need advice!!

[virgostar222]

hey guys! i'm trying the whole moderation thing since i am out of college now and want to rid of that lifestyle. in the past 40 days i've probably drank a total of 6 times. however now my tolerance has completely lowered so what are good ways to test it while out so i don't over do it? On friday i had two drinks when i went out to dinner and i was fine. then after work last night i had 3 drinks and i was drunk! I don't like the feeling of being drunk now after i've cut back on my drinking ALOT! so how do i go out and test my tolerance? basically i'm just assuming after 2 drinks switch to water. any other good tips to moderate? thanks!!

[frances]

need advice!!

Hi Virgostar - I am sort of new here - came about 2 years ago and tried to moderate and then left after a few months and went right back into the same old habit of drinking too much. I know there is a lot of really good information and tips and tricks on the long term moderators section - there are quite a few people who have done a good job coming up with a plan for moderating and being successful. One piece of advice I see all the time is to come up with a plan so that you know what you're going to do and what your rules are going to be. It sounds like you've cut back your drinking a lot - 6 times in 40 days is really good - so that is an excellent step! Your idea of sticking to only two drinks when you do decide to drink is also a very good one. I think a lot of the people here who are trying to moderate have tried to limit themselves, when they do drink, to one or two drinks so you seem to be right on track there. For myself, I have a problem with drinking every day, maybe not always excessively, but always at least two and more often than not, four to six drinks so, my plan is to only drink on special occasions (out with friends, at family events) but not at home. I'm home most evenings and rarely have 'occasions' to drink so I'm hoping this will work for me. You've picked a good time to try to figure this out - I drank entirely too much when I was out of college and so much of that time in my life seems a blur that I really regret that! Good luck to you!

[Eve11]

need advice!!

Hi virgostar,

It's so easy for young people to get in that habit of abusing AL so good for you that you want to nip that and get your drinking under better control.

As Frances said, coming up with a plan of how much, how often is always a I good idea. I try to follow the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcoholism's (NIAAA) recommendation of no more than 7 drinks per week for women and for men it's no more than 14 drinks per week. Also, no more than 3 drinks in one evening.

The moderators tend to all post on the long term mod thread whether you're long term or not so I encourage you to come over there. Frances, you don't seem to post much there - we'd love to hear more of what you have to say.

Have a great day!
Eve11