Socialising without alcohol
A plan for one social event with three moving parts: how you arrive, what is in your hand all evening, and how you leave. Plus which invitations to turn down for now, without apology.
Repairing what drinking cost
Start one repair, not all of them. Why money usually goes first, what free regulated debt advice actually does, and the difference between an apology and an amends.
AA, SMART Recovery or your GP
Three different doors with three different asks. What each one actually requires of you, what the evidence does and does not show, and how to pick without committing to a belief system.
Why one drink turns into six
Loss of control is a recognised feature of dependence, not a personality defect. Here is what happens between drink one and drink six, and why the plan has to sit before the first one.
You drank. What now?
Four things in order, starting with the safety fact almost nobody is told: after a break your tolerance has dropped, and the amount that used to be a normal night is not what your body can take now.
Mapping the times you drink
A fortnight of four-column logging that turns a vague sense of losing control into a one-page map of hours, places, people and feelings, and three changes that follow from it.
What the first week without alcohol feels like
The withdrawal timeline the NHS publishes, day by day, plus which symptoms are expected, which mean a GP appointment, and which mean a 999 call tonight.
Telling one person you have stopped drinking
One sentence, rehearsed, with no explanation attached. Who to tell first, what to ask them for, and what to say when someone pushes a drink at you anyway.
Clearing alcohol out of the house
What to physically change about your home and the hour between 6pm and 8pm, so a drink sits further away than it did yesterday.
Getting through tonight without a drink
A plan for one evening: what to do at six, what to hold at eight, and what to do at eleven when it is still there. Not a plan for the rest of your life.
Is my drinking a problem?
A private self-check that gives you a range rather than a label, using the units and the score the NHS actually works from, and what each answer points to next.
How to stop drinking
Stopping suddenly can be dangerous if you're physically dependent. Work out which UK route is safe for you, then take its first step today.