These skills and techniques come from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). CBT helps change unhealthy thoughts into healthy thoughts, while DBT enables you to acknowledge your behaviors, emotions, and thoughts how to reduce alcohol cravings and balances them with positive change. These triggers can increase the urge to drink alcohol as a way to cope with these feelings.
Addiction Therapist: What They Do & How to Find the Right One
If you’re wondering how to stop alcohol cravings naturally, lifestyle changes are a good place to start. Studies have shown that hydration can play a key role in treating alcohol withdrawal and cravings. For instance, research published in 2017 showed that increasing water intake after https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/top-10-substance-abuse-group-activities/ stopping alcohol use led to significantly fewer reports of cravings from patients. Therefore, simply drinking more water during alcohol detox can help a lot.
Managing Alcohol Cravings: Immediate Solutions
Acamprosate is believed to work by restoring balance to certain neurotransmitters in the brain that are disrupted by long-term alcohol overuse. If certain environments, scenarios and places tempt you to drink, the simplest and most effective approach may be to avoid them, at least temporarily. Consider how giving into an urge keeps it alive while not giving in to the urge slowly kills it. Ask yourself, “While these reactions may be unpleasant, will I really go out of my mind if I don’t give in? ” Note how these reactions vary across time as you respond alcoholism passively to the urge. Click here to learn more about medication-assisted treatment (MAT).
- Therapist-moderated support groups can help provide peer encouragement and accountability throughout your journey with moderation or abstinence.
- Ask yourself, “While these reactions may be unpleasant, will I really go out of my mind if I don’t give in to the urge to drink?
- In fact, in the early phases of your recovery, you are expected to have cravings.
- When you push against weight the body releases growth factors that boost mood and cognitive clarity for hours.
- Working out how to stop alcohol cravings could mean the difference between sustained sobriety and repeated relapse.
- Understanding cravings and how to manage them is essential to remain out of active addiction and maintain long-term sobriety.
Outpatient Treatment
These should be used under the direction of a healthcare provider. Your diet can play a surprising role in managing alcohol cravings. Dark chocolate, rich in antioxidants and magnesium, can satisfy sweet cravings that sometimes masquerade as alcohol cravings. Fruits and vegetables provide essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that support overall health and can help stabilize mood.
Meditation, practiced on your own or via guided meditation, can help you learn to react less to alcohol cravings (8). This can be a key to breaking the hold that your triggers to drink have on you. In addition to reducing daily drinking, naltrexone has been shown to reduce alcohol cravings as a measurable symptom (3). Cravings are rooted in both psychological and physical factors.
