Control Your Drinking: Why Stopping At The Buzz Is A Good IdeaBy Angelica Malin
Most alcoholics want to control their drinking habits, but they also don’t want to give up their alcohol either. They simply want to control their drinking habit to the point that it doesn’t harm their lives.
However, this is easier said than done. Controlled drinking should be understood as a form of harm reduction, and in many cases, is a first but a delicate step towards alcohol abstinence. Unfortunately, most people cannot carry out this practice on their own. They need the support of addiction psychologists to guide them through the process, and even then, they must employ a controlled drinking method that is suitable for their particular needs.
Option One – Controlled Drinking
One method is to control one’s drinking, using arbitrary rules or limits. You can, for example, limit your consumption to two bottles per day, or you will only drink a certain number of bottles only during weekends. Eventually, you will need to consume less and fewer bottles per day or per week until you are at a point where you barely drink anything at all. This method sounds easy in theory, but most alcoholics find it hard to comply with their own rules. drinking too much is as much an impulse as a desire, and people who have drinking problems also have poor impulse control.
Option Two – Avoiding the Buzz
So if the first method doesn’t work for you then, another option involves limiting alcohol consumption at the point where you experience the “buzz,” that euphoric feeling that drinkers feel when they have consumed a certain amount of alcohol.
The problem with this approach, is that it requires you to suppress that part of your brain that takes pleasure from drinking. You see, alcohol is a depressant, which explains why it makes people feel sleepy. However, before they can make you feel sleepy, they will first make you feel euphoric, and this is the buzz most alcoholics feel whenever they have a drink or two, but of course, this sensation is only temporary and is soon replaced by drowsiness and loss of focus.
The Brain And The Buzz
The brain interprets the “buzz” as something good, and this is how most alcoholic conditions start. Alcoholism is a state of being, where the brain has become used to the “buzz” and has come to expect it. Even when the buzz has become a drunk numbness, the brain still experiences it as something pleasurable and something to be desired.
So when you take up controlled drinking, you will need to identify and control this sensation for your own good. This is true whether you want to create some sort of quota for yourself or follow a system that prevents you from getting drunk. The “buzz” is what most alcoholics actually want, but lack of self-control can turn this desire into an addiction. Alcoholics want one buzz after another, even when they know that it doesn’t really work that way.
When you can limit your drinking to the point where you can stop your drinking at a point where you have experienced the “buzz,” you will be able to control your own drinking habits. You will no longer feel the need to keep drinking until you pass out, and more importantly, you will be able to control your own drinking habits, and ultimately, overcome your own alcoholism.
