Once you get through that part of the process, you’ll start to feel better physically and mentally. Alcohol withdrawal refers to the physical and mental effects a person experiences after what happens when you stop drinking stopping prolonged and heavy alcohol use. When you suddenly stop drinking, your body is deprived of the effects of alcohol and requires time to adjust to functioning without it.
Risks and Complications
The mental health changes you experience when you stop drinking can include symptoms of withdrawal, difficulty sleeping, irritability, mood swings, and clearer thinking. While some of these changes can be uncomfortable for some time, they will eventually begin to improve the longer you abstain from alcohol use. Alcohol withdrawal (alcohol withdrawal syndrome) is a range of symptoms that can happen if you stop or significantly reduce alcohol intake after long-term use. Talk with a healthcare professional if you’re concerned you may experience detox symptoms when quitting drinking or cutting back.
Thinking of Stopping Drinking? 9 Tips to Succeed
You may want to practice politely declining before going out so that you feel more confident in doing so. If you’re looking to reduce your alcohol intake, consider opting for low-strength alcoholic drinks or set a limit for yourself. Prepare yourself with strategies to help you avoid triggers so you can quit alcohol. This may include alcohol-free events or socializing with people who don’t drink. Swap alcohol for non-alcoholic beverages such as mocktails or soda water with lime.
Long-term benefits
Finding a therapist can also be a great starting point if you’re uncomfortable opening up to your healthcare professional. You may not need to completely reinvent your life to quit drinking, but making a few changes in your surroundings to help avoid alcohol triggers can make a big difference. It’s possible to develop a better relationship with alcohol and make more mindful, informed choices about drinking without total sobriety. Now that you understand the impact of alcohol on your health, embracing a life free from its influence becomes an empowering journey of self-discovery. With a strategic plan to navigate challenges plus a support system, achieving sobriety is not only within reach but transformative.
And stopping drinking could make feelings of stress easier to deal with. Other risk factors include previous episodes of severe alcohol withdrawal. Within just a month of not drinking, your body can begin to reap the benefits. Your liver can start to heal, your risks of heart disease and cancer go down, and you may begin to sleep better. Getting to the end of a month without alcohol is a huge accomplishment. By this time, physical withdrawal symptoms should’ve cleared and you may be experiencing less anxiety and depression.
- Post acute withdrawal symptoms can persist on and off for weeks or even months.
- Here’s a timeline of how your body might react after you stop drinking alcohol.
- Being addicted to alcohol means that it has control and power over you.
- If you look out a longer time, people who drink are six times more likely to have a cardiovascular event within a week compared to people who don’t drink.
- Keep in mind that everyone is different and will experience different things when they stop drinking.
- This is yet another autonomic nervous system response to alcohol withdrawal.
- If you’re a heavy drinker, your body may rebel at first if you cut off all alcohol.
- It’s also important to note that delirium tremens can be life-threatening.
Alcohol plays a role in at least half of all serious trauma injuries and deaths from burns, drownings, and homicides. It’s also involved in four out of 10 fatal falls and traffic crashes, as well as suicides. Even cutting back your drinking by a third can lower the number of injuries and sick days.
- “Proper sleep helps us maintain physical, mental and emotional health, so it’s an important consideration,” she says.
- But once you fall into slumber, it can wake you up repeatedly in the night.
- You may want to practice politely declining before going out so that you feel more confident in doing so.
- But severe or complicated alcohol withdrawal can result in lengthy hospital stays and even time in the intensive care unit (ICU).