I've stopped as I fell into the trap again and was drinking 20 units a day, I'm only 2 days in and my mood is so low again, when do things get a little easier when you stop drinking? On reflection I think my issue is to do with using alcohol as a coping mechanism, such as feeling low (like now but I know it's a vicious cycle and is probably caused from alcohol) then reaching for a drink to 'cheer up'.
I do start to wonder if it is a bit like smoking, should I ideally be looking at total withdrawal from alcohol or do we have any successful stories of a casual drinker?
If by easier you mean when does the desire to stop drinking lessen then I'd have to say it depends. It was at least 6 months or so before I had the beginnings of the tools and coping strategies to manage my life without automatically feeling the desire to reach for my old crutch of alcohol. Almost 5 years on and there are still times when I have a fleeting craving, but with practice and time I've become more a more capable user of the tools and coping strategies sobriety has taught me and the cravings are both far more fleeting and far easier to deal with.
I must stress though, that in my experience this was an active process; I actively sought to develop the tools I needed to manage my life without alcohol and I actively practised using those tools daily. I still do. It's one of reasons I wasn't able to get sober without AA and it's 12 step programme. I don't suggest AA is the only way to get sober but I strongly suggest that it's so difficult to get sober without that kind of internal work that it might as well be impossible. How you approach the work matters not at all, so long as you do the work and the method of doing it works for you. I'd also suggest that for most people this requires help of some kind so please reach out for whatever will work for you.
I personally believe that if a person is an alcoholic then there is no chance of them "returning" to casual social drinking. For me, the evidence of my own failed attempts at returning to social drinking and the countless variations of those attempts I've heard described at meetings convince me of this. I firmly believe that had it been possible for me to control my drinking I'd have discovered how to do it. I tried enough solutions often enough. If you've tried and failed to control your drinking then you might be in the same position.
I'm aware this all might sound doom and gloom. It certainly wasn't what I wanted to hear when I was stopping drinking so let me finish on a positive. My life is indescribably better today because I don't drink, if that weren't true I'd probably have started drinking again. My mood has improved, I'm healthier, kinder, more productive and get far more variety and enjoyment out of my days. It's been worth it.
needs to stop
