limiting or eliminating your stock of alcohol at home.

Reflect on your triggers

Sometimes alcohol triggers can be subtle and irrational: a place, person, time of day, or a particular TV show.

Study your triggers. Start by keeping track of your drinking and then reflect occasionally on what motivates you to drink or to abstain. Consider writing these triggers down.

Consult resources on the web, such as this guide to avoiding triggers that will lead to an alcohol relapse.

When possible, avoid or limit your exposure to your personal drinking triggers.