Binge drinking

  • Drinking too much alcohol?

    Help! Why am I drinking too much?  

    You have probably spent your whole life surrounded by alcohol which normalises it in your mind.  Most people know family, friends or work colleagues who drink regularly. TV commercials for alcoholic drinks are regularly on television. Whilst advertisers use alcohol to promote other products such as sofa and kitchens which sometimes show someone with a glass of wine or a bottle of wine as a prop designed to sell you a lifestyle. British TV programs such as Eastenders, Emmerdale, and Coronation Street are based on people drinking in the pub. This is all building subliminal messages to your subconscious mind so it actually feels weirder not to drink alcohol than drink excessively. This is why hypnotherapy is a real solution to combat alcohol habits.

    Your drinking habits build up like layers of an onion, every time your drink you are reinforcing the behaviour which builds habits around the alcohol and the emotions you feel at the time. The drinking layers include the emotions you feel at those times;

    • Stress
    • Boredom
    • Worries
    • Concern
    • Social pressure to drink
    • Drinking for the sake of it
    • Happiness having fun
    • Celebration
    • Switching off from daily life
    • To help you get to sleep
    • Cope with financial worries

     

    Drinking alcohol also may have masked confidence issues which usually begin at an earlier age. Hypnotherapy helps build your confidence as you let go of excess drinking.

    Just as someone learns to drive a car or tie their shoelaces, once you have learned to do something it is hard to forget it. In the same way, once you have learned to drink alcohol in a certain way it is hard to change the habit. On top of this, you have the cravings to deal with as most people like the taste. You may be rewarding yourself with alcohol after a hard day and you may look forward to a drink for social enjoyment.  All of these feelings make it harder to stop drinking. This is why without re-setting your subconscious mind using hypnotherapy it can be difficult to take back control of alcohol.

    The best time to start taking back control is right now. Remember, anyone who drinks regularly can become an alcoholic. For those people who become alcoholics, it creeps up on them as they begin to rely on alcohol more and more. No alcoholic would imagine it could happen to them. It only takes a few life events to push you further to increase your drinking to out of control levels. An unexpected redundancy, a financial stress, family illness or bereavement can all play a part in increased alcohol consumption.

    My system of alcohol reduction will help you take back control, I recommend ‘Take control of alcoholfor everyday drinkers who want to break the habit and ‘Stop binge drinking for Women’ or ‘ Stop binge drinking for Men’ for those who drink bouts of excess alcohol. Or if you want one to one hypnotherapy phone appointments contact me through the website.

    Chapter 13 of my book "Cut The Crap and Feel AMAZING" covers addictions and obsessions and will help to break alcohol habits.


  • Stressed Mum who wanted to get sober

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    Parents have never been under so much pressure with work and family stresses meaning turning to drinking alcohol for comfort after work is a common way to cope

    Karen, 45, a busy successful working Mum, reduced her alcohol drinking habits after listening to my hypnosis downloads for alcohol reduction. Read about how she became more confident, less stressed generally, drank less and banished sleepless nights. Hypnotherapy is a great way to quickly break long established bad drinking habits which can be quite life-changing for many people. As a hypnotherapist, I love working with alcohol reduction as I have seen how it takes over peoples lives but I also know how easy it is to break the bad habits when you shift the root of the problem on a subconscious level. It is very satisfying work to see people back in control of their lives in a short space of time. I interviewed Karen to see first hand how the recordings had reshaped her relationship with alcohol.

    Before listening to the hypnosis for alcohol reduction:

    How much alcohol were you drinking and how often?

    I wouldn't drink a lot during the week. Maybe a small glass of wine three nights a week. But then we have something we call red wine Friday, with friends from my son’s school. It would happen most Fridays from 6pm ish, we would gather at one of our houses and try new varieties of red wine that we had discovered or enjoy old favourites. Sometimes, I would just share a bottle of wine with a friend, other times we would go all out and I would drink a bottle and perhaps a few liqueurs. Invariably I felt hungover the next day. On Saturday if I was feeling very hungover, I wouldn't drink, otherwise, I would have a small glass of wine at home. Perhaps two glasses of wine on a Sunday or a cocktail and if we went to a friend’s house for lunch on Sunday where I would consume at least another half bottle of wine. If there was a school function, I would drink at least a bottle of champagne or a bottle of wine.

    How has your alcohol drinking increased over the years?

    I’ve always drunk too much. From when I first started drinking at about the age of 15/16. My mother had a drinking problem, and I guess I took my cue from her. But I barely drank when I was pregnant with my children and my drinking definitely decreased when the kids were small. I was breastfeeding so I couldn’t drink and when they wake up so early, the thought of having a hangover is just too unbearable.

    Was there an event in your life which triggered drinking more alcohol?

    I started drinking more when my son started school. He goes to a private school where some of the parents think they are incredibly special and I found that a few glasses of wine definitely made them more bearable. We’ve also been through some very tough times financially and this coincided with first my mother-in-law dying of cancer and then my mother being diagnosed with bowel cancer.  I definitely started hitting the bottle more regularly. I even took some of her anti-emetics for cancer after one really good alcohol binge! After she died, there was an awful lot of “celebrating her life” with champagne.

    Is there pressure to drink more alcohol from friends or family? How?

    Definitely. I come from a long and proud line of alcoholics, and I’ve tended to choose friends who are the same. That was one of my biggest anxieties, how people would react if I cut down on my drinking. I’m usually the life and soul of a party, I was worried about what they would say, and also if I would find them all boring, without a few drinks inside me. It was a big concern for me.

    Before listening to the hypnosis alcohol recording what was your sleep like, were you waking in the night?

    During the week if I kept to my one small glass of red wine, and I drank it after I had eaten something, I wasn’t too bad. But as soon as I went over one glass or drank on an empty stomach, I wouldn’t sleep. The weekends were a nightmare. I often had a terrible night’s sleep after red wine Friday. If we had a long lunch on Sunday, I would barely be able to work on Monday.

    Has your alcohol drinking ever caused you embarrassment?

    Without a doubt. I get outrageous when I drink. I did backward rolls on my friend’s dining room table after a particularly good Sunday lunch, I’ve danced on the table at events at my son’s school (which is not unusual, there is a group that tends to get out of hand). I’ve told the headmaster he’s got a small penis (I really wouldn’t know having never seen it) I’ve been ridiculously flirty…the list goes on!

    How would you sum up how you felt about your alcohol drinking in a sentence?

    Drinking doesn’t make me happy.

    Where did you drink alcohol?

    Being a parent I mostly drank alcohol at school events and at friends’ houses.

    Did you need alcohol to give you confidence or help you have a good time?

    I like the feeling of abandonment that alcohol gives me. It also helps when you’re hosting your own party or dinner party and you’re feeling anxious.

    After listening to the Ailsa Frank alcohol hypnosis recordings:

    I had been mulling over trying out hypnosis to stop drinking for a couple of years now. But the crunch for me came, not after the weekend of binge drinking we’d just had, but after a lunch, I went to at a girlfriend’s house on a Tuesday after the kids had gone on holiday. It was a really interesting group of women, people I didn’t know very well and I suppose I felt a slight need to impress. I drank alcohol far too quickly and immediately started getting that feeling of being out of control. I don’t actually like the initial feeling and I usually drink more alcohol to get to that real feeling of I-don’t-care-about-anything. I knew I had work to do, so I didn’t go too berserk. I probably had two to three glasses of wine and then an espresso to wake me up.  But that evening I hit such a downer, I didn’t know what to do. I felt just so depressed, and not because I had said anything embarrassing or done anything wrong, I just realised that too much alcohol or drinking when I’m stressed or unhappy is basically a recipe for more unhappiness.

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    That was the 13th August. I think I got the hypnosis binge drinking downloads the next day. The alcohol hypnosis downloads initially just made me want to sleep. At first, I listened to the long one, and I did it every day. I didn’t have a problem not drinking during the week but I was anxious for the weekend because I knew that the family was coming around for my son’s birthday on the Sunday and I was worried that I would drink too much. I got my husband to make me a mojito with one capful of rum and I drank that and a half a glass of wine the whole afternoon and evening. My brother-in-law got very drunk but I was pleased to find that I didn’t find him irritating, just endearing.

    Becoming sober

    I carried on listening to the hypnotherapy downloads, not always every day, but I was finding that I was sleeping better and despite the fact that I was very stressed about work and the kids were on holiday, I had more patience and less road rage! I also had quite an emotional response to the second hypnosis recording about your inner child. My daughter looks just like me, so every time the recording mentioned my inner child, I just pictured her and I got a real sense of how I was not being a good enough mother to her, not just with my drinking, with everything. I found that that recording reduced me to tears more than once.

    The next time I drank was nearly two weeks later

    It was a very strong mojito when we went out to dinner as a family. I didn’t enjoy it and I wished that I had ordered the virgin one. We then went to a family wedding, with my husband’s family who also likes a bit of a party, but I had one sherry and a glass of wine the whole night. My biggest hurdle was when my friends got back from Italy and we had our first red wine Friday after the holidays. I listened to the short hypnosis downloads twice that day and for the first time it felt automatic, I didn’t need to remind myself not to down my drink (which is my downfall). The host poured me an enormous glass of red wine (think Cougar Town size!) as I arrived, and I made it last the whole evening. I drank water, I didn’t let anyone top up my wine glass and it felt completely natural. The host got fairly merry, but again, it didn’t worry me. I went home at a reasonable time, I had a good night’s sleep. It was brilliant!

    The last hurdle was sports’ day at my daughter’s school where we usually start on the champagne as soon as the bar opens. I usually find myself anxious to have the first glass, mostly because I find the competitiveness of some of the parents at these schools quite hard to take. But I drank coffee and tea, and even when two girls were particularly unkind to my daughter – they invited her to play and then told her she couldn’t come - I didn’t feel the need to drink, I just wanted to take her home.

    This is what I have found since I’ve started listening to the alcohol hypnosis downloads and have cut down on my drinking:

    • I’ve slept better
    • I’m less hormonal
    • I’ve been more motivated as far as work goes. (I’m a Film scriptwriter)
    • I’ve definitely been more careful with money
    • I’ve recognised that I don’t need to spend time with people who make me feel bad about myself – I think I used the drinking as a way of giving me Dutch courage to cope with that type of person
    • I’m more focused on my children in a good way. Not in a hovering way. Just in the sense that I want to spend time with them doing fun things. It’s just made me more aware of being a good parent, of being there for them, instead of slumping in front of the TV with a glass of wine or going to a friend’s house and letting them get on with it while we all get pissed!
    • I don’t know if I would feel comfortable in every situation but I definitely feel a lot better about not having a drink in my hand.

    I have enjoyed these hypnosis downloads so much, I’m going to try the weight loss one!

    I am amazed at how I go to social gatherings and I do not even feel like downing a glass of wine like I used to. It just sits there, and I sip it and I’m fine…it really, really works!

    "Cut the Crap & Feel Amazing" by Hay House
    "Take Control of Alcohol" Hypnosis Recording
    "Stop Binge Drinking for Women" Hypnosis Recording
    "Stop Binge Drinking for Men" Hypnosis Recording

     

     


  • Alcohol binge drinking feast at Royal Ascot

    This is the week when the village of Ascot rocks with lively partygoers who binge drink alcohol at the sophisticated Royal Ascot racing. The rest of the year it is a pretty peaceful place to live

    Royal drinking feast at Ascot Alcohol flowing at Royal Ascot

    In the calendar, the third week in June is home to Royal Ascot. Luckily the weather is sunny today which will make it an all-round better experience. There is nothing worse than summer frocks and high heels in the rain, all that mud, chilly wind, and hats blowing off!  Having lived in Ascot and the surrounding area for the past 12 years I am used to the routine of avoiding the town during the royal racing week. Although having said that if you pop into the high street between 2pm and 5pm you would find more life in a ghost town. All the cars, coaches and limos are parked up in the car parks, the racegoers are safely inside the grounds, small local shops and the doctors' surgery are closed. The traffic cones are on duty and the police are taking a coffee break before the drunks spill out onto the streets when the betting finishes. This is a great time to drive past the course to take a peek through the railings at the eccentric hats, latest fashions, top hats and tails which are all a truly wonderful sight.

    The bars inside the Ascot grounds charge extortionate prices for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Quite a few people have told me they planned not to drink too much but when they realised the Ascot racecourse bars charged the same money for a bottle of water as for a bottle of beer which puts them off buying a soft drink. My advice would be to take your own drinks with you where possible although I am not sure if you will be allowed to take drinks through the main entrance. Otherwise, have a drink in the local pub before going into the ground.

    Binge Drinking

    Social events can put pressure on you to binge drink. If you are able to listen to hypnosis downloads to reduce alcohol intake in the days running up to a day out at the races you would benefit. The good thing about hypnosis to reduce drinking is that you will actually feel comfortable drinking less and confident without a drink in your hand in the company of friends but you won't feel that you are missing out as you'll still have a great time.

    Gary's story

    "I felt it was a bit boring to be listening to the hypnosis for reducing alcohol before the Ascot racing event but on the day I was glad I had. I often feel a real peer pressure to drink too much with friends but this year I drank sensibly, spent less and had a better time than before. I now listen to the recordings before a big night out with the lads or before a wedding type event. It puts me back in control but I still have a good laugh"

    Boozy Day Out

    If you ever find yourself in Ascot after the racing finishes you will view quite a different picture to before the racing begins. The sophistication of the arrival of the ladies and gentlemen to welcome the Queen in her carriage soon becomes a booze-fuelled binge drinking event. The only winners are the cash tills of the pop-up bars which charge extortionate prices for all drinks whether soft or alcoholic. Many people won't remember much about the day as it becomes an alcohol-infused blur.

    Ladies Day

    Yesterday I was shopping at a local shop, I asked if they would be attending Royal Ascot this year, "No," the owner said, "I haven't been for years not since the young people spoiled it with so much alcohol." It is true there is so much drinking during this week. It is scary how people think it is okay to bombard themselves with so much alcohol in such a short time frame. I am not into counting alcohol units as I believe once you have the need to start counting you are already drinking too much alcohol, instead be sensible, use your brain - a couple of drinks occasionally which is probably safe and healthy. Anything in life in buckets loads is not a good thing such as over-exercising, overworking, overeating and of course over drinking alcohol. The shop owner joked that Ladies Day at Royal Ascot could be more appropriately named Tramps Day. Increasing numbers of the women get so drunk they stagger, fall over or lay in doorways half asleep. I have been to Royal Ascot a few times, it is a great day out but each year the drinking just gets worse. The ladies powder room is a swill with swaying women teetering on their high heels with smudged lipstick, claggy weeps of mascara all of whom think no one has noticed they are bluntly drunk.

    Champagne Flowing

    These days equality means Women can drink as much as Men and for both sexes, it is not a good look. Think before you drink too much alcohol. Do you really want to end up totally sloshed after all the investment to get yourself ready for the big day? Is it really a good day out or could it be better with less alcohol? People are wasting their money on alcohol and risking their health too without even being aware of what they are doing. I urge people to take back control of their alcohol drinking to take back control of their lives and future. I have helped thousands of people reduce down their drinking with hypnotherapy sessions and hypnosis downloads. You don't need to stop drinking altogether. Have a great day out with a couple of drinks if you want. Enjoy getting dressed up but keep your dignity by avoiding throwing up in the gutter, sitting on the kerb with your head hung in your lap or be carried home by your friends, girlfriend, wife, boyfriend or husband. Bring back the Royal Ascot sophistication, please.

    Chapter 13 of my book "Cut The Crap & Feel Amazing" by Hay House gives techniques for reducing alcohol
    Also, try my hypnosis recordings, available as downloads
    "Take Control of Alcohol"
    "Stop Binge Drinking for Women"
    "Stop Binge Drinking for Men"


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