How stop alcohol addiction-2

The first time you go into a pub after giving up drinking presents enormous difficulties. But it does become easier with practice. The biggest problem the new non-drinker has is coping with being different.

You walk into a pub, eyes down, shoulders hunched, and shuffle nervously to the bar where you order an orange juice (it is always an orange juice) and then you stand there sheepishly sipping it and feeling hopelessly out of place. It is as if you are the only human in a room full of Martians. After five minutes one of your friends walks over and asks why you are standing there like a lemon, drinking orange juice.

Thirty minutes later, your mind screaming but outwardly calm, you casually as possible order a drink. There are smiles all around and shouts of 'knew it wouldn't last and plenty of back-slapping. So, in for a penny in for a pound, you get drunk, and over in the corner the hideous monster, drinks, grins as her victim returns.

But that is not the way to do it. That is not the way to say no in a pub.

How stop alcohol carvings / What can I take to stop drinking alcohol?

Take command of the situation

The problem is that people who used to like a good stiff drink feel thoroughly foolish standing in a pub with a glass of orange juice in their hand. They also don't see the point of being there in the first place. if they're not drinking. The answer is to take command. March into a pub head up and determined not to drink and not to be ashamed of it. Don't go to pieces as you walk through the doors, but run through what you are about to do a couple of times in your mind and make absolutely sure of yourself before going inside.

At the bar don't order orange juice. The only use for this horrible sticky stuff is as a mixer with large quantities of vodka to make something called a Screwdriver by bar staff, a very ver-priced alcoholic concoction.

There are plenty of non-alcoholic drinks available in a pub. Make a big thing out of ordering them; make them part of the fun of not drinking. Don't just ask for tonic water in a tiny glass.

Here are a few suggestions. In a large balloon-shaped glass put three ice cubes and a measure of lime juice, and top up with tonic and a slice of lemon. Or use the same recipe but instead of tonic top up with American or dry ginger.

A Virgin Mary is a Bloody Mary without the vodka. Take a tall glass and add ice cubes, tabasco, Worcester sauce, tomato juice, and a slice of lemon. Delicious on a hot day. In winter leave out the ice and add an extra drop of tabasco.

Grapefruit juice is nice with lemonade or soda water. Joking apart, orange juice is not recommended because after just one or two glasses it tastes too sickly and cloying. But if orange juice is your drink it can be lightened by mixing with lemonade or soda, or for something quite different mix a single orange juice with a large bitter lemon poured over plenty of ice.

Some pubs now sell apple juice, a splendid drink to be enjoyed as it comes, lightly chilled and drunk outside on a summer's day.

These are just a few ideas using the non-alcoholic drinks, fruit juices, and syrups available in any pub. Have fun in the pub inventing your own drinks and finding your own favorites. You'll find plenty of ideas for non-alcoholic cocktails, parties, and after-dinner drinks in Part Two of this book.

How stop alcohol addiction.

Don't be afraid to ask for what you want

Never be afraid or embarrassed about ordering something non-alcoholic in a pub. The landlord won't mind mixing it or you can buy the bottles and mix them in the glass yourself. Be inventive. It's fun watching a drink you've concocted and christened catching on. Pubs aren't just in the business of selling alcohol there's more profit on mixers and soft drinks and the publican would be quite happy if he sold nothing but gallons of lemonade each day. And surprise, surprise-there are lots of landlords who don't drink.

Order a decent tipple, make sure it is what you want, take your time, don't feel embarrassed, and do make a fuss of it if you want to.

How stop alcohol addiction.

Non-alcoholic beers, wines, and spirits

In the last couple of years, there has been a dramatic growth in the number of non-alcoholic beers, wines, and spirits, following the enormous success of Bárbican, the non-alcoholic lager. Many pubs sell Barbican (the best 'safe' lager I have ever tasted) or their own brands. Don't buy these beers at first, wait at least six months before using them. First, get used to not drinking and let others get used to you not drinking. Don't hide behind something that looks like a drink. From the very first day, it is essential to say and keep on saying, I don't drink".Using a non-alcoholic beer is hiding from the truth. If you truly want to give up, then give up and say so. There is no substitute for saying no.

How stop alcohol addiction .

Be prepared for leg-pulling

Watching a non-drinker at the bar for the first time, confronting their friends with their newfound abstinence, is like watching one of thOse wildlife films when a troop of ants discover a dead insect in their path. Like the ants, the pals swarm all over the helpless body, questioning, probing, and above all trying to devour the poor creature!

It isn't easy to stop drinking and it doesn't help when stupid friends question the wisdom of giving up. Or start wafting large vodkas or glasses of beer in the face of the convert. But they will.

When you give up drinking be prepared for the reaction you will get in the pub. At first, no one will believe you, then they will try enticing you into drinking with gifts of wine and beer laid out invitingly along the bar and finally a lot of people will 1gnore you. True friends will quickly realize your sincerity and stop behaving like this, but drinking pals will pester you for weeks before finally deserting you.

Some friends, even those behind the bar, will not be able to resist poking fun at you. This is only understandable. To them you are a big drinker and familiar sight in the bar-indeed, many people may never have seen you without a glass of the hard stuff in your hand. They see you as the confirmed drinker and will laugh when you say you have given up. But pretty soon, when they see you are serious, all that will stop.

Bars are places to drink in and so it is only natural at first to feel a bit left out when all around everybody else is drinking. But look again. Not everyone is on the hard stuff; it isn't compulsory.

How stop alcohol addiction.

Coping with the first visit

Gordon is a 30-year-old journalist. He became a heavy drinker through his job. Late nights and odd social hours led to more and more time being spent in the pub. He has now given up drinking completely using planning, common sense, and willpower to beat the bottle. But when he started two years ago he had no idea. He still remembers his first naive trip to the pub as a fledgling teetotaller.

It was agony. He just stood at the bar feeling lost and embarrassed. It was as if he were naked. All around him people seemed to be swinging. gulping, shouting. smoking, laughing, and generally having a wonderful time and standing slap bang in the middle of them was Gordon, Mr. Orange Juice. His friends, good friends, were with him but Gordon was alone. He could join them by ordering a drink.

This is a crisis that will face you. Think positive. Take a deep breath, clear away the cobwebs and think. Think about why you have decided to give up drinking. Think about how you will feel in the morning. Think of the good of not drinking and then think of the bad if you fail, and then say no and keep saying no. Remember, the first no is the hardest, and then it is easier and easier. Never forget that.

On your first visit to the pub, it is a good idea to go late. Aim to arrive with no more than an hour to go of the evening session. This cuts out the major problem-time. Without practice an the hour is just about right, not too long and not too short.

Always emphasize to yourself the positive side of giving up. Think of the loss of weight, the healthier body, the greater energy, better sleep, and increased peace of mind. Give your friends positive reasons to support you; for instance, if you drive sometimes, offer to do the driving -but not all the time. Don't allow yourself to be used. Just because you don't drink any more you're not a doormat.

How stop alcohol addiction

Straight away say “ I don't drink “

In the pub tell your friends immediately I don't drink'. Be honest and forthright and use the same sentence, I don't drink', each time. It's bold and to the point. Get used to saying it. Involve your friends and tell them why. Remember you don't have to tell them everything, decide for yourself how much people should know. Give others the chance to join in your battle and you will be amazed how much they jump at the opportunity to help with love and support.

Never hide away or be ashamed of not drinking. Learn to be proud of it.

How stop alcohol addiction

Should you buy around?

It is common practice in most pubs to buy rounds of drinks, that is buying a drink for everyone and then letting the others buy one back until everyone has bought everyone else a drink.

Buying rounds of drinks are banned in British advertising because it is thought to encourage excessive drinking. I don't know if it does but I recommend all non-drinkers to stand their round unless it is a huge one. Paying out $15 and then getting 15 soft drinks back isn't much fun but, with small rounds of two or three people, it's all right. Financially it will be a little more costly to buy around instead of three soft drinks but it is the socializing, the joining in, that counts more than the cost. It is especially important not to feel isolated by not drinking,particularly as there is no need.

In general, non-drinkers go to the pub a lot less than drinkers and so plenty of money is saved even with buying the odd expensive round.

How stop alcohol addiction

More women are drinking in pubs

Once only groups of men were found drinking in pubs. Women only went in with a husband or boyfriend. Some bars were for men only. Now young women are becoming pub regulars.

Jean and Barbara began drinking when they were both 16, buying bottles from supermarkets and off-licenses. At 18 they began visiting the pub every evening except Saturday and Sunday when they went to a local wine bar. Jean worked in a boutique and Barbara in a record store and after paying mum for their keep they each had between $100 and $110 a week to spend on clothes and drink. Neither of them had any reservations about drinking in a pub and they would down five or six glasses of white wine and soda an evening. Often they would try to match their male friends' drink for a drink but always found themselves drunk first.

Like many men have done before them, Jean and Barbara began to drift into a pattern of heavy drinking. This drifting into bad drinking used to be confined to males but with the breakdown of the taboo on women in pubs more and more young women are going the way of the men, paying a heavy price for their emancipation.

At weekends the couple would carry on drinking late into the night at friends' flats or at parties. They would get drunk every night, often turning up late and ill for work and spending all their sparè cash on alcohol. They began drinking at lunchtime, meeting at the High Street pub, and having two or three glasses of wine.

Then one night at a party they accepted a lift from a total stranger and he told them the car he was driving was stolen. This really shook them up and they decided to stop drinking.

As soon as they quit they realızed they had a big problem and each had been pushing the other into drinking because they thought it was the 'modern' thing to do. They had money, good jobs, and no cares and they wasted their time in the pub. They treated it as a sort of youth club with alcohol and they copied their male friends, drinking hard and thinking being drunk was a laugh only it wasn't.

Barbara and Jean used each other to say no to alcohol. First, they agreed that they had quit. Then they told their friends. They refused to join in the heavy drinking, choosing orange juice and mineral water instead. They cut their visits to the pub to twice a week and then only for an hour. Both took up other interests: Barbara went to dancing classes and Jean took up photography, and they widened their circle of friends.

They soon discovered that not all 18-year-olds were in the pub every night. With the money, they saved they went on holiday and Jean bought a scooter. Both of them realized that life at 18 and sober was great-and they haven't touched a drop of alcohol since that fateful car ride Saying no to alcohol is an adult decision. To go into a bar and dictate the pace is to take hold of your life. To go into a bar and fail to say no when you want to is to let life take hold of you.

Life without a drink is easy, easier for some than life with it. Alcohol doesn't affect our lives in any positive way. Everyone can get by without it if they want to. A pub is a place of fun. A place to meet old friends and make new ones. It is also a place for non-drinkers to show off, show off their newfound willpower, maturity, and determination. Go ahead and enjoy it!