Chapter Three: Are you ready to act now?

When it comes to planning to stay dry, one important thing to do will be to plan to replace as many of these positive aspects of drinking with other healthy activities that will go at least some way towards offering similar pleasure or relief.

Thirdly, you will be able to compare all the positives and negatives about drinking and see if you are clear that the negatives clearly outweigh the positives.

I've given you a start by including some of the common reasons people wish to continue drinking. But not all the reasons I have given are good reasons for continuing to drink. For example, drinking alcohol is only healthier than not drinking if you limit yourself to one unit of alcohol per day. Equally depression and anxiety are very often the long-term effects of heavy drinking - unfortunately both tend to be relieved in the short-term by drinking. But if you think these are good reasons you will probably continue to drink. An important aspect of planning for detox or cessation of drinking is to get some of these basic facts sorted out before you go any further. The list of possible misunderstandings is so long that it would be impossible to address them all in this book. This is where it is important to get personal advice about your particular situation from a professional in the field.

OK, let's start by considering the possible reasons that you find drinking an enjoyable or helpful activity. Tick off those things on this list that apply to you, and add items of your own as you think of them. If you wish to record this for the future, I have included an empty table for you in the appendix of this book.