Last Updated:
March 4th, 2024
Managing cravings and temptations when in recovery from any addiction is extremely difficult, but alcohol addiction comes with an added dimension. Alcohol is legal, ubiquitous and woven into the social fabric, which can make recovery more challenging.
Deciding to stop drinking in a culture where it isn’t just accepted but often encouraged is a difficult and brave one. You may have explored how to reduce alcohol consumption safely and found that, for you, the safest thing to do is not drink at all. If that’s the case, this guide is for you. We’re going to look at some practical strategies for overcoming alcohol cravings during recovery and what to do if your cravings feel overwhelming.
I’ve decided to quit – what now?
The early days of recovery can be extremely difficult. Everything makes you think of alcohol, and you don’t necessarily need a cue to start craving a drink.
This is due to the mechanism of withdrawal. Even if you didn’t undergo the severe physical symptoms of withdrawal, many people will experience insomnia, irritability, depression and anxiety. Even though you know it will be worse for you in the long run, you know that taking a drink will temporarily alleviate these symptoms.
In addition, you will have become accustomed to the massive rise in dopamine that drinking causes. Over time, your brain starts to compensate for these times when your brain is flooded with dopamine via a process called downregulation. Downregulation means your brain becomes less sensitive to dopamine, and you need more and more alcohol to feel buzzed.
This is responsible for two features: addiction and recovery. It drives the progressive narrowing of what brings you pleasure – you will feel like nothing else, or very few things, makes you feel as good as alcohol does. It also drives feelings of depression and emptiness when you quit – other pleasurable activities that aren’t alcohol won’t feel as good until your brain has regained its sensitivity to dopamine.
Early recovery is when you need a solid plan to get through these difficult times, and support to stick to it. Fortunately, there are multiple strategies that increase your chance of success.
Identifying triggers
Triggers are highly individual, and what may be a trigger to you might not be to someone else – so finding out yours is important. Common triggers for alcohol cravings include:
- Places – bars, clubs and restaurants
- Certain rooms in your house
- Parties
- Public spaces
- Specific meals you usually drank during, such as dinner
- The people around you
- Being alone
- The sights and sounds of alcohol such as glasses clinking
- The time of day, or day of the week
Your triggers may include most, none or just some of these, and there may be some that are specific to you – so it’s helpful to make a list of your own. When you notice a craving, look around you or take note of the emotions that you’re experiencing. What is it in your environment or your emotional state that’s caused the trigger? Writing these down helps you to create your list so you can be prepared. This can provide a roadmap of things to avoid, a greater awareness of situations you find challenging, and what to bring up when exploring these triggers with therapists, groups or supportive friends.
Dealing with triggers
It may seem sensible to avoid drinking triggers altogether, but this isn’t always possible. Alcohol is everywhere, and triggers may exist in places you can’t avoid, like certain rooms in your house. Triggers also may be:
- External – places, people, times
- Internal – emotions like frustration, boredom, or loneliness.
For challenging triggers that can be avoided, especially in the early days of recovery, it may be sensible to avoid these situations altogether. This can be as simple as refusing to go to a bar, changing your route home from work so you don’t pass your favourite pub or rethinking whether you can accept a party invite. However, some places and people just cannot be avoided, and internal triggers, such as emotional states, can’t be simply ignored. Different tactics will be needed to deal with these triggers.
Desensitising yourself to triggers
Desensitisation is the process of exposing yourself to a trigger in a safe way until the trigger’s effect is diminished. One method of doing this is called Cue Exposure Therapy (CET).
Researchers have been experimenting with virtual reality as a way of using CET in a safe way, by setting up virtual worlds to recreate realistic triggering environments.
However, this isn’t available to the majority of people, and in reality, desensitisation is a slow process that will occur organically as you navigate the world in recovery.
Cue desensitisation is about picking your battles. As you encounter situations that trigger your desire to drink but do not do so, these situations will diminish in their ability to trigger cravings. However, it’s important to be alert and mindful during this process and ensure you’re able to leave these situations or seek support if you begin to get overwhelmed, particularly in early recovery.
Short-term strategies for overwhelming cues include positive self-talk, distracting yourself, challenging your thoughts and leaving the situation. This is where a good support network can be indispensable.
Group support
Many people immediately think of groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous when they think of ways to help an alcoholic, but they aren’t the only support you can tap into. If you’re in alcohol rehab, you will likely be offered group therapy as part of your support – but you can seek out these groups outside of rehab. You can also find a supportive group through less formal means. These can be friends who are also sober, or who are supportive of your recovery. Having people to turn to when alcohol temptation becomes overwhelming can be a lifeline and is the basis of the sponsor system in AA.
As well as helping you to face triggers at the moment, group therapy helps you to understand and build strategies to face your addiction when you aren’t in a triggering environment. Group therapy offers mutual support, reduces isolation, gives you information and skills from other people facing the same struggles, and allows you to witness people further ahead in recovery, which can be a powerful motivator. People in group therapy will have their own triggers and coping strategies – talking these through with them will give you new insights into how to deal with yours.
One-on-one support
In addition to CET and CBT, many other therapies can bolster your ability to manage cravings and stay abstinent, whilst also addressing the underlying causes of your addiction.
A safe place to explore your feelings and talk about what fuels your drive to drink can be a valuable recovery tool, and many therapy modalities can accommodate this. Some types of therapy which are specific to addiction include:
- Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MI), which focuses on helping you gain the motivation to stop drinking. This is useful for people who are ambivalent about quitting, but can also be useful for people who do feel motivation, as this is not always constant – when you’re exposed to a trigger, your motivation to not drink will be lowered.
- Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), a form of CBT. This focuses on exploring and accepting difficult thoughts and feelings, which can be major triggers in relapse.
Alcohol addiction treatment
If you’re struggling with alcohol addiction and feel like there’s nowhere to turn, we can help.
Our alcohol rehab programmes are tailored to each individual, taking into account your own personal triggers and empowering you with the tools you need to overcome them and live a happier, healthier life.