How to Quit Drinking
In early recovery it is all we can do to just stay sober for another day. We might struggle to stay sober for a 24 hour period and in order to make it through this tough time we might have to focus on networking and getting help from the fellowship. This is fine but as we transition to long term recovery you will notice a shift towards personal growth and self reliance. This does not mean that you are permanently healed of alcoholism or that you no longer need others to recover, but only that there is a shift in what you focus on. Long term sobriety is about passionate living, while early recovery is about support and fellowship and learning. Both stages have all of these attributes in them, but the focus is a bit different for those who are successful in living a sober life.
So you want to know how to stop drinking? My first suggestion is that you do so in a medically supervised facility. This is crucial because not consuming alcohol can actually kill a person if they stop it abrubtly and without supervision. There is also a plus side to attending rehab that you will meet a ton of peers who can help you on your journey. The associations that you have from others in eary sobriety are critical, and if you go to drug rehab then you will invariably make friends with those who can help you. Because of these 2 reasons I highly recommend attending a treatment center if you are serious about quitting drinking.
Now at this point many people think that their job is done when they walk out of the treatment center but in fact it has not even started yet. The real challenge in long term sobriety is in maintaining it without slipping back to your old ways and eventually drinking again. It is not just the liquor that got us into a world of hurt, but also the fast life that came with it. If you leave treatment and try to stay off the sauce but revert right back to the same lifestyle then you're probably not going to stay sober. We need to really change our life in a major way if we're going to stay sober in the long run. This is not unrealistic but it does require some effort.
So many people who leave treatment do not follow up with the action required to stay sober. If you want to be successful with your sobriety then you're going to have to go way overboard when it comes to your recovery strategy. We put a lot of time into our alcoholism so we should put a lot of time into our sobriety. Most people underestimate what it will take to stay sober. The secret is to go way above and beyond what you think is necessary to keep you clean.
And that is the bottom line right there: If you want to stop drinking then you have to take action. At first your actions will be very specific and focus on getting you detoxed and learning how to live a sober life. But after a while in sobriety your focus must change to that of caring for your self and trying to grow. In early recovery the support you get from other people is really important. In long term sobriety your drive for personal growth and holistic health is what is key.