Is a moderate drinking program right for you?

There was no therapist in the room, and the moderator, a two-year MM “veteran”, gently steered people away from delving too deeply into alcohol abstinence vs moderation issues that might be better addressed in therapy. Drinking in moderation means you’ll likely need to turn down a drink now and again.

The 12-step approach of forbidding any substances under any conditions strikes many people as dogmatic, and in some cases is not feasible, but it is also a bright line. That is, it’s a simple rule by which you can judge your sobriety.

Considering Your Options

2 things we are taught about alcohol and desire that are simply wrong. Continued alcohol use despite knowledge of an issue with being alcohol dependent.

And it goes without saying that for anyone who has developed a really serious drinking problem, abstinence is by far the safest course. However, research also has shown that with proper help “problem drinkers” (non-alcoholics with less severe drinking problems) can and sometimes do successfully learn how to moderate their drinking and reliably keep it within safer limits. Follow-up studies as long as 8 years showed that the people who were most successful in maintaining moderate problem-free drinking were those with less severe alcohol problems at the start. Many of those starting off with more severe problems succeeded with moderation for a period of time, but eventually chose to abstain from alcohol completely.

Reflect on the alcohol use disorder criteria

Finally, reduced drinking is often the focus of a harm-reduction approach, where the likely alternative is not abstinence but continued alcoholism. Nonetheless, Helzer et al. rejected the value of CD outcomes in alcoholism treatment. Vaillant labeled abstinence as drinking less than once a month and including a binge lasting less than a week each year. By extension, for all those treated for alcohol abuse, including those with no dependence symptoms, moderation of drinking as a goal of treatment is rejected . Instead, providers claim, holding out such a goal to an alcoholic is detrimental, fostering a continuation of denial and delaying the alcoholic’s need to accept the reality that he or she can never drink in moderation.

• The MHealthy Alcohol Management Program at the University of Michigan is a brief, confidential health education program that helps you cut back on your drinking or quit altogether.
• Moderation Management , a nonprofit organization, is the primary program that uses the technique of moderating drinking rather than stopping it altogether.
• In 2013, 8,260 people died following the use of heroin in the United States.Thus, moderation management can be dangerous when used to end certain drug habits.
• As a society, the relatively blind faith placed in 12-step recovery must be examined more closely and room needs to be made for other approaches and definitions of success.
• Starting with a diary to monitor drinking behavior helps you recognize the causes of drinking problems.
• Three out of the 10 people at the meeting I attended said they weren’t ready to do a 30 yet, but were planning shorter breaks.

In the United States specifically, the treatment industry has grown exponentially as well. Countless treatment programs have been established and the vast majority of them are completely based on the 12-step model. The industry has grown to well over a billion dollars in annual revenue and the success rates are staggeringly low. The recidivism rate for abstinence based treatment is well over 90. This means that of all the resources spent on treatment, only 10 are successful the first time. Over 90 of the people who spend their money on treatment will either be unsuccessful and continue their destructive addictive behaviors, or will have to spend more money for treatment again before changing the pattern.

How Much Alcohol Is Too Much? Explaining Health Guidelines

” to start reflecting on their relationship with alcohol. Symptoms of withdrawal can include anxiety, confusion, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, shaking and tremors, and insomnia.