The Book - Alcohol: Cut Down. Stop. Stay Stopped.

Drinking more than you want to?

Understand why. Discover what can help. Find what works for you.

Maybe you’ve tried to cut down or stop before. Maybe you’re only beginning to wonder whether something needs to change.

Either way, you may have found yourself asking:

• Why do I keep drinking when part of me doesn’t want to?
• Why is changing my drinking so difficult?
• When I do change, why can it be so hard to make that change last?

Alcohol: Cut Down. Stop. Stay Stopped. was written to help answer those questions.

I’m James McInally, founder of Detox Today. I’ve spent around 15 years working with people affected by alcohol, alongside 15 years of lived experience of recovery myself.

I wrote this book because there is something I’ve become increasingly convinced that:

• There isn’t one answer that works for everyone.
• Alcohol problems exist on a spectrum.

You don’t need to call yourself an alcoholic to question your drinking. You don’t have to wait until you’ve lost everything before making a change. And you don’t need to subscribe to one particular treatment or recovery philosophy.

Some people want to drink less. Some need to stop completely. Some need medical help to stop safely. And others have already stopped but need to find a way of making that change last.

The book is designed to help you understand where you are, what may be happening and the different options available to you.

CUT DOWN

What if you’re not ready – or don’t need – to stop completely? For some people, the first goal is reducing how much they drink.

The Cut Down alcohol section looks at why drinking can gradually become harder to control, what reinforces the behaviour and what can help you begin changing it. It’s about understanding your relationship with alcohol rather than simply telling yourself to “drink less”.

The book explores the psychological, behavioural and biological forces involved in drinking and looks at practical approaches to changing established patterns.

It also considers treatment options that may be relevant for some people, including medications used to help reduce drinking and alcohol’s rewarding effects.

The aim isn’t to tell you what your goal should be. It’s to help you make an informed decision about what needs to change.

Download and read chapters 2 through to 5 from the section on cutting. down alcohol, from the book for free >>

STOP

What if cutting down isn’t working – or stopping is the better option? For some people, moderation becomes exhausting. Rules get broken. Limits gradually move. Drinking takes up increasing amounts of mental space.

And for people who have developed physical dependence, simply stopping alcohol suddenly can also be dangerous.

The Stop alcohol section looks at what happens when you stop drinking, alcohol withdrawal, detoxification, medications and the different forms of medical and professional support that may be available.

It also considers an important question: What happens after the alcohol has left your body?

Because detox can help someone stop drinking. It doesn’t necessarily teach them how to stay stopped.

STAY STOPPED

Stopping drinking is one thing. Building a life without it is another. This is where recovery becomes much bigger than simply avoiding alcohol.

The Stay Stopped alcohol section explores the practical and psychological work that can help make change last.

That includes understanding cravings and triggers, changing routines, managing difficult thoughts and emotions, improving sleep and physical wellbeing, recognising relapse patterns and developing healthier ways of responding to stress.

The book also explores different forms of ongoing recovery support. These include psychological approaches such as CBT and DBT, motivational approaches, mindfulness, peer support, Alcoholics Anonymous, SMART Recovery and other ways of maintaining change.

There is no assumption that one of these must be right for everybody.

The question throughout the book is: What combination works for you?

Read chapters 14 through to 17 from “Part 3: How To Stay Stopped” for free >>

More Than One Approach

One of the reasons I wrote the book was because discussions about alcohol treatment can become surprisingly divided.

Medication or therapy. Abstinence or moderation. AA or SMART. Medical treatment or behavioural change. Professional treatment or peer support.

In reality, recovery often isn’t an either/or decision.

Someone might need medical help to stop drinking safely, medication to reduce cravings, behavioural strategies to change habits, psychological support to understand themselves better and a recovery community to stop them becoming isolated.

Different things can help at different stages. That’s why Cut Down. Stop. Stay Stopped. brings together ideas from medicine, psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, behavioural change, therapy, medication, nutrition and established recovery approaches. Not because everybody needs all of them. Because people deserve to understand the options.

Practical Tools, Not Just Theory

Understanding alcohol is useful.

But eventually something has to change in everyday life. That’s why the book also contains practical tools for dealing with some of the situations that commonly undermine recovery.

These include approaches to:

• cravings and urges
• anxiety and difficult emotions
• sleep
• unhelpful thinking patterns
• triggers and habits
• difficult days
• motivation
• values and purpose
• relapse prevention
• building sustainable routines

The aim is to give you things you can actually use, not simply information about why drinking happens.

What About Medication?

Medication is sometimes overlooked in discussions about alcohol recovery.

The book explains the different roles medications can play, including medicines used during withdrawal and those used to reduce cravings, reduce alcohol’s rewarding effects or support abstinence.

It discusses treatments including naltrexone, acamprosate, disulfiram and nalmefene, while also explaining the wider principle: Medication should have a clear purpose.

A medicine that is useful at one stage of someone’s recovery isn’t necessarily appropriate at another.

Medication is also only one possible ingredient in a much larger recovery plan.

The book provides information about these options rather than individual medical advice. Decisions about medication should be made with an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.

What If You’ve Tried Before?

Then you’re probably exactly the kind of person I had in mind when writing it. A previous attempt that didn’t last doesn’t mean there was nothing useful in it.

Perhaps one part worked and another didn’t. Perhaps you stopped drinking without changing enough of what surrounded the drinking. Perhaps you had treatment but little ongoing support. Perhaps you relied entirely on willpower.

Or perhaps the approach simply wasn’t right for you.

Instead of asking only: “Why did I fail?” the more useful question can be: “What was missing?”

That shift in thinking runs throughout the book.

It’s Also for the People Who Love Someone Who Drinks

Alcohol problems rarely affect only the person drinking. Partners, parents, adult children, friends and other family members can spend years trying to understand what is happening and wondering what they should do.

The book includes information for loved ones too – helping them better understand alcohol problems, treatment, recovery and their own role within the situation.

Sometimes understanding the problem is the first useful thing a family member can do.

The Idea Behind the Book – and Detox Today

The philosophy behind Alcohol: Cut Down. Stop. Stay Stopped. came from and is also at the heart of Detox Today.

Understand what’s happening. Understand your options. Decide what you want to change. Find the combination that works for you. For some people, reading and making changes themselves may be enough to get started.

Others may benefit from sober coaching, their GP, NHS alcohol services, medication, therapy, mutual-aid groups or specialist treatment.

And some people simply need to talk through what’s happening before they can decide what to do next.

There doesn’t have to be one route. Start where you are.

Whether you want to cut down, stop drinking or you’ve already stopped and want to make it last, Alcohol: Cut Down. Stop. Stay Stopped. was written to help you understand the choices in front of you and begin finding your own way forward.

Alcohol: Cut Down. Stop. Stay Stopped.
By J.S. McInally

Available in Kindle and paperback editions.

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