Tips to quit drinking are all over the internet, mostly from well-meaning authors and practitioners who want to provide help to those who want to stop drinking alcohol. We summarize them for you here for your convenience and easy recall. Let us call them the 7 R’s.

1. Rationalize your quitting – Make sure your reasons for quitting are perfectly reasonable and logical. Emotions may change. Willpower is built on strong logic. Make a list of your reasons. And add more reasons each day. The more rational your purpose for quitting is, the easier the process will be.

2. Reclaim Your Power Over Alcohol – Despite what the 12-step programs teach you, you have power over alcohol.  Always remember that alcohol is powerless before you. Do not surrender your will to a mere substance; you are far more powerful than that.  YOU control what YOU put into YOUR body!  It don’t go in if YOU don’t put it there!  It’s that simple…

3. Rally your support – it is time to focus on that group of people who care for you so much that they are willing to support your decision to quit drinking. Perhaps among all the tips to quit drinking, this one is most essential since the decision to stop requires a collective willpower and clear programming. There ought to be a clear plan that your support group can help you to implement.

4. Regain your strength – Before you were addicted to alcohol, you were a strong person. You have these inner strengths – self-control, discipline, commitment, endurance. Regain all of them. Admit that you have them and use them when needed.

5. Recognize Your Weaknesses – Fact is your drinking habit is following a pattern. Maybe it is a specific type of alcohol like whiskey or beer. Maybe it is the time of day. Maybe it is the kind of crowd you go out with during weekends. There are specific patterns that lead to the abusive drinking. Change them. If during the week you drink a couple of bottles of beer but on a weekend go you on binge drinking on scotch with your friends. That weekend binge is your weakness. Change your pattern. Take charge of your weakness. Control the conditions.

6. Recall the Bad Times: There are times when you remember good memories related to alcohol. These memories might encourage you to drink. If that happens, recall the bad times. The shame, the pain, the embarrassment, the agony, the guilt, the loss and those moments when alcohol was the influential partner that helped destroy your real relationships, your career, and your life, bring them all to mind.

7. Rewrite your script – Be aware of your statements inside and outside. Avoid ambiguity like “I am trying to stop drinking”, or “I’m so tempted to drink.” Use more empowering sentences such as, “Today I don’t drink because I care for myself.” Your inner statements should be as positive and as empowering as you can possibly make them.  Declare your victory before it happens. Tell yourself “I have recovered from alcohol abuse.”

As we mentioned earlier, there are countless tips to quit drinking alcohol but all of them can be summarized in these seven easy-to-remember processes. Take each step carefully, spend some time with each of them and you will on your way towards recovery.