Rehab facilities achieve this through random urine drug screens, group treatment programs, and care coordination. As a result, many have been able to find and maintain sobriety. We encourage you to take the Alcohol Self-Assessment Tests on this website to start developing a better perspective on your drinking behavior and whether abstinence or moderation might be best for you. Keep in mind, however, that no self-assessment test or quiz can substitute for a face-to-face clinical evaluation by a treatment professional.

From a health perspective, complete abstinence is recommended for certain populations. This includes those managing liver disease, bipolar disorder, abnormal heart rhythms, or chronic pain. While sobriety can be achieved by anyone, it’s important to check in with your healthcare provider before making significant changes to your drinking patterns.

Normal drinking in recovered alcohol addicts

When given a chance to try moderation with professional support and guidance, clients either learn how to drink moderately or they learn that moderation is not realistic for them and that it might be better to stop drinking entirely. Clients who choose alcohol abstinence vs moderation abstinence after being unable to moderate consistently are often more motivated and personally invested in making abstinence work for them. A lack of treatment alternatives for these people has led to a great deal of unnecessary suffering.

Others may not promote abstinence, and look to reduce addictive behaviors and related health risks. Moderation can also be a more complicated concept than sobriety because it can look a lot different from person to person. Depending on someone’s history with alcohol, the severity of their alcohol use disorder, their health goals, and other personal and social factors, moderation might mean any number of things. Moderating your drinking may mean cutting back to one beer a day, only having a glass of wine on special occasions, or even only going out twice a month instead of every weekend. Any of these could represent moderation, and it all depends on the individual.

Abstinence versus Moderation

It challenges traditional methods, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), by allowing participants to determine the most effective path for their unique needs. On the other hand, the temptation to continue your consumption will be ever-present and, potentially, getting more severe. This is important to keep in mind if for no other reason than the fact that it might be easier to not start at all than it is to will yourself back to sobriety if you get carried away. Others, like naltrexone, can quickly alleviate intoxication, which is crucial in overdose situations. However, if the individual cannot become intoxicated, then what’s the point of consuming alcohol or drugs?

These medications minimize the endorphin release in the brain that usually accompanies drinking. Because this makes drinking less pleasurable, people are less likely to crave alcohol. With the Sinclair Method, Revia or Vivitrol must be taken one hour before drinking alcohol.

Sober curious? Try this alcohol-free wine.

Looking at alcohol recovery as a spectrum necessitates the need for a spectrum of treatment options as well. Ensuring that services are available for people struggling at all different levels naturally eliminates certain barriers to access for alcohol services. If an outpatient counseling program is available in their community instead, it’s more likely they’ll pursue the help they need. The 12-step approach of forbidding any substances under any conditions strikes many people as dogmatic, and in some cases is not feasible, but it is also a bright line. That is, it’s a simple rule by which you can judge your sobriety. When you make things complicated, you open the way to abuse.

• Kishline developed the Moderation Management program after consulting with alcohol addiction treatment professionals.
• For these addictions moderation is the prescribed course of action.

All of those thoughts, most people are completely unconscious to. Wasn’t even clear to me that any of this thinking was happening, but of course it was. However loud the music is playing, you just got to leave it there. It’s stuck, and you https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/sharing-your-story-can-help-others-through-recovery/ got to learn to live with it, or you have to try to find a lot of ways to escape the sound of it. Maybe you go to a different room, maybe you try to put headphones on. How the idea of abstinence strips you of your power and free will.

How do you decide between sobriety or moderation?

Only about 9 percent of alcoholics in the United States are classified under the subtype of “chronic severe,” NIAAA publishes. This group of individuals will need to abstain from drinking completely. MM accepts that alcohol can create problems in a person’s life, but instead of admitting to powerlessness over the substance, individuals are empowered to learn how to manage and control their drinking.

Three out of the 10 people at the meeting I attended said they weren’t ready to do a 30 yet, but were planning shorter breaks. One man celebrated the fact that he’d taken one day off from smoking weed and drinking. He does both in moderation daily, and his concern was more about the frequency and the fact that he can never seem to take a day off than the amount of any particular substance consumed.

I didn’t realize that there was this thing called the think-feel-act cycle that would explain why I had all the desire I had. It wasn’t because of how I was born or this belief that I had for a long time, “Oh, I must have an addictive personality.” It was simply because of the thoughts I was thinking. How the focus on abstinence and moderation are totally wrong. Why how much desire you feel and your choice to drink are not one and the same.

• ” Usually, yes, the terms are interchangeable, and both mean a life that is completely free of drugs and alcohol.
• When you make things complicated, you open the way to abuse.
• If you or a loved one struggles with AUD, it may be time to seek help.
• I went to my parents’ house and slept for two days straight.

Similarly, make sure the drinks you are counting are standard sizes (12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits). Of course, this is easier to do at home—but you can try communicating your needs to the bartender or waiter. MM began to add more in-person meetings and last year, the organization launched a campaign around Dryuary, encouraging people to take the month of January off from drinking. It was so successful, they now plan to do it every year.

Who should participate in the Alcohol Management Program?

Even if you think you will only have a little bit of alcohol, the act of drinking can be a trigger for your mind, and you may end up drinking heavily without planning to. Experienced Chief Executive Addiction Recovery and Mental Health Professional

Business professional in the Addiction Recovery and Mental Health industry for the past 26 years. Caring, compassionate and strongly motivated to make a difference in the organizations I am affiliated with and welfare of the population we serve. Currently focused on advocating, educating and developing projects leveraging evidence based, real time technology to support individuals in recovery. Business professional in the Addiction Recovery and Mental Health industry for the past 26 years. I know that I wrestled with these questions for a long time because I literally thought they were the only two options for me.

I don’t call that abstaining, and again, it’s not semantics. It’s a reflection of actually what’s happening inside of me in terms of my desire. Because let me tell you this, I know what it’s like to abstain.

It’s letting go of these two misconceptions about desire that will start to transform everything for you. Think about how that can be true for you with alcohol. Just a clean and simple, “No thank you, I’m good,” moving on. The reason why people think that you have to abstain from alcohol, that you have to restrain yourself from indulging is simply because we are misinformed. I would just say no thanks and then move on and be done with it. I’m not up in my head wondering, “Maybe I could really have some milk.

• Labels of addiction aren’t a part of this program, because there is no shame involved.
• Through the Steps of Change, a person is asked to initially chart their drinking, write down all the issues that alcohol has created in their life, and keep a drinking diary of how much and how often they drink.
• This has become a popular way for people to take a break from alcohol and set new health goals.
• You also don’t need to have a clear understanding of your goal to start making progress.