Many people have decided that they want to live an alcohol-free lifestyle. Whether it’s because they’re struggling with substance use or they just understand the benefits of abstaining from alcohol, it can be a difficult journey, given that society often pushes alcohol on us and how involved drinking is in so many aspects of life. Learning how to build an alcohol-free life is incredibly helpful in your pursuit of abstinence.
Define Your ‘Why’ for an Alcohol-Free Lifestyle
One of the first and most important things you can do is establish why you want to stay sober.
If you don’t have a clear reason, it will likely be difficult to stick with it when you have a craving or are pressured to have a drink. It doesn’t matter what your reason is, it’s just important that you identify one and keep it in the front of your mind as much as possible.
Get Support From Your Family
Research shows that having a supportive family network can play a significant role in abstaining from alcohol.1 Having active support from a partner generally leads to more positive outcomes. Specifically, the following actions can help:
- Reducing negative or controlling Behaviors: Family members and partners may have a tendency to try to control your behavior as a way to protect you from drinking. However, less of this behavior can be better.
- Improving communication: It’s important that you and your family are communicating effectively. This means discussing concerns that both parties are having and finding solutions to them.
- Reinforcing positive changes: When you have a family or close support group that is able to celebrate your wins and reinforce positive changes, it can motivate you to stay sober going forward.
- Participating in shared positive activities: Finding activities to do with your loved ones that don’t involve alcohol will help you maintain your sobriety.
- Decreasing family drinking: If your family drinks less around you or doesn’t drink at all, this is going to make it easier for you to stay away from alcohol.
Family looks different for everyone – this could be a partner, parents, siblings, or anyone else who is close to you in your life. If you’re able to seek out this type of family support, explain to them what you’re going through and ask for help. This is one of the best ways to stay on the path to recovery.
Attend 12-Step Meetings
Most people who are trying to get sober and remain abstinent are familiar with 12-step programs, like Alcoholics Anonymous. While some people may be hesitant to attend, it’s important to keep an open mind and give them a try.
Research has consistently shown that participating in 12-step meetings leads to better recovery outcomes. Researchers reviewed data from 35 studies involving 10,080 participants, and the conclusion was consistent: Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) typically offers greater overall success in aiding individuals to maintain abstinence compared to traditional psychotherapy.2
Not sure about AA? There are plenty of AA alternatives for you to explore.
Implement Alcohol Monitoring
Monitoring your progress is a powerful tool in maintaining an alcohol-free lifestyle. Tracking allows you to see tangible evidence of your sobriety, which can be motivating and reassuring. Using tools like breathalyzers not only helps record your time spent sober but also serves as a daily reminder of your commitment.
BACtrack View in particular is a device that provides an efficient and straightforward way to keep an eye on your journey toward an alcohol-free lifestyle. This device measures your blood alcohol content (BAC) by analyzing a breath sample, giving you instantaneous feedback on your sobriety.
It also provides proof of your progress for any family or relationship agreements you’ve made. At work, showing consistent progress might help alleviate concerns from employers about past behaviors.
Recognize Personal Triggers and Develop Healthy Responses
Part of staying sober is understanding what might trigger you to want to drink. Whether it’s stress, social pressure, or specific places you used to drink, being aware of these triggers – and in some cases, statying away form them – can help you stay away from alcohol.
Learn to Cope With Your Triggers
The reality is that you won’t always be able to just avoid your triggers. Sometimes, you will have to be in certain places or around certain people that remind you of drinking and might put you in a position where it’s difficult to stay away from alcohol.
One way to work on your coping skills for these situations is to get help from a knowledgable therapist. Research shows that behavioral therapy can help people change their attitudes and behaviors toward drugs and alcohol, making them more resilient in stressful situations and less susceptible to these triggers.3
The more often you respond to a trigger in a healthy way, the less likely you are to succumb to your desire to drink.
Consider Medication For Alcohol Use Disorder
Medications can be an important resource for a person struggling with alcohol use disorder. There are currently three FDA-approved medications that are often used: acamprosate, naltrexone, and disulfiram.4
- Acamprosate: Acamprosate stabilizes the chemical balance in the brain, which becomes disrupted by alcohol dependence. This can help with feelings of anxiety or difficulty sleeping once a person stops drinking.
- Naltrexone: Naltrexone reduces the sense of reward a person would typically experience from alcohol by interfering with certain receptors in the brain. This makes reaching for a drink less appealing overall.
- Disulfiram: Disulfiram works by making the person feel sick if they drink alcohol. Drinking while taking this medication can lead to nausea, throbbing headache, vomiting, and other symptoms which make drinking an unattractive choice.
When any of these medications are used alongside other types of therapy or 12-step meetings, recovery can be strengthened and becomes more likely. You certainly don’t have to take medication to help you stay away for alcohol, but for those who are struggling with quitting, they can be a helpful tool in the recovery process.
Celebrate Milestones and Victories
Every step forward is worth celebrating, whether it’s one day, one week, or one month sober. This reinforces positive behavior and can be celebrated simply – with a dessert, a new book, or sharing your progress with a friend. Acknowledging these victories boosts your morale and reminds you that you are capable of achieving significant change.
Create New, Sober Routines
Not everyone who wants to abstain from alcohol considers themselves an alcoholic and needs treatment. For many people, it’s simply about living a healthier life. In both cases, creating new and sober routines is one of the best ways to stay away from alcohol.5 Â
For many, drinking is a habit – get home from work and open up a beer or pour a glass of wine. It becomes something we don’t even think about.
So, it’s important to create new routines, like finding flavored seltzer you like instead of opening a beer, or even looking into alcohol-free wine. Instead of going to happy hour, make sure you have a yoga class or something else you enjoy, scheduled around that time, so you’re not tempted to go out with your friends and have a few drinks.
Whatever your reason is for abstaining from alcohol, part of the process should involve building a different lifestyle. It’s important that you don’t just try to stop drinking without putting thought into what will replace this activity. With the right mindset, support, and activities, you can live the alcohol-free life you are looking for.
Sources
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8104924/ ↩︎
- https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/03/alcoholics-anonymous-most-effective-path-to-alcohol-abstinence.html ↩︎
- https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/treatment-recovery ↩︎
- https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/health-professionals-communities/core-resource-on-alcohol/neuroscience-brain-addiction-and-recovery ↩︎
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9926005/ ↩︎
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