John M. Tynjala, Esq., Client Services Director
To drink or not to drink. That is the question. Or at least that is what Dry January is all about. It has been designated as a month to take stock of our relationship with alcohol. For me, that decision was made 24 years ago when I made the choice to stop drinking entirely. I did it by going through a substance use treatment program and I started attending recovery meetings.
But not everyone that wrestles with their relationship with alcohol needs to stop drinking entirely. The reason we drink is different for everyone. Some of us can have a social drink now and then to no ill effect. Others can drink more regularly and experience no negative consequences. Others of us find that our ability to moderate our drinking erodes over time. We may find that we drink more than we intended at events. We may find that we can’t remember some of the things we did or said the night before. Our work and our relationships may be suffering.
If you are thinking about your drinking, and would like to take a breather, you do not need to restrict that to Dry January. You can do that at any time. The U.S. Department of Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism jointly published Rethinking Drinking, Alcohol and Your Health (the “Guide”), which can serve as a guide to help you navigate your journey with alcohol. The Guide, among other things, discusses the current guidance on how much is too much, how alcohol affects our physical and mental health, what constitutes alcohol “misuse” versus “substance use disorder,” and what resources are available to help when you think you might have a problem.
The Guide also provides tips and strategies for how to make a change that can be very useful for cutting back as well as in making the determination as to whether a more fundamental change is needed. In addition to those tips and insights, if you do decide to stop or cut back on your drinking for a period of time, I would suggest that you keep a journal of your experience. Among other things, you may want to track some or all of the following: how did it feel to stop; did you experience any physical or psychic feelings of withdrawal; how has your sleep been affected; how are your energy levels during the day; do you find that you miss that evening drink after work or before bed; have you been more or less productive at work – and did that change over the time you cut back or were abstinent; has your thinking about alcohol changed; do you find yourself obsessing or thinking a lot about when you can have another drink. Again, these are just a few of the things you could keep track of. The Guide also has some useful tools to track your journey whether it is abstinence or cutting back.
It is always a good time to rethink our relationship with alcohol. If you are considering making a change (whatever that may be), LCL can help.