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What are the health effects of not drinking alcohol for one month? A promising study that looks at what one month free of booze can do to your body. Therapy, medication, and recovery programs can all have benefit for reducing and preventing cravings. Combining medication with therapy and other interventions can prove even more helpful than medication alone.
What can you take naturally to stop drinking?
Start by eating healthy and exercising regularly. Make sure you get plenty of sleep, practice relaxation techniques such as yoga or meditation, and avoid triggers that might lead to drinking alcohol. Other home remedies you can use include herbal teas or supplements.
Sometimes, these will go hand in hand, leading to alcohol cravings, especially in the early phases of recovery. Your thoughts and emotions, your environment, and your physical responses to alcohol combine to form triggers that can lead you to want to drink. There are several ways you can help control alcohol cravings and better manage your urge to drink. You might also encounter strong cravings to drink when you have idle time in your schedule. This may happen often if you have used alcohol to relieve boredom in the past. Whether you developed this habit or not, keeping yourself busy with a range of fulfilling activities can distract you from the urge to drink.
Foods That Actually Reduce Alcohol Cravings
When you drink alcohol, your brain releases dopamine, a chemical messenger that stimulates pleasure and reward-seeking behavior. Consuming alcohol also impacts your glutamate system, which regulates learning and memory, and directly affects the brain’s plasticity, or ability to change. When disrupted, both dopamine and your glutamate system can https://ecosoberhouse.com/ change the way your brain works. Certain symptoms of withdrawal can make this situation even worse. Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
However, there are foods that help with alcohol cravings, providing a more natural approach to recovery. Topiramateis a prescription medication how to stop alcohol cravings generally used foralcoholic seizure treatment. Your body converts alcohol to sugar, which then spikes your blood sugar levels.
How To Have A Difficult Conversation About Addiction With Your Loved One
Cayenne pepper- Works well in curbing alcohol cravings as well as aiding in your detox process by decreasing some of your withdrawal symptoms including nausea or vomiting. Raw spinach- spinach provides you with fiber, vitamins, and minerals that aid in your metabolic rate. Spinach contains an L-glutamine that breaks down into an amino acid that works to benefit anxiety and reduces alcohol cravings. Fortunately, urges to drink are short-lived, predictable, and controllable. This short activity offers a recognize-avoid-cope approach commonly used in cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps people to change unhelpful thinking patterns and reactions.
The urge to drink may also come if you’re trying to cope with negative feelings. Counseling, medication, support from family and friends, changing your diet, taking supplements, and alternative treatments may all help lessen your alcohol cravings. Although the available evidence is mixed or lacking in humans, the following natural supplements, herbs, and vitamins might help curb alcohol cravings . In addition to reducing daily drinking, naltrexone has been shown to reduce alcohol cravings as a measurable symptom . To reduce alcohol cravings, it helps to understand that the temptation to have a drink is common. Even when you’ve resolved not to drink, cravings are rooted in both psychological and physical factors.