Overcoming alcohol addiction can be quite challenging, but there are tips you can practice to help you beat it. Delaying alcohol addiction treatment gives room for the problem to escalate. Hence, the need to start seeking solutions early enough. 

The best practice you can follow is to seek the help of a medical professional. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms can sometimes be dire, depending on the severity of the problem and other individual factors. Therefore, it’s best to have the assistance and supervision of trained professionals. 

In this article, you’ll come across different steps you can take to help you treat alcohol addiction. The secret to the success of these tips is implementation. Regularly following the tips to beat alcohol addiction will make for complete recovery.

Tips to Beat Alcohol Addiction

Alcohol addiction has negative health effects that may be life-threatening if you don’t seek a solution early enough. Aside from the adverse effect of alcohol on your health, it also negatively affects other areas of your life. For instance, alcohol addiction can affect your productivity at work, relationship with family and friends, and even your finances. Such problems necessitate the need to stop alcohol addiction. 

Quitting alcohol addiction isn’t as easy as you may think. Overcoming alcohol addiction requires intense conscious efforts. However, one thing to understand is that the process of battling alcohol addiction may not be the same for every individual. In addition, some people may recover faster than others. 

Don’t lose hope when other individuals recover from alcohol addiction. Instead, let it motivate you by ensuring that you’re ready for the process. 

Here’s how to beat alcohol addiction:

Acknowledge the Problem

The most important step is to recognize the problem. Alcohol addiction is an issue that needs proper attention and treatment because of its deadly health effects. Denial only makes matters worse because the alcohol addiction problem will linger and may worsen with time. 

When trying to beat alcohol addiction, you may undergo different stages. For the first stage, you know you need help deep down, but you keep dismissing it with the wave of a hand. You continue enjoying the “death trap” euphoria while lying to yourself.

At the second stage, you may have had an awful experience at work or with family due to your alcohol addiction problem. Then this time, you know that you need help, then you may take a step or two to find a solution. The problem at this stage is that there’s a huge possibility of relapse because you’ve not fully made up your mind. 

The third stage consists of action. This stage is where you go all out seeking help on how to beat alcohol addiction. The action stage is where you need to start seeking the best possible way to treat alcohol addiction. 

Quitting Cold-turkey is Life-threatening

Quitting alcohol addiction cold turkey can be very dangerous and may cause health complications that sometimes lead to death. Therefore, it’s always advisable to allow a medical expert to guide you through the process when quitting alcohol addiction. 

Abruptly stopping the use of alcohol can be fatal. You may experience severe withdrawal symptoms that you may be unable to handle by yourself. The withdrawal symptoms arise because your body depends on alcohol to function. So when you stop taking alcohol, your body will begin to react.

Below are some alcohol withdrawal symptoms that you may experience if you quit cold turkey. 

• Irritability
• Nausea
• Runny nose
• Change in appetite
• Congestion
• Muscle pain
• Fatigue
• Tremors
• Sleeping difficulty
• Vomiting
• Restlessness
• Mood swings
• Hallucinations
• Delirium
• Hallucination

Not everyone will xperience intense withdrawal symptoms. It mostly depends on the individual’s body system, the type of alcohol you were taking, how long, and how much you were taking. These factors influence the severity and type of symptoms you may experience. 

Replace Alcohol with New Activities

Another great tip that can help you beat alcohol addiction is to engage yourself in new activities. There are several “fun” activities out there that can enable you to cut down on your alcohol intake. 

For instance, instead of hitting the bar for a cold beer after the day’s work, you can find social groups with mutual interests like sports, music, dance etc. Do well to ensure that any group you join doesn’t have anything to do with alcohol. 

Consistently and actively participating in group activities can take your mind off alcohol for a while. And with time, you may not need alcohol to go about your daily routine.

Related Article: 10 Tips to Help Beat Heroin Addiction

Build a Strong Support Team

Building a support team is an essential tip that plays a major role to help you beat alcohol addiction. When trying to quit alcohol addiction, you need to be mindful of the people around you. Hence the need to join group therapy sessions, where you can meet people facing the same challenges. 

During group therapy sessions, other affected individuals may share some tips to help you overcome your addiction problem. In such groups, some people’s recovery may be faster due to individual differences. You can connect with such people for more helpful tips on how they were able to beat alcohol addiction. 

Also, you need to cut ties with anyone that’s unsupportive of your new decision to take a step in the right direction. You only need people that can help you achieve your plan to be free from alcohol addiction. 

Get Medical and Professional Help 

Seeking medical assistance is one of the best tips to help you beat alcohol addiction. Quitting alcohol has several impacts on the human body, so you need to consult a medical professional to guide you through the process. When trying to quit alcohol addiction, it’s best to sign up at a rehab that offers a comprehensive alcohol addiction treatment program. 

It’ll enable you to gain access to formal treatment, where you can detox safely. The medical expert can administer medications to help you manage withdrawal symptoms, including cravings. 

Part of the professional help you can get is therapy. You can talk to a professional therapist to help you understand where the problem may be coming from. Therapists have the fore-knowledge to help you pinpoint the problem, and it can be of great help. 

Most times, the problem could be emotional or psychological. Whatever the problem may be, a therapist will help to walk you through it to help you beat alcohol addiction.

Try to Function without Alcohol Addiction

People take alcohol for various reasons, including coping with stress. One of the major characteristics of addiction is that, over time, your entire body system will start to depend on it to function properly. 

For instance, if you take alcohol every evening and miss out on one, your body may start to react. The reaction is normal because your body is used to the routine. So when you decide to quit alcohol addiction, you need to find better and healthier ways to go about it. Instead of trying to quit cold turkey, you need to find a replacement. 

Instead of relying on alcohol, you can learn healthy techniques like yoga or psychotherapy to help you cope with stress, sadness, and other negative emotions. 

One tip that can help you beat alcohol addiction is to understand that it can never fix any problem or challenge that you may be facing. Instead, it only provides a temporary escape from reality, meaning that you’ll need to keep on drinking and endangering your health for nothing until you decide to face reality. And one of the ways to do so is to try to live a normal life without taking alcohol for the same reason. 

Avoid Triggers

In this context, triggers aren’t the “kill-button” of a gun, even though it fits the context. When it comes to addiction, triggers refers to anything that can reignite the urge to go back to substance use. A tip to help you get rid of alcohol addiction is to avoid anything that’ll make you desire a bottle of alcohol. 

You may say a bottle won’t hurt, but as soon as you start, you’ll discover that you’ve ended up taking more than you planned. Also, triggers can make you relapse and fall back to alcohol addiction. 

A helpful tip to beat alcohol addiction is to avoid keeping it at home or having it around you. For total recovery from alcohol addiction, you need to do away with anything that triggers that urge to use, even if it means ditching your drinking buddies.  

Relapse is Normal

Relapse during alcohol addiction recovery is very normal. Relapse means going back to your addiction problem while trying to get better; it’s one of the reasons you must avoid triggers. 

Triggers aren’t the only causes of relapse. Some situations can also make your addiction problem deteriorate instead of improving.

Relapse doesn’t indicate failure, and it’s part of the alcohol addiction recovery process. Sometimes, people may even experience it more than once before final recovery. If you come up against relapse while recovering from alcohol addiction, you don’t have to give up. Instead, you simply need to refresh, restrategize  and face the situation head-on. 

Nourish Yourself Properly

It’s important to eat proper and healthy food to give your body the necessary nutrients it needs. It’s very important to stay healthy when trying to beat alcohol addiction so that your body doesn’t have to overstress itself. 

Eat lots of fruits, veggies, and food high in serotonin. When you eat healthy meals regularly, it increases the possibility of recovering from alcohol addiction. 

Also, drink lots of water to keep your body system running properly. For example, drinking enough water prevents constipation, which is a withdrawal symptom. It also normalizes blood pressure and makes it easier for nutrients and oxygen to get to your cells. Another great tip to beat alcohol addiction is to get enough sleep.

Stay on Track and Don’t Give Up

Nothing good comes easy, they say, and recovery from alcohol addiction proves it. One of the essential tips to have at the back of your mind while trying to beat alcohol addiction is to know the process won’t be all that rosy. 

There’ll be several challenges, depending on the severity of the addiction problem. But persistence will put you through. You can also keep track of your recovery rate to enable you to motivate yourself better. 

Alcohol Addiction Treatment

There are different treatments for alcohol addiction you can access for recovery. There’s the inpatient treatment program and the outpatient treatment program. For alcohol addiction treatment, the better option is the inpatient treatment program. 

The inpatient treatment program for alcohol addiction comprises you living within the medical facility. It’ll enable medical professionals to establish all-round-the clock supervision and care for you. Such intensive medical care when trying to beat alcohol addiction is one of the best tips you can get. 

The doctors are around to guide you through withdrawal symptoms by administering approved medications to help you get better. Also, staying within the premises will help you get better, as you see others with the same problem improve daily. The outpatient treatment program is also effective, but it’s better for mild alcohol problems. 

Related Article: Addiction Treatment During COVID-19 

Final Thoughts

Alcohol addiction can mess up your life in many ways, including your health. But irrespective of what you may have heard, recovery from alcohol addiction is possible and achievable. However, you need to get treatment from the best facility and medical personnel to help you overcome alcohol addiction. 

Here at Inspire Change Wellness Centre, we provide first-class treatment for alcohol addiction. We’ll explore your situation and design an addiction treatment plan that works regardless. Get in touch with us today!