You can search terms like #alcoholfree, #soberlife, or #addictionrecovery to find accounts that offer motivational posts, alcohol-free lifestyle ideas, and emotional support. You can also get support from a professional therapist. April is Alcohol Awareness Month, so it’s a good time to talk about how to quit drinking safely and what to expect if you’re going alcohol-free. It’s no secret that alcohol use increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, and that has caused some people to start questioning the role of alcohol in their life. In a study published in the European Heart Journal, Cleveland Clinic researchers report that higher amounts of xylitol, a type of sugar alcohol, can increase risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular events. “We had healthy volunteers drink a xylitol-sweetened drink, and we examined blood from before versus after ingestion of the drink.

Fostering Supportive Relationships: Building Connections Without Alcohol

For the next four to six hours xylitol levels remained elevated enough to enhance platelet responses and clotting risk in every person studied,” Dr. Hazen explains. Quitting smoking is good for your health and may add years to your life. One study of nearly 200,000 people demonstrated that older adults who quit smoking between the ages of 45 and 54 lived about six years longer compared to those who continued to smoke.

Cultivating Mindful Work Practices: Fostering Focus and Clarity Without Alcohol

Have you ever been asked why you don’t smoke cigarettes? If you’re a woman of child-bearing age, expect people to ask (or wonder) if pregnancy is the reason you’re not drinking. I tell my clients to think of cravings and slips as important data—what can you learn from them? What factors (people/places/feelings/activities) were related to your drinking or wanting to drink? How can you deal with those things differently in the future?

• And she wrote a great book called embracing anxiety.
• I found that once I stopped drinking, my job was significantly easier than it was when I was drinking.
• And so, I’m always learning and thinking about how to market things to people, but in an ethical way, right?
• And what I found was, there’s a lot out there for other people that, you know, are interested in doing that traditional 12 steps.
• Not to mention headaches, stomach issues, stress and anxiety all caused or exacerbated by alcohol.
• Let’s cultivate a healthy work-life balance so you can thrive in your professional journey.

Many children are affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder—but few get access to support

Yeah, I think I think catching sight of your own potential is so important. So often we’re not, we’re not really wanting to drink at all, we’re just hungry. I always say it’s simple, but it’s not easy. Exactly that what you have to do is simple. And so much of what you were saying resonated with me and you know, I thought of a bunch of different things to talk about. But you mentioned stopping being numb and having all the emotions come up.

And so on the rugby team, you know, you may know, but like it, you play the game, and then you party with the other team. And it is cake stands and shoot the boot like chugging races, and we used to cake runs where you run after a car. And then whenever the car stops you drink. And so I mean, I think unlike cigarettes, like you were talking about before, drinking is still sort of, you’re right back in the 1950s.

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If that decision has been on your mind lately, then you’re in exactly the right place. We’re doing a deep dive into the benefits of an alcohol-free lifestyle. It’s the blogs and competitions and the podcast is there and everything else. And there’s a membership part of it, if anyone’s interested in that, which is a huge member portal full of content, and kind of a group as well.

The Alcohol Experiment: A 30-Day Journey to Discover the Power Within

So be patient with yourself and your loved ones, and try to find ways to improve your relationships in tandem with your alcohol-free goal. You can also consider couple or family therapy, support groups, or self-help books. Finding ways to lower alcohol free lifestyle stress and increase emotional stability may support healthy aging. In an analysis of data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, scientists followed 2,000 participants for more than five decades, monitoring their mood and health.

• To explore all trials funded by NIH, visit ClinicalTrials.gov.
• You’ll start noticing how many alcohol references you see throughout your day, and it will probably be annoying at times.
• The Calm app puts the tools to feel better in your back pocket, with personalized content to manage stress and anxiety, get better sleep, and feel more present in your life.
• If I do, I don’t want to be like, Oh, no, I have to start all over, like my journey is ruined all of my hard work.

I can name you know, like, only a couple people that were really active back then. And now there’s numerous communities and pages and influencers and groups. It’s just a really amazing what’s happening.