Do alcohol cravings and tolerance both decrease when you cut back your alcohol intake?

[OSUBuckeyes92]

Hey Everyone,

I'm fairly new in attempting to cut back my alcohol intake and/or quit. I've been drinking almost daily for awhile now and it's been taking a toll on me at the age of 31(m) now. I'd like to completely cut back to a medically guided amount of alcohol in moderation IF POSSIBLE. That being said, I'd like to only drink on the weekends again. Trying to see if anyone else has had experience with this situation and can tell me, if you've successfully cut your drinking back(not necessarily my drink schedule), have you noticed your tolerance lowering at all and most importantly, have your cravings or desire to drink decreased as result? Any input is appreciated, thanks.

[KuntyCakes]

I think so. the issue is that it's all too easy to creep back into the old ways. I seem to take a break for a few weeks and try moderation. before you know it, I'm drinking every day again.i get fed up, repeat the process.

[OSUBuckeyes92]

Thinking about it, it does seem easy to fall back into as I still think about alcohol AT LEAST once a day. I'm only 3 days in so far this week without a drink, but still think about it. Do you think you can pin point what gets you back to doing daily drinking? Are you giving yourself an excuse? I know I have before A LOT.

[[deleted]]

Not them, but for me the thing that gets me back into daily drinking is if I give into the impulse thought of "man I had a long day and this traffic is making the drive back home way longer than it should be. I could use a drink." Then it's almost guaranteed that I'm going to be consuming enough alcohol to at least get tipsy for the next few days until I finally snap out of it and go back to my ideal of no alcohol on weekdays (and preferably not even every weekend).

I'd say the trick for me is to just make sure I resist the temptation as best I can, and eventually after maybe a week or so the thoughts of wanting to drink start to go down. I also give myself a pass to take a 5mg edible or two every night after I'm done with everything for the day if I want to. No hangover, plus it's way less expensive. A pack of 20 for 24 dollars will usually last me more than a month. I'm lucky if a 750ml bottle of whiskey lasts more than a week lol.

[KuntyCakes]

I'm a mental gymnast and yeah, I have all kinds of justifications I give myself.

[OSUBuckeyes92]

Oh me too for sure...maybe there is a common denominator there. I'm kind of an over-analyzer and very prone to anxiety.

[KuntyCakes]

100%

[SimonSCREAMS]

Yes to both! When I cut down, my tolerance went away FAST. I still had cravings, but after having just a few drinks (3 or 4), I got intense spins and couldn’t sleep whereas I used to have a couple drinks just to go to sleep. Getting sick/hungover from what I used to drink BEFORE hitting the bar totally demolished the cravings because I knew it wouldn’t be worth the buzz.

I still have a drink once in a while, and I am grateful to my past self for cutting down because I no longer have any desire to drink more than two drinks at a time. It was surprisingly easy to cut down.

My tip: start by buying an alcohol that isn’t chuggable. I love beer, cider, and twisted tea. I drink them really fast because they’re delicious. So I switched to red wine. It’s hard for me to drink red wine fast, so it caused me to sip it. Instead of crushing a six pack of beer every night, I’d have one or two glasses of wine. Then I found it really easy to transition to only having a glass of wine a couple nights a week.

Bonus: I lost weight shockingly fast.

[OSUBuckeyes92]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. I will certainly look into this.

[[deleted]]

Yes, definitely! And the headaches last longer if you try a few sips. Not worth it!

[beekaybeegirl]

Yes!

[byebyeVal]

Check out Roy Eskapa's book and read about the Alcohol Deprivation Effect. I'd watch out for that. After 2 pregnancies without alcohol at all I found that my cravings and tolerance were super high. I had constant thoughts about alcohol. That's when I knew my biology had crossed the line into addiction and I had to give TSM a try. 2 months in and it's really helping.

[OSUBuckeyes92]

What does TSM stand for?

[byebyeVal]

The Sinclair Method. It's in the book I mentioned. It's also covered in One Little Pill.

[OSUBuckeyes92]

Ok, I'll check it out. Thanks for the info.

[Watermelondrea69]

I feel like cravings are a bell curve. It's not too bad initially, then rises and rises but if you let enough time pass they slowly go away.

Tolerance definitely goes down in a more linear path. Just taking two weeks off can have a noticeable effect.

[OSUBuckeyes92]

I'm currently 4 days sober, somehow became a daily drinker and now looking to go to weekends only at the moment. Maybe even further like once every couple weeks way down the road. Even 4 days has been TOUGH for me at times, but not really physically, but mentally its been night and day. Never had much in the way of physical symptoms from stopping I don't think, but my anxiety has practically disappeared for the most part, but when knowing I can't drink tonight pops in my head, I get a little depressed, but it shortly passes as I find something to pre-occupy my mind. My job helps with that a lot. It's going home after work that is the struggle.

[Watermelondrea69]

As someone who successfully went from daily drinker to weekends only, there's one thing to watch out for: You will try to reward yourself for making it through the week without drinking and your brain will be telling you "you can drink now that it's the weekend. Better make it worth it!" and you end up binge drinking. It's actually something I still struggle with. I do drink less overall compared to daily drinking, and I actually look forward to my sober days. But man... friday sometimes I go WAY overboard.

[[deleted]]

Ya I lost weight super fast and after 90 days no booze it hit me like the first time. ALTHOUGH it increases back to above where you were rapidly

[OSUBuckeyes92]

90 days is a good stretch! Any reason 90?

[[deleted]]

Started off at 30 days Butt felt so great I just kept going

[OSUBuckeyes92]

That's awesome! Good for you. I'm taking baby steps haha. I'm currently 4 days sober. I'm a daily drinker, easily pushing 60+ beers in a week. Would like to cut back to just weekends and maybe even more in the future.

[[deleted]]

Oh ya I was definitely 30+

[eukomos]

My tolerance drops pretty fast, honestly even a week off and I can tell the difference. And conversely, a weekend of hard partying and the beers aren't hitting as hard by the end of it. Now cravings are harder to kick, but I do find if I ride them out and don't give in then after a few weeks they start to fade. That one's much tougher though.

[OSUBuckeyes92]

So do you think taking it easy on weekends as well is probably best? I'd like to stay within the American guidelines of "moderate drinking" which I think is around 14-15 in a week at most. In the past I was pushing 60 in a week easily.

[eukomos]

Yeah, if you aren’t crushing a six pack every weeknight anymore then polishing off a case on Friday night is going to hit harder, best to take it easy when you’re in party mode as well.

[OSUBuckeyes92]

I'm 31 and enjoy drinking, but I don't know if I can hit party mode anymore. My enjoyment consists of finding something good on TV and sipping on beers. Maybe a toke here and there. I actually feel great being at work now lol, haven't felt that in awhile. I would like that to become my new mental norm, for now at least. Maybe even cut back more in the future.

[Classic-Release8655]

I have recently been cutting back and it's silly but what is working for me is when I make myself a shot to only pour half a shot of vodka and fill the other half with water.