Why Can't You Stop Over Drinking?

Welcome back to Thinking about Drinking Thursday, where we discuss tools to help you drink less.  If you are a highly functioning gal who has decided to just cut back on your drinking - this is for you.  If you have been saying you want to drink less, but haven't been successful I want to help by sharing some tools with you.  

Have you had days where you really wish you could cut back on drinking but one glass leads to another, and the next thing you know you feel like you are unable to stop?  You wake up the next morning full of regret and negative self talk.  So many people face a similar struggle.  I want you to understand nothing has gone wrong here. The over desire for alcohol is a learned behavior, and the fantastic news is if you can learn it, you can also unlearn it. 

Over drinking becomes a habit that happens unconsciously.  You have a thought, feel desire, reward with alcohol, practice and repeat.  Similar to brushing your teeth, the habit ultimately moves to the lower brain and becomes an easy unconscious act.  The key to unlearning it is to begin using your pre frontal cortex to build awareness.  The first step however will be to begin creating new beliefs that make cutting back more appealing than not.  

Ask yourself how you can cut back and still have fun.  Put your brain to work by finding evidence of how life can be good without as much alcohol.  Imagine the future you want.  For example, imagine that you believe you can drink less and have fun, and then visualize yourself doing it, and practice believing it.  Old beliefs resist the new ones and a lot of times what happens is we return to the realm of our old beliefs because we already believe them, they are comfortable, and so we just keep repeating the past.  To create a new future you need to create a new  belief.  You literally have to practice thinking a new thought over and over while accepting it as true, and after many repetitions the new thought will become your new belief.  

Be willing to be uncomfortable as you begin the process.  You can’t believe two opposing things at the same time without being uncomfortable.  It’s totally normal for the brain to try to make sense of the new thinking.  The brain will see the new thoughts as a threat to what it knows as security and consistency based on old thinking.   Just hold tight - it the going to be OK.  Learning this skill of creating new beliefs and to be willing to let it be hard will translate into so many areas of your life.  

Each week I offer 2 free mini sessions, first come first serve, to women who have had weight loss surgery and find themselves still struggling with food, or have developed a new struggle with over drinking.  I can help you cut back on drinking, feel more peaceful, and in control.  Sign up here to apply, no obligation, for a 20 minute session.