How to Stop Drinking Alcohol, Soda, and Coffee: Manage Your Addiction with These Tips

1. How to stop drinking alcohol

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When you’re trying to cut back or take an indefinite break from drinking alcohol, it’s important to take some time to explore your relationship with alcohol.

The first thing you’d want to do in order to learn how to stop drinking is to ask yourself some questions, like how much you actually drink, AND why you always drink that much in the first place. 

Plenty of people use alcohol to numb emotional pain or face stressful situations more easily. However, we should understand that drinking alcohol alone won’t solve whatever issues you’ve got—you really should manage your emotions and actually face the problems head-on. That’s why, knowing the reasons behind your alcohol use can help you explore alternative ways to address your issues more productively.

From there, you can start to pick the best approach that suits you. Keep your goal achievable; depending on how severe your alcohol dependence is, you can decide whether to give up alcohol entirely or just reduce the alcohol use. Complete sobriety isn’t a bad goal, of course, but it doesn’t have to be the only one.

Once you’ve set your goal, you can let your close ones help motivate you to stick with your decision. Finding alcohol recovery communities is another great choice—they usually offer addiction rehab programs including individual and group counseling sessions, medical and mental health support, adjunctive and complementary methods, and support groups.

Moreover, you can make a few changes in your typical routine like finding a new favorite drink, rediscovering hobbies, keeping a journal, and exploring other means to cope. The important thing is to always treat yourself kindly if your plan doesn’t stick at first. Quitting drinking alcohol is a big challenge and doing so can take time, so don’t be too harsh on yourself.

2. How to stop drinking soda

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The key to learning how to stop drinking soda and basically other drinks is similar. You have to find the root causes of your soda addiction and find a way to break the habit. How our brain works also has to do with our soda cravings, so you need to understand that mere willpower is not enough.

You can try to drink more water as in some cases, soda cravings could be confused with thirst. Know that when you’re thirsty, your body needs proper hydration, and instead of soda, water is the best option for this task. Soda contains caffeine, which is a diuretic, and as a result, drinking soda will actually dehydrate you.

The strong urge to drink soda can also be curbed by replacing the soda with some healthier sweet treats, such as fruits, flavored yogurt, or sugar-free chewing gum. Also, you can try a soda alternative like infused water, kombucha, herbal or fruit teas, as well as coconut water.

3. How to stop drinking coffee

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While coffee can positively influence your health and boost productivity, excessive caffeine consumption can be a real problem. And when you’re learning how to stop drinking coffee, you might also experience what is called as caffeine withdrawal.

This is especially the case when you try to quit caffeine abruptly. Those with a caffeine withdrawal often experience fatigue, anxiety, irritability, depressed mood, difficulty concentrating, drowsiness, brain fog, or flu-like symptoms with muscle aches.

You can avoid such unpleasant symptoms when learning to stop drinking coffee by limiting your daily caffeine consumption as well as gradually reducing the caffeine content of your beverage. You can also opt for herbal teas as a caffeine alternative. What’s more, getting extra sleep as well as fitting in a quick workout can help boost your energy without caffeine.