Treatment professionals can advise if supervised detox is required, and provide next steps tailored to your needs. In conclusion, the importance of personalized treatment plans in addiction recovery cannot be overstated. For example, you might initially choose abstinence as your primary recovery method, eliminating the addictive substance or behavior from your life entirely.

Such ongoing substance use may mean moderating use of a primary problem substance or abstaining from one or more substances while continuing the use of others (e.g., abstaining from opioids while consuming cannabis). Your journey to recovery may involve a combination of abstinence and moderation techniques or require a change in strategy over time. With dedication, perseverance, and the right support, you can navigate the complexities of addiction recovery and emerge stronger, more resilient, and ready to embrace a brighter future. When it comes to addiction recovery, a one-size-fits-all approach is rarely effective. Each individual’s journey is unique, shaped by factors such as their personal history, the severity of their addiction, and their support network. Recognizing the need for personalized treatment plans is crucial to achieving lasting recovery and cultivating a healthier, more fulfilling life.

Nelsan Ellis: Death during Withdrawal from Alcohol

The studies suggest that for some people who may have not gone over the line into a pervasive pattern of use, they can drink a few glasses of alcohol, learn to stop there, and come to enjoy a somewhat normal life of drinking. And when you truly learn to change your desire, you don’t need to restrain yourself. You don’t need to be worried about the threat of indulging because the desire to drink is absent. It’s why I don’t say that I abstain from drinking, even though I don’t go out to a restaurant and order a cocktail, even though I don’t end my day with a glass of wine, which is what I used to do. Either complete abstinence is the only way to do it, or you need to learn how to practice moderating and limit yourself.

• She liked to have a couple drinks with him on some evenings and felt he could manage it.
• More people than ever are recognizing the negative effects of drinking alcohol and re-evaluating how it shows up in their life.
• However, if you plan on reducing the severity of your addiction, you should abstain from the substance completely by practicing moderation management.
• If you’re looking to make some changes, feel free to reach out.
• As a physician on the Monument platform, I speak with patients every day who are looking to change their drinking habits in order to improve their health and happiness.
• To evaluate this question, it’s important to recognize that alcohol use disorder (AUD) is diagnosed on a spectrum, and can be addressed in different ways depending on the individual.

Because it’s kind of wild when you let your brain go there. A number of factors need to be taken into account, including your personal history with problematic eating behaviors, your personality in general, your metabolic makeup, and any medical conditions you might have. Some people find it difficult to stop eating bread and other foods that are high in carbohydrates, while other people have more difficulty with fatty items such as peanut butter or cheese. This can be due to your physical constitution in addition to emotional reasons, such as having a strong attraction to a particular food based on past positive experiences involving that item. Of the patients studied, 90% of total abstinence patients were still sober two and a half years after treatment.

He’s in a Recovery House and Struggling. What Can the Family Do?

People who attempt moderation for the first time are admitting to themselves that a problem exists and they are displaying a willingness to make changes. For some people, certain hereditary, familial, environmental, and relationship factors prevent them from achieving health. At Silicon Beach Behavioral Health, our mission is to ensure that every person can reach his or her full potential. When you surround yourself with others who moderate their drinking, it’s much easier to moderate your own intake. (Surely, you’ve heard that you should surround yourself with the people you want to be like?) Because many people have an unconscious desire to conform, you can essentially turn peer pressure toward alcohol in the other direction. A measure of number of psychiatric diagnoses, including alcohol use other substance use disorders, was calculated by summing the total number of affirmative responses.

• Indeed, even in such cases, moderation management with the balance requirement is a significant element for progress.
• Regardless of your path, working with a physician and therapist can provide answers, reassurance, and guidance throughout the process.
• Moderate drinking can be achieved through keeping track of how much you drink, pacing yourself when you drink, avoiding drinking with heavy drinkers, and pinpointing your heavy drinking triggers.
• Then there’s moderation, which is when you give yourself the freedom to enjoy a small dose in a safe, controlled environment.
• It seems like it makes a lot of sense because we are constantly bombarded with information and guidelines about how much is the right amount to drink.
• Moreover, abstaining completely in one area may cause you to displace your addictive tendencies in other areas.

Among the most widely studied are how motivated and confident someone is in being able to reduce or quit drinking. Given the field’s historical emphasis on abstinence-based approaches, key individual factors to treatment outcome remain controlled drinking vs abstinence more of a mystery when it comes to moderation-focused treatment, sometimes called “harm reduction”. When deciding between abstinence and moderation as your approach to addiction recovery, it’s essential to consider several factors.

Ketamine Abuse and Addiction

The goal of a moderation program is to support a person’s journey toward understanding their drinking behavior and create a safe environment for them to explore how to drink moderately. After years of struggling, she decided to get some help. She admitted she was hooked on alcohol and started seeing a counselor. Alcohol had taken its toll—her job, friends, family, and health had all suffered—and she wanted it out of her life.

The question of “Abstinence vs. Moderation” is one that some people contemplate daily, but that many others have never considered. Your family member is addicted to drugs or alcohol. Is abstinence the only answer, or can things improve if they learn to moderate their use? (Moderation is the practice of consciously and reliably limiting the amount of alcohol or drugs that one consumes). What you order to drink, what you fill your glass with is totally separate. It’s a completely separate decision from whether or not you desire alcohol.

Combined with a consistent and aggressive disputing of urges to use, most find their messages to use either decrease to nothing or become infrequent and easily handled. It may not be easy to see now, but your life can be restored to where you are in control, your addiction and the urges will recede to an unpleasant memory. You don’t have to live in a constant battle with these painful, nagging urges. Studies have shown that in some cultures there are a small percentage of people who can return to moderate drinking.