Controlled Drinking or Complete Abstinence for Alcohol Problems (Video)
In this video I discuss the effectiveness of controlled drinking versus complete abstinence for those with alcohol problems.
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in the US
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What you said about your current relationship to alcohol reminds me of how I feel about cigarettes:
I was a person who needed to smoke to get through my day, and it was a long hard struggle for me to quit. But now I know that I will never smoke again. I feel the ghost (!) of a craving every day, but I no longer feel moved to act on it. To me, “controlling” my smoking means choosing not to smoke anymore.
“Controlling” my drinking may also mean choosing not to drink anymore.
I like your point that if I am doing something, and it is doing me harm, there really isn’t a good reason to continue doing it. The thing is to recognize that I also get benefits from drinking, so I would need to find other ways of getting those benefits. That is where mindfulness seems useful to me.
Hi Suudunoa, I suppose if we are being logical we can do a cost-benefit analysis. Giving up alcohol was an easy choice for me because at the end there were no benefits. I think mindfulness can most certainly do all those things that alcohol was able to do for me in the beginning – it can do a lot more too.