Action advice

From your response it appears that changing your drinking habits is very important to you and you are ready to make a change. Fortunately most people can stop or reduce their drinking if they decide to do so and work hard at changing their drinking habits.

Low risk drinking involves limiting alcohol use to amounts or patterns that are unlikely to cause harm to oneself or others. The risk of harm increases significantly when people consume more than 2-3 standard drinks per day for women and more than 3-4 standard drinks per day for men and more than five days per week.

As your drinking places you in the higher-risk category, you risk causing harm to yourself and others. Having 3 or more drinks on one occasion creates the risks of "accidents" involving injuries, problem in relationships and at work, and medical problems such as hangovers, sleeplessness and stomach problems. Drinking more than two drinks per day over extended periods may cause cancer, liver disease, depression, and dependence on alcohol.

This picture shows the kinds of health problems that are caused by high-risk drinking. The best way to avoid these problems is to cut down on how often and how much you drink so that you reduce your risk, or stop drinking entirely. Many people find it possible to make changes in their drinking.

There are a number of benefits of cutting down:

Physical

• Reduced risk of injury
• Reduced risk of high blood pressure
• Reduced risk of cancer
• Reduced risks of liver disease
• Reduced risks of brain damage
• Sleep better
• More energy
• Lose weight
• No hangovers
• Improved memory
• Better physical shape

Psychological/Social/Financial

• Improved mood
• Improved relationships
• Reduced risk of drink driving
• Save money

Improved mood due to

• Less stress
• Clearer thinking
• Better judgement
• Meeting more of my own personal standards.

Take a few minutes to consider the following:

Should I stop drinking or just cut down?

You should stop drinking if:

• You have tried to cut down before and have not been successful, or
• You suffer from morning shakes during a heavy drinking period, or
• You have high blood pressure, you are pregnant, you have liver disease, or
• You are taking medicines that react with alcohol
  

You should try to drink at low-risk levels if:

• During the last year you have been drinking at low-risk levels most of the time, and
• You do not suffer from early morning shakes, and
• You would like to drink at low-risk levels

Note that you should choose low-risk drinking only if all three apply to you.

If you choose to drink at Low risk levels the weekly guidelines for adults are:

• up to 14 standard drinks in a week for women, and
• up to 21 standard drinks in a week for men.

View more information on standard drinks.

It is essential to understand how much alcohol is contained in the different drinks you are drinking. Once you do this you can count your drinks and try to stay within low-risk limits.

Drinks should be spaced out over the week, not consumed in one sitting. Drinking more than these levels increases your chance of alcohol related health problems like accidents, injuries, high blood pressure, liver disease, cancer and heart disease. XXX Percentage of people in Ireland never exceed those levels.

Remember, drinks measures are not always the same. What you get in a pub and what you pour for yourself could be very different.

But remember there are times when these low risk guidelines do not apply- for example:

• if you're a teenager, it is healthier for teenagers not to drink alcohol
• when pregnant or breastfeeding
• if you're ill, run-down or taking medication
• When driving or operating machinery
• If you cannot control your drinking
• If you are over 65.

What things make you think that you should keep on drinking the way you have been and what about the other side? What makes you think that it's time for a change? What are the good things about changing your drinking and what are the not so good things?

Can system formulate feedback based on chart above e.g. while you enjoy drinking and find it relaxes you, you are also concerned about the amount of money you're spending on alcohol.You have identified a number of benefits if you were to cut down on your drinking?

Looking over what you've answered what do you think would work for you or help you most if you decided to change? When people successfully change their habits they usually follow a simple plan and choose a goal. There are a number of small changes people make to help them achieve their goal.

For example:

• When bored or stressed have a workout instead of drinking.
• Avoid going to the pub after work
• Plan activities and tasks at those times you would usually drink
• When you do drink, set yourself a limit and stick to it
• Have our first drink after starting to eat
• Quench your thirst with non-alcoholic drinks
• Avoid drinking in rounds or in large groups
• Switch to low alcohol beer/lager
• Avoid or limit the time spent with 'heavy' drinking friends

Even small changes to how you drink what you drink and when you drink can help you cut down on your alcohol consumption.

See further examples of changes that have worked for other people.

Change Plan worksheet

A plan for changing your drinking

Set yourself a goal to achieve change. Whether your goal is to cut down on your drinking or stop completely, please click here for some more information on both options. If you feel you would like to discuss making a plan with a professional trained in this field please click here for information on how to do so.

What?
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When?
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Recognise difficult times or situations

These are times when you're likely to have a drink you may otherwise not have had. Ask yourself how can I make sure that I'm not tempted, what can I do to stop myself? Identifying these times and planning how to deal with them will help you achieve your goal.

These situations could be in the company of particular people with whom you normally drink, when you're bored, lonely or a "time of day" habit- on the way home from work, when the children go to bed, a Friday night routine.

Time 1
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Time 2
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Time 3
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Prepare for difficult times or situations- think of ways for coping with these situations. E.g. change your route home from work to by-pass the pub you normally drink in. Plan some activity for times when you're going to feel bored or lonely. Switch to non-alcoholic drinks after 2 drinks.

Time 1
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Time 2
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Time 3
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Find someone to support you

Is there a family member/friend who might help?

Who will support you? Regardless of whether you wish to abstain from or reduce your alcohol consumption, the help of other people is important. One of the strongest predictors of changing a drinking pattern is the availability and use made of support from people who want you to succeed. Your support network can be made up of family, friends and/or professional services.

Remember, nobody's perfect, stick to your goals and if you don't succeed at first, try again!

What do you think you will do next?
The following might not necessarily work for you, but other people have found keeping a drink diary or talking the options through with someone trained in this field helpful. If you would like to discuss your results or changes you have decided to make in more detail, please click on the link for services or launch the live helper.

Link back to feedback on weekly drinking pattern and suggest what changes could make a difference in terms of cutting down?

On a scale of 0-10 please rate how confident are you that if you did cut down, you could stick at it: 0 (not confident at all) 10 (very confident)

If not confident at all or low scoring- include building confidence piece
Ask why they have rated themselves where they have. Why not higher or lower?
Ask where they would like to be?
Ask what need to happen for them to get to a higher point i.e. feeling more confident about changing their drinking behaviour.

Previous successes:

Try to think of a time in the past when you have successfully made changes in your life e.g. changing jobs, moving away from home, losing weight, giving up smoking. What helped you to make those changes? Was there anything in particular that could you to make a change now?

Other people in similar situations have made changes to their lives too. The hardest part can be acknowledging that you're ready for change and deciding to take the first step.

Please click here for tips on cutting down and other tools that people have found useful to help you take action to improve your health. If you follow this advice you can reduce your drinking to low risk limits. It may not be easy to reduce your drinking to these limits. If you go over the limits on an occasion, make an effort to learn why you did and plan how not to do it again using the tools on this site. If you always remember how important it is to reduce your alcohol related risk, you can do it. If you are finding it difficult to cut down please revisit this site and look at our links for services and the live helper section.

We recommend that you seek help from the local alcohol services for specialist assessment and support and advice in making your decision.

If you wish to read more information on alcohol please visit our Alcohol Info section. You can also view services in your area or launch the drugs.ie online interactive live helper chat service to speak to someone directly.