I want to share with you some of the responses from the survey to find out about your problems with drinking and what you have tried to do about it. Some of this may strike a chord with you and mirror your own experiences.

Thank you if you took part. If you didn’t yet get the chance, please fil in the brief survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MZ6FLGN

First of all congratulations to you if you were one of the people who were already able to give up alcohol. Some people used AA or other support, other people used sheer willpower.

The end results they were enjoying included better relationships with their family, greater business success and feeling much better about themselves. So, well done.

However, a lot of people are still having problems with alcohol. Some of the main issues they mentioned were:

- Once they started drinking, many people could not stop. They did not have a limit. This was my exact problem as well

- Other people have a habit of drinking at specific times e.g. lunchtime whisky or a glass of wine at the end of the day (which often becomes more). Others needed weekends for drinking

- Other people were worried about their health. Even then they kept drinking.  Especially when members of their family also experienced certain problems

The pain and frustration people are feeling with their drinking:

- A disconnection with their family, beliefs and friends

- Setting a bad role model for their children some of whom are in their formative years

- The embarrassment they create for themselves and not remembering whether they need to apologise for their actions

- Feeling like they are out of control

- Disappointment that they cannot stop drinking

- Not knowing who to trust or where to turn for help

I am not sure whether you share some of these frustrations or disappointments.

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.

Please watch this short video from the prestigious Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC defines binge drinking to be where 4 or more drinks per occasion are taken by a woman or 5 or more drinks per occasion for a man.

You will see the shocking statistics about binge drinking. The problem is that many Americans believe binge drinking is socially acceptable.

Here are some highlights about the issues of binge drinking:

A wide range of health and social problems. About 70% of the 1.5 billion episodes of binge drinking in the US each year are for adults over 26 years. Over 80% of binge drinkers are not alcohol dependent or alcoholics. Binge drinking episodes go up with socio-economic status.

There are a lot of interesting facts in this video. Whilst it does get a bit prescriptive at the end (e.g. limiting alcohol sale outlets) and some of the information is aimed at community level, I think this is a useful video to watch to understand whether you might be affected by binge drinking.

Just increasing your awareness about whether or not you might be binge drinking is the first step in dealing with it.

You can find more information about the CDC’s pages on binge drinking here:http://www.cdc.gov/VitalSigns/BingeDrinking/

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.

Here is a five a half minute video from the University of Sheffield on knowing your limits on alcohol and what it does to you both in the short and long-term. It talks about what impact it has on you and what exactly you can do to drink sensibly and safely.

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.

It can often be difficult to really acknowledge that you are drinking too much. You might have been drinking for a long time and not feel too drunk. However drinking excessively could be doing damage to yourself.

So here is a little test you can take to really understand if you are drinking too much. This is normally what a medical practitioner will give you to fill in as a form of assessment. It is a 10 question test developed by the World Health Organisation and should be quite accurate in helping you assess your current situation with alcohol.

It is called the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, or AUDIT and if you score above 8 there can be no more cop-outs. It is time to face up to the truth.

www.tinyurl.com/yzzaje3

Take the test and see your score. Please note this is not intended to replace you seeing your medical practitioner and you must make an appointment with them to deal with your alcohol issues. However, this is a good start.

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.

If you have been drinking too much, I would like to ask you to think about why it is that you are drinking too much.

Is it for the following reasons:

Boredom

Low Self-Esteem

Work/Stress

Money Worries

Relationship Issues

Habit of Drinking

Grief

Other Issues

It is very important to work out what are the underlying causes of your alcohol drinking. In some cases, this is more important than just focusing on the actual alcohol drinking. Often, just changing your routine or who you spend a lot of time with, will automatically deal with the alcohol problem.

Tomorrow, I will hopefully be meeting the author of a book on moods and managing your moods. I am hoping to feature her material in the new version of the alcohol course I am working on. Now, she says in order to improve your mood – which is a key reason for drinking alcohol – to change your mood – there are five elements you can look to.

Surroundings, your physical health, relationships, what you know and being yourself and expressing yourself are keys to making a difference. I went to a workshop with her where she said someone was depressed but as soon as they changed their home, the depression suddenly disappeared.

Certainly something like doing regular physical exercise (as long as you check with your medical practitioner you are ok to start beforehand) cannot but help to get you automatically feeling better about yourself and hopefully less likely to reach for a drink.

Relationships is a simple one – there are some people with whom it is seemingly impossible not to be able to spend time without drinking or others who almost cause you to need to drink!

Competence in yourself and what you can do – creates confidence as I have been told. Alcohol can be a way of dealing with the emotional pain of not being good enough, so investing in your skill-set and expertise might be a way of overcoming these feelings.

Expressing yourself in my view has something to do with doing what you love. If you have to conform to something you are not really invested in, then you are not going to feel good. Alcohol may dampen the pain in the short run but only by making big changes will you be able to start feeling better about your life. It can be a scary thing to contemplate which is why the alcohol is a nice way of dealing with this. But the side-effects and the long-term price you are paying is a high one.

So, please look deeply into why you are drinking too much and also whether you can make some changes which might have an immediate and almost automatic effect on your drinking.

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.

I would like to include this interesting video from YouTube about real-life women and their alcohol problems. What is interesting here is how common some of these drinking issues are and most importantly how some of these problems start and continue gradually. 

Here is the description of the video from the Research Channel on YouTube:

This program by the National Institues of Health features narratives of seven women recovering from problems with alcohol. These stories make it clear that it’s possible to miss danger signs and that social drinking can become problem drinking, which in turn can evolve into addiction. Abuse and alcoholism are often perceived as problems that only affect men, but alcoholism has been on the rise among women for the last 30 years.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with the term alcoholism – heavy drinking or alcohol addiction I believe are better words – because they can be broken and are in your control to deal with, I still think this video raises some important life stories and challenges.

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.

A short video which explains what alcohol does to your brain. It tells you what happens biologically to you. Find out more here:

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.

A key problem leading to alcohol is simply the habit of drinking. You are so used to reaching for a drink at a certain time in a certain place that that is the way life is. You have not questioned it.

This was exactly the case for me when I was drinking. Two to three times per week, I would go out either with my friends for a meal and then to a bar or after my acting class on a Friday night. It was almost like a ritual and alcohol was the one factor  Icould be sure of.

The same can go for people who drink a glass of wine or more each evening after work or when the kids have gone to bed etc.

If you can stop before this happens and realise it is almost like an automatic response you can plan for other activities instead. E.g. drinking a soft drink or glass of water or even changing the way you drink – drinking more slowly or with food etc.

Just some way in which you break the unconscious habit so you don’t get out of control with your drinking. This can mean you can keep drinking without losing control or even take a break.

So please look at your habits. When do you drink? Is it something you have come to expect and almost would defend your right to do this vigorously? Well, if you are reading this blog then this habit has got to change in some way. Once you become aware of the habit you can start asking yourself what new habit do you want to do instead – e.g. go for a run after work instead of a glass of wine, going to the cinema on Friday nights instead of to the bar or changing the type of drink or how you drink it.

Please let me know your ideas as to what your habits with alcohol are and how you will change them.

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.

You may feel that you could have a problem with your drinking. Either you may be starting to become aware of how much you are drinking or you may already know this for sure.

Wherever you are, always the first step is to really understand that your drinking is actually an issue which is starting to affect you and those around you.

To be sure of where you stand in relationship to alcohol at the current moment, it is worth you asking yourself a few questions.

The Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC) has produced some questions you might want to consider asking yourself if you are worried about your alcohol intake: http://www.alcohol.org.nz/IsThereAProblemContent.aspx?PostingID=901

Here are their questions in more detail:

Please visit ALAC’s website for more information and resources to help you decide whether to control your drinking and indeed, how to cut down:

http://www.alcohol.org.nz

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.

One of the most rewarding but also challenging things we can do in life is to raise a family, especially with yound children who can demand all of your time, energy and attention. In situations like this, it can be very tempting to turn to a glass of wine or cold beer to relax yourself.

If this is your situation, I would like to refer you to the Drink Aware website which has an article about this:

http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-and-you/young-parents

They refer to a survey of 3,000 mothers of young children conducted by the website Netmums.com. Of these, half of mums drank at home three or four times per week and about one quarter said they drank over the recommended limit.

This suggests that it is unfortunately a very common situation. Obviously if it is only one drink, enjoyed slowly and without pressure to drink anymore, that is fine. However the problem comes when one drink leads to another and another. According to the Drinkaware article, women are recommended to have no more than 2 to 3 units of alcohol per day. A half bottle of wine can have 4 to 5 units. so that would put you over the limit and be damaging to your health.

So, what can you do about it? Drink Aware recommends a few things, including eating before you drink, swapping the alcohol for soft drinks some days and doing things with your partner which do not involve drinking. You can also look at changing your routine so not watching tv or doing your usual activities. Also, when you do drink, drink slowly and savour each sip.

Also think about other thing s you can do like yoga at home or having a nice relaxing bubble bath etc. Find other ways to deal with the stress so that when you do drink, you are doing it to enjoy it and not as way of relaxation or dealing with stress etc.

Click here to check out my tools and resources to help you take control of your drinking.