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Dad Field Manual · Field card 97 · Dad Health

Rethink your drinking: a private 30-day look

Nobody needs to know you're doing this. In twenty minutes you'll know what one drink really is, have a log started and a plan picked, and over the next thirty days you'll find out what your evenings look like with less of it.

Time
20 min to set up
Cost
$0
Ages
Any age
Where
Kitchen and phone

What you need

  • A measuring cup or shot glass
  • A phone note or printed card for the drink log
  • Your calendar, to mark day 1 and day 30
  • Something else to drink in the evening: sparkling water, tea, a soda you like

Read this first

  • If you drink heavily every day, talk to a doctor before you stop. NIAAA warns that stopping suddenly after long, heavy drinking can bring dangerous withdrawal, including seizures. A doctor can plan it safely.
  • Seizures or a racing heart after cutting back are signs of withdrawal. Get medical help right away, and call 911 for a seizure.
  • Take a break instead of cutting back if you take a medicine that interacts with alcohol, or have a health condition drinking makes worse. NIAAA strongly advises quitting then.
  • Don't drive after drinking, and keep a sober adult in charge whenever young kids are awake.

Steps

  1. Learn what one drink is. One drink is 12 oz beer, 5 oz wine or 1.5 oz liquor. Measure your usual pour at home.
  2. Log every drink before you drink it. Write down each drink before you have it: date, number of standard drinks, where, who with.
  3. Pick your 30-day plan. Choose: cut back (set drink days, a number, and no-drink days) or take a 30-day break. Write it down.
  4. Clear the evening triggers. Find your drinking times. Keep little or no alcohol at home this month and stock something else.
  5. Fill the evening with something else. Replace the trigger hour with a walk, game or project. Ride out urges. Have a “No thanks” ready.
  6. Look back on day 30. On day 30, read the log and ask: Did I keep the plan? How did I sleep? How were the evenings?
  7. Know when to get help. If it isn't working, tell your doctor, or call SAMHSA at 1-800-662-4357 or search FindTreatment.gov.

If it stalls

  • If you skip logging for a few days, don't start over. Fill in what you remember and keep going.
  • If a party or a game night is coming up, decide your number before you go and eat something first.
Days logged · days kept to plan
Signed off: can do this.Signed by Date