The power in asking why you want to change your drinking

Several years ago I got to the point where I’d had enough of the way I was drinking and, more importantly, how it was making me feel.

• I was sick of thinking about it all the time (planning when and how much I would drink, worrying about it, planning ways to cut back)
• I was tired of being tired – waking up at 3am after a night of drinking and then being unable to get back to sleep
• I was worried that memories of the night before were often hazy – parts of conversations that I didn’t remember the next day, the end of a movie or TV show.

I knew something had to change but my attempts to moderate my drinking just weren’t working.

Once I learned why moderation was so difficult – you can check out the Four Reasons Why Moderation is so Difficult guide to find out more – I knew I had to take a different approach.

Delving into the why

The first step was digging into my ‘Why List’ – all the reasons why I wanted to take back control of my drinking. The list included:

• I don’t want alcohol to consume so much of my thinking any more
• I’m tired (in both senses of the word!) of waking up during the night unable to get back to sleep
• I am concerned that my tolerance for alcohol is increasing and what that is doing to my health
• I’m worried that drinking is making my perimenopause symptoms worse
• I get worried when I forget things from the night before and worry what that is doing to my brain
• I want to lose weight
• I’m sick of the dark circles under my eyes
• Drinking affects my fitness

Why was it so important to list out my reasons why?

Because, it confirmed to me that I needed to make a change to the way I was drinking. It was also a list that I could refer back to whenever I questioned whether my drinking really was ‘that bad’.

Looking through the list confirmed that I didn’t need to wait until my drinking was creating major issues in my life to know that I needed to change my relationship with alcohol​​.

What next?

Once I had written the reasons why I wanted to take back control of my drinking, I wrote a second ‘Why List’.

This was a list of all the reasons I liked to drink and it was important in helping me to delve into my thoughts and beliefs around drinking.

I’ve written about it in this blog post.

Need support?

In the meantime if you need support, you can book in for a free 30-minute discussion call where we can discuss your situation and the options available.