Blog Rich Lombino, Therapist & Lawyer. Therapy in Wilmington DE and West Chester PA and by video and phone. Help for stress, anxiety, depression, couples, marriage, divorce and other concerns.

Podcast Episode: Managing Alcohol Use

12/31/2020

New podcast episode: Managing Alcohol Use. Learn some strategies for managing your alcohol use, whether it’s New Years Eve or any time alcohol will be a part of your day. Please subscribe, rate and comment, and share this podcast on social media and otherwise. Available on Apple, Google, Pandora and Spotify. See the transcript below.

Happy new year everyone. Here’s a brief message sending some good vibes and thoughts your way.

I think we’re all very happy to be done with 2020. Hope is a theme I hear a lot these days. And myself feel. We’re hopeful for the end of covid. Getting things as back to normal as possible. And hopefully whatever the new normal is, it’ll be much better than what we experienced in 2020.

Since we’re at New Year’s time, I wanted to also briefly mention alcohol use, since this is a holiday many go further than they intended to at the beginning of the evening. Whether it’s beer, wine, liquor or other forms, alcohol is an important part of many of our lives. If we’re going to drink, then drinking responsibly is the way to go. We’ve all heard that many times. But if it’s challenging for you to manage your drinking, here’s some things that can help.

It’s important to come up with a plan or strategy for the evening ahead of time, be clear on it, and ideally let others you’ll be with know about it. When you’re hitting 10pm and your buddy is pushing you for more shots, it can be much more difficult to resist if you’re not clear on your boundaries.

What do I mean by a plan? Some ideas include only having lower alcohol drinks than you usually do. Skip that 9% double IPA and go for a 5%’er. Instead of a martini, try a gin and tonic.

Spacing out your drinks is another strategy. Rather than going from one drink to another, have a water or seltzer in between. Alcohol can dehydrate you and make you feel worse the next day, so you have an added benefit by doing this.

Drink much slower than usual. If it normally takes you 15 minutes to drink a glass of wine, try to extend it to a half hour or more.

Ultimately, the goal is to come up with a system that works for you. It may take some time, but if you work hard on it, you can do it. I believe in you. And I’m here to help if you need some extra support.

Wishing everyone a great new year. Talk to you in 2021.

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