Why do I drink, and what can I do instead?

Adapted from Try Dry®: The Official Guide to a Month Off Booze.

Ever use alcohol as a reward? Yeah, I know the feeling. You’ve had a hard day and a nice cold beer/glass of Cab Sav/Babycham would go down nicely. After all, you deserve it. So what will you do during your dry month? Well, just because you’re not drinking doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself – you just need to change the treat. Planning a little something for each evening so you’ve got something to look forward to will help to beat the midweek blues and keep you on track. In the immortal words of Donna from Parks and Rec: ‘Treat yo’self!’

Instead of drinking, you could: have a hot bath with scented candles; eat chocolate; trip to the gym; not check social media for an hour whilst reading a magazine/novel/birdwatching guide/literally anything that isn’t Facebook; play guitar; do a face mask, get a pedicure; eat chocolate; get a takeaway instead of cooking; cook instead of nuking something from the freezer; throw darts at a picture of your boss; eat chocolate. OK, enough of the chocolate; go on a bike ride; have a midweek film night; go for an evening walk; try horse riding (as you do); have an hour on Xbox/PlayStation/games console of your choice…

It’s also important to recognise that alcohol companies have a big role to play here too. They spend millions putting alcohol in the spotlight, ensuring it’s all around us, everywhere we go. From TV soaps, to billboards, to greeting cards, we’re told alcohol is essential to a good night out or the default position for everyday life. Something to celebrate? Let’s drink to that! Had a bad day? Have a drink, you’ll feel better. Feeling stressed? Relax with a cold one.

So, as well as considering our own reasons to drink, we also need to be mindful of the environment around us which encourages us to drink. By normalising alcohol in this way, it can influence how much and how often we drink. This can make it harder to cut down or stop drinking, even when we want to.

But by understanding our triggers and putting in place strategies that can help us through them is a great place to start. It’s also time for the government to make big alcohol companies tell the truth about alcohol and introduce restrictions on how they can promote their products so we know the real impacts of alcohol on our health and wellbeing.

But if it’s not as a treat, why do you drink? We all have our reasons but most of us don’t take the time to work out what role alcohol plays in our life. What are your reasons for drinking? Have a look at this list and see which apply:

Once you’ve got these in front of you, is there anything else you could do to get a similar effect? What you’re trying to do here is find something positive to fill the role that alcohol plays in your life. That way you haven’t lost something; you’ve replaced it.

If you pick all of them – believe me, life will get a whole lot more interesting when you stop using alcohol as your default solution for everything.

Once you’ve got your reasons for drinking and alternative in your mind, you can prepare. That means that when you're home during Dry January^® or your Try Dry^® Anytime challenge and fancy a glass of something you know that what you’re really craving is being able to relax – and you can bust out that pre-bought box of chocolates/video games/bubble bath.