HALT Recovery Central's Addiction Blog

If you have decided that the amount of alcohol that you drink exceeds recommended guidelines and puts you at risk for developing alcohol-related problems, you may want to try cutting down or moderating your consumption.

If you are currently drinking more than the recommended guidelines, any change that you make, even small changes, can help you reduce the harm that alcohol can cause. The less you drink, the lower your risk of developing problems.

Tips and Tricks for Cutting Down

Below are some tips and tricks that have helped others cut down on their drinking, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Some of these may be helpful to you, while others may not work.
The key to successfully cutting down is to find something that works for you. Try some of the tips below and if one doesn’t work, try another until you find one that helps.

Set a Goal
Write down how many drinks you want to drink per day and how many days a week you want to drink. Writing down your goals can help remind you that you want to limit your drinking. People who drink within the recommended guidelines have much lower risk of developing problems.

Count Your Drinks
Making the effort to record how many drinks you have may also help you reduce or slow down your drinking. You can use a handwritten note that you keep in your wallet or record your drinks on your smartphone or PDA, whatever is more convenient for you.

Measure Your Drinks
If you are going to count how many drinks you have, make sure you are accurate. Learn what counts as a standard drink so that you can accurately measure how many you have had. Stick to your goal even when you are away from home, dining out, or in a bar.

Pace Yourself
Some drinkers trying to cut down have been successful by pacing their drinking — sipping their drinks slowly or making sure they have only one drink per hour. People who consume drinks quickly, particularly the first few drinks, are at greater risk of developing alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence.

Space Your Drinks
Another trick for cutting down alcohol consumption is to use drink spacers — nonalcoholic beverages between drinks containing alcohol. Some drinkers will alternate a drink of water, juice or soda between their alcoholic beverages to slow down their consumption.

Don’t Forget to Eat
For some drinkers, eating food will reduce their craving for alcohol. This is not true for all drinkers, but if eating something reduces your craving for a drink, making sure you eat a meal at times when you usually drink might help you reduce the amount you drink. Of course, it is not wise for anyone to drink on an empty stomach.

Avoid Your Triggers
Whether you are trying to cut down or quit drinking altogether, it is a good idea to avoid situations in which you are used to drinking. People, places, things and certain activities can be triggers that cause you to have an urge to drink. Avoiding those triggers can prevent you from drinking when you otherwise might not do so.

Do Something Else
If drinking has become a big part of your life, try substituting other activities during those times when you might usually drink. Take up a hobby, begin an exercise program, make new friends, or spend more time with your family. Find something that you enjoy that will occupy the time during which you would usually be drinking.

Learn How to Say ‘No’
Chances are you are going to be in situations in which someone is going to offer you a drink or expect you to drink with them as you have done in the past. Learn how to politely say “no thank you,” and really mean it. Say it quickly and firmly so that you don’t give yourself time to change your mind. You may want to practice what you will say the next time your friends ask you to have a drink.

If You Can’t Cut Down
In spite of all your efforts, you may find that you simply cannot cut down on your drinking. You may be successful for awhile, but soon return to drinking at your previous risk level or even more.
If you find that you cannot cut down, you may have already developed an alcohol use disorder. You may need to try to quit drinking altogether or seek help to quit.

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Some Drinkers Can Cut Down, Others Cannot

If you have been drinking at a level that is considered high-risk or heavy drinking, you may want to consider making a change in your drinking patterns — or quit altogether. But which is the best choice for you? Should you try moderating your alcohol consumption, or should you try to quit?

Many people do learn to moderate their drinking and are successful in returning to a pattern of low-risk drinking. Just as there are support groups for those trying to quit drinking, there are support groups for those who are trying to cut down or moderate their drinking.

When Cutting Down Doesn’t Work

If you try to cut down, but find that you cannot stay within the limits that you set for yourself, it may be best to quit instead. One of the main reasons that people decide to quit drinking and seek help to do so is because they find they have lost the ability to control the amount they drink.

You are the person who is in the best position to make the decision of whether to cut down or quit. If you can consistently drink one or two drinks and no more, then you may be able to cut down to a low-risk drinking pattern. But if you find that those first two drinks usually trigger an urge for more, chances are moderation is not an option.

When Quitting Is Advised

There are other reasons that quitting drinking may be a better option for you than moderation or cutting down, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA):

• If you have been diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder, or you currently have symptoms of alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence.
• If you have certain medical conditions, such as cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis C, chronic pain, certain heart conditions, or mental disorders such as bipolar disorder.
• If you are taking certain medications that can negatively interact with alcohol.
• If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant.

Other Reasons to Quit

If you are planning to make a change in your drinking, it is best if you discuss the decision with your healthcare provider. According to the NIAAA, even if you do not fit into any of the above categories, your physician may recommend that you quit drinking based on other factors, such as:

• A family history of alcoholism
• Your age
• If you have had alcohol-related injuries
• Alcohol-related sleep disturbances or sexual dysfunction

New York State would make it a felony to drive while intoxicated with a child in the vehicle and would require first-time convicted drunken drivers to buy a device that prevents them from driving their cars if they have been drinking, under a bill passed by the State Assembly on Tuesday.

The measure, which would significantly toughen penalties for drunken driving, could be passed by the Senate and sent to the governor this week. It would make New York the second state, after Arizona, in which drivers under the influence of alcohol could be charged with a felony if they have children as passengers.

New York would also be one of only a dozen states that force drivers convicted for the first time of drunken driving to install what is called an interlock device, which measures the alcohol content of a driver’s breath and prevents the engine from starting if it detects too high a level.

The push for harsher drunken-driving penalties follows two recent crashes in New York in which children were killed while traveling with adults who had been drinking.

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The extent and consequences of alcohol consumption by our Nation’s youth are matters of growing concern.  Not only do most young people drink alcohol, but they often drink heavily, putting themselves and those around them at risk.  The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and other Federal agencies continue to conduct and support research on how best to address underage drinking.  In addition, adults in communities across the country are wrestling with how to change the culture around underage drinking.  Although some have suggested that lowering the drinking age would lead to more responsible alcohol consumption among young people, the preponderance of research indicates that the legal drinking age of 21 has had positive effects on health and safety.

Both Federal and State laws determine what constitutes underage drinking (under age 21)

The Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act, signed into law in 1984, provides for withholding 10% of Federal highway funds from States that do not prohibit the purchase or public possession of any alcoholic beverage by a person who is less than 21 years of age.  This Act effectively raised the national minimum legal drinking age to 21, as all States ultimately complied.  While it is illegal to sell alcohol to persons under 21 in all States, State laws vary widely with respect to specifics about possession and conditions under which consumption might be permissible (e.g. with parents).

In spite of these laws, we know underage drinking is widespread and is associated with a wide range of negative consequences.

The number of young people who drink and the way they drink results in harm to self and others including: risky sexual behavior; physical and sexual assaults; potential deleterious effects on the developing brain; problems in school, at work, and with the legal system; various types of injury; car crashes; homicide and suicide; and death from alcohol poisoning.

Minimum legal drinking age laws have had positive effects on health and safety.

The preponderance of research shows minimum legal drinking age laws have had positive effects primarily in decreasing traffic crashes and fatalities, suicide, and decreased consumption by those under age 21.

Minimum legal drinking ages vary by country but underage drinking is a problem around the world.

While it has been suggested that lower legal drinking ages and different cultural norms in other countries (e.g. France and Italy) may lead to better outcomes, survey data indicate this is generally not the case. Data from the 2003 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD) show that rates of binge drinking (5 drinks or more in a row) and drunkenness among 15-16 year old students in the United States, France, and Italy are similar, with the United States lower on some measures and France and Italy lower on others. 14 

Solving the problem of underage drinking will require a broad-based, long-term commitment.  As we move forward, we need to pay attention to what history and research have taught us and build on this knowledge base including what we know about the relationship between minimum legal drinking age laws and underage drinking and its consequences.

A family-based prevention program designed to help adolescents avoid substance use and other risky behavior proved especially effective for a group of young teens with a genetic risk factor contributing toward such behavior, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), components of the National Institutes of Health, supported the study, which appears in the May/June issue of Child Development.

For two-and-a-half years, investigators monitored the progress of 11-year-olds enrolled in a family-centered prevention program called Strong African American Families (SAAF), and a comparison group. A DNA analysis showed some youths carried the short allele form of 5-HTTLPR. This fairly common genetic variation, found in over 40 percent of people, is known from previous studies to be associated with impulsivity, low self-control, binge drinking, and substance use.

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