sober

  • 4 Tips to Break Addictive Alcohol Habits

    Try my 4 tips to break addictive alcohol habits

    Firstly, Identify the stresses and emotions that fuel your alcohol addiction. Then you can begin to deal with those issues and change your relationship with alcohol to set yourself free from the old drinking behaviour. 

    Why am I drinking too much?

    You need to focus on making changes that will break the repetitive habit of routinely reaching for alcohol. Regularly drinking alcohol creates a pattern in your subconscious in the same way we learn anything from repeating the behaviour.  The first time you do something, it can be difficult but over time what you have learnt becomes second nature. Your drinking habits have become second nature which is why it can be difficult to break out of the routine. You have to remember there is an addictive side to alcohol which creates positive brain chemicals which make you feel good. But gradually the enjoyment of alcohol is marred by the side effects, but by then you could be hooked.

    Why does hypnotherapy work?

    Hypnotherapy is a treatment which gives you the opportunity to release alcohol addiction from the subconscious mind, which is done by breaking habits and releasing cravings, so you lose the interest in drinking. But hypnosis can be used to take you into a relaxed state of mind which can then be used to shift your thought patterns around alcohol and create a new relationship with drinking. The hypnotherapy achieves this by forming new alcohol beliefs in the subconscious. Do the following experiment to prove to yourself that it is possible to adapt to something new.

    Understanding your behaviour

    Try moving the rubbish or garbage bin in your kitchen. For a while, you will keep going back to the old place, but before long you will get used to the bin being somewhere else and will go to it automatically, without having to think about it. It’s the same thing with an alcohol addiction or bad habit that you want to change: you need to change the behaviour and do it over and over again until you get used to the new way of being. It works because you store the habit in your subconscious mind and, once you have reprogrammed yourself, it will become natural for you to behave in a new way. The same will happen when you change your alcohol habits, and eventually, you will get used to the changes which will override the old ones forming a new alcohol habit. Hypnosis for changing alcohol habits fast tracks the process.

    You invested time in learning your addictive alcohol behaviour. You the, therefore,d to spend time breaking the alcohol habit too.

    4 Tips to break bad alcohol habits

    4 tips to break addictive alcohol habits 4 tips to break addictive alcohol habits

    1) Saying: "I won't drink alcohol this week" and then as soon as the week starts you have a drink and decide to stop another day.

    How to break the habit of drinking alcohol:

    Make as many small changes in your day so that you break some of the familiar habits which contribute to you alcohol drinking. For example, drive a different route home, get home at a slightly different time, change the evening routine, go straight for a shower after work, have sparkling water in a wine glass instead of alcohol. Self-talk positively "I can be in control, I am in control, I am sober". Visualise yourself without an alcoholic drink, visualise yourself having a herbal tea, brushing your teeth and getting into bed totally sober, see yourself waking in the morning refreshed.

    2) Saying: "I won't get stressed" but then finding yourself do just that which leads to an alcoholic drink later that evening.

    How to break the stress fuelling your drinking:

    Speak positively to yourself throughout the day "I can get this done really easily, I am getting more done in less time, I am finding ways to be relaxed." When you feel yourself rushing, feeling stressed or hear the tension in your voice, consciously pull back to avoid getting caught up in the drama and say to yourself "It's all working out fine, it is all resolving AMAZINGLY well, what if this is AMAZING."  Imagine your stresses passing like clouds in the sky, let them pass. Imagine everything has worked out well. The less stressed you are, the more in control of your alcohol habits you will be.

    3) Saying: "I won't spend money" and then allowing yourself to buy alcohol.

    How to break the habit of spending money on alcohol:

    Imagine all the people who have less than you and instantly you will feel more wealthy. Say to yourself "I am happy with what I have, my life is AMAZING and AMAZING things happen to me".  Visualise yourself going through your week without spending money on alcohol such as avoiding the alcohol section in the shop. Imagine having more money saved each week from not buying alcohol.  Set up a savings account specifically for the money you would have spent on alcohol, with monthly payments to build up your funds. Even if you think you can't afford to save start saving you need to begin saving now. When people stop or reduce their alcohol drinking, they find they have a lot more spare money. Set a goal of something healthy you would like to do such as a spa day, a flying lesson, a Ferrari track day..., build your alcohol fund to pay for it at some point in the future.

    4) Saying: "I will eat healthy foods" which you manage all day but then you get home and snack on foods which you associate with drinking alcohol.

    How to break the habit of eating junk food when drinking alcohol:

    Change your routine when you get home such as having a shower then change into a comfortable tracksuit, sit in a different chair to eat your dinner and sitting on a different seat in front of the TV.  Also, move the snacks in the kitchen to another cupboard so your mind doesn't slip into old comfortable habits which may trigger alcohol habits.  Do yoga stretches whilst you watch TV also try drinking herbal tea.  The more healthy a routine you create the least likely you will be to want an alcoholic drink. Visualise a red triangle in your mind imagine putting the cravings into the triangle and shrinking it down until they are gone.  Visualise your healthy routine without alcohol in your mind the last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

    Hypnotherapy sessions or hypnosis recordings allow you to make alcohol habit breaking changes on a subconscious level. You can read more on each of the product pages of my hypnosis downloads:

    "Take Control of Alcohol"

    "Stop Binge Drinking for Women"

    "Stop Binge Drinking for Men"

    One-to-one hypnotherapy appointments Click for more information

    Also, read my addictions chapter in my book Cut the Crap and Feel Amazing published by Hay House (available as a paperback, ebook, kindle, and audio).


  • 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

     

     


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