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Several studies have been done in an attempt to answer the question, what is moderate drinking? Well, in the scientific community, what is considered moderate drinking translates to one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men. There is also another perspective in which, moderate drinking is defined as limiting the speed at which one drinks so that the blood alcohol concentration is maintained below 0.55.
- You may want to take a family member or friend along, if possible.
- Seek skilled guidance from an addiction psychologist to get feedback when selecting goals, assessing progress, and setting appropriate boundaries.
- But if they have a problem with alcohol, taking a harm reduction approach could be a constructive way to help them take a look at the negative consequences of their behavior and motivate them to make positive changes.
Perhaps you want to spend less money, reduce the chances of over-imbibing, or get in better shape. Whatever the reason, there are a lot of great tips to help you change your habits and cut back on your drinking. Start being mindful of your current drinking habits and identify any triggers that make you want to drink. Then come up with a plan for your own drinking guidelines to help pace your drinking, stay hydrated, and stop before you’ve had too much. “Moderate consumption” is limited to one to two alcoholic drinks per day for healthy men and one alcoholic drink per day for healthy women. One drink is equivalent to 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.
What color is your tongue? What’s healthy, what’s not?
Moderate drinking isn’t something that occurs overnight, but can be rewarding as you begin to change your relationship with alcohol. Rather than turning to alcohol as a way to cope or socialize, changing your drinking behavior can open up new opportunities to promote how to moderate drinking self-care and well-being without the need to drink. Even moderate drinking may raise your risk for some types of heart disease and cancer. For some types of cancer, the risk increases even at low levels of drinking (for example, less than 1 drink in a day).
If you use alcohol to manage stress or self-medicate, fear of how you’ll cope without alcohol might hamper your efforts to regain control of your drinking. If you consider alcohol as a coping strategy, then it makes sense why heading straight to abstinence would be terrifying. Some of these strategies — such as watching for peer pressure, keeping busy, asking for support, being aware of temptation, and being persistent — can also be helpful for people who want to give up alcohol completely. The goal is to sharpen your observation skills regarding drinking, so hopefully, you will be able to enter more “C”s than “E”s in the last column documenting whether you’re estimating or counting your drinks for the day. But if you find that your log shows nearly all “E”s then welcome this as good information not only as an estimate of your drinks but also as information about your current observation skills or style. At the end of four to six months of treatment with the Sinclair Method, 80% of people who had been overusing alcohol were either drinking moderately or abstaining entirely.
Alcohol use disorder
Use these tips to talk with someone about cutting back or quitting drinking. If you don’t have insurance, you may still be able to get free or low-cost help for alcohol misuse. Find a health center near you and ask about alcohol misuse screening and counseling. Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition.
You don’t need to have a ‘rock bottom’ to seek treatment and community. Connecting with medical professionals and a peer support network can give you the tools to reach your goals, and set you up for long-term success. Too much alcohol affects your speech, muscle coordination and vital centers of your brain.