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You’re trying to stop drinking, and maybe you’ve been successful for a while. You’ve managed to control your alcohol intake to reasonable levels, or you’ve managed to stay completely sober for some time.

So then what do you do if you have a lapse? You drink again, far more than you intended to, waking the next morning feeling terrible, that you’ve let yourself down maybe?

How you view this lapse will determine how you react to it. If you see it as a sign of failure, then your self esteem will… Continue

Many people do not accept their own feelings - especially the negative ones. When you feel angry, you might tell yourself, “oh no, I shouldn’t feel angry about it”, or maybe “why do I feel so lonely, what’s wrong with me” ?

But the key to mental health (or suffering a bit less at least), is accepting your own feelings as they are, and not judging yourself for having them. That doesn’t mean they’ll suddenly go away, but just that you realise that its OK to be feeling them, there’s nothing wrong… Continue

Have you become dependent on alcohol to give you self confidence? Many of our clients say they have no self confidence left because of their drinking. Sometimes they feel so guilty about their behaviour, towards their families for the pain they’ve caused them, for instance.

Eventually you might lose your belief in your own abilities or worth. If you can’t socialize comfortably when you’re sober, if you don’t think you’re entertaining / clever / open enough without having a drink first, then you… Continue

One of the biggest difficulties people face when they’re trying to stop drinking is what to do when other people are drinking alcohol around them.

The temptation to have a drink yourself is one aspect of it - “they can do it, so why can’t I?” Seeing them getting merry, and desperately wanting a taste too. How are you supposed to resist the urge?

The other aspect is, you begin to realise your drunk friends are actually quite tiresome, their sense of humour doesn’t quite match yours anymore, you… Continue

An extract from a plant known in the US as “the vine that ate the South” may help reduce alcohol consumption in heavy drinkers, a small-scale study suggests.

Previous research has shown that kudzu plant extract has helped reduce alcohol drinking in rats and hamsters, but this is the first study to show the effect in humans. The plant was introduced to the US to combat soil erosion but has now become a persistent weed.

In the study, people who were given kudzu extract for seven days drank about… Continue