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Alcohol
By LOKESH GOYAL 2,708 views
HEALTH

How to Stop Alcohol Cravings?

A large number of people keep on looking for Alcohol Addiction Centers in Delhi or anywhere in the world. This is because alcohol addiction has become one of the most challenging issues. People from different age groups are struggling to get rid of this addiction. In this article, we are going to throw some light on this matter. We will take a look at some of the effective solutions. When someone’s addiction to alcohol becomes severe, it is called alcohol use disorder. Alcohol craving is the main reason that makes the treatment of alcohol use disorder too complicated. A lot of things are needed in the treatment of alcohol use disorder along with medication. Any activity that becomes a habit develops our minds in a particular way. Let us dive a bit deeper into this matter.

 

What is Alcohol Craving?

Craving works the same way no matter whether it is for alcohol, cigarettes, or anything else. Craving is a term that we used to describe a particular state of mind. As we have already mentioned that habits create certain patterns inside our minds. It is this pattern that makes the alcohol addicts in a particular way when they are exposed to a specific environment. Though there are some situations when people get cravings out of nowhere. But in most conditions, the cravings are triggered as a result of a memory or situation related to the prior alcohol consumption. All of these situations add up to make the addict want to crave alcohol. In some cases, the craving becomes quite severe. Due to such serious effects, people with this disorder always try to get rid of it. There are several other complications related to alcohol craving.

Some several conditions and surroundings act as trigger points for alcohol cravings. You will learn a lot of things about those trigger points by paying attention to expert opinions. Many of those experts say that alcohol addicts should not go to the places, or around people that may bring back their memories associated with alcohol. Trigger points are formed based on the intensity of alcoholism. Due to this reason, there are more trigger points for someone and fewer for others. Apart from such memories, some other points also cause alcohol cravings. Several addicts enter this devastating state of mind when they are tired, angry, lonely, and hungry. Some exceptional cases are there when people crave alcohol even when they are happy or excited about something. This is because such people had a habit to drink in their happiest moments.

 

Causes of Alcohol Craving:

Now that you are aware of the term craving for alcohol. Understanding the reasons for craving becomes really important here. Triggers that are also referred with the term cues are the main reasons for craving. Cues/trigger is the particular situation that activates the feeling of craving. It is the trigger or cue that interprets the mind to crave alcohol or anything else. The habit forms based on our persistent actions. Some people like to drink when they are sad while others drink when they are happy. People repeat these things whenever they arrive in a similar situation. This repetition is the main reason for deciding the nature of craving. It is a highly personal thing. That level of diversity makes the treatment quite a difficult task. Here are some psychological and physical changes that occur when a person is craving alcohol.

Physical changes: When a person is going through this mental state of mind, they experience an increased rate of heartbeat, enhanced blood pressure levels. Apart from these, the sweat glands of that person become more active.

Psychological changes: Cravings stimulate several functions of the body that fall under the control of the central and peripheral nervous systems of the human body. The feeling of excitement, activity, and anticipation is increased as a result of it. Several people also start thinking about past experiences associated with alcohol and those feelings are enough to elevate the cravings.

 

Some Effective Strategies to Help You Deal with Alcohol Cravings:

You must have got familiar with almost all the fundamental concepts of cravings. It is time to take a look at the strategies that may treat this situation. There is a set of some simple concepts that you need to understand for treating this situation.

  • At first, you should understand that craving for alcohol is not something that would last forever or for a longer duration of time. Almost all the physical and psychological effects of cravings will come to an end after 20-25 minutes. Once you reach the victim to resist this situation for 20-25 minutes only, you will solve most of this problem.
  • Try to involve in the activities that are made for long-term benefits. The addicts should try to involve themselves in activities like mentoring people to become more productive, going back to school, or something like that. Such activities are enough to help you in getting away from the feelings of craving.
  • Improve your lifestyle. The person who suffers from such disorders is generally the one with sick lifestyles. If you can maintain a healthy lifestyle, you will not fall into an unfortunate situation like this. Even if you have got yourself in this situation, you may correct it by improving your lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle includes regular exercise, eating a nutritious diet, maintaining social relationships, etc. In a situation when someone is craving alcohol, distractions work the best. Such a lifestyle is a big distraction from alcohol.
  • People are often filled with stress at the time when they experience cravings. Such people can reduce their difficulties by learning stress management techniques. Some simple tricks like proper breathing patterns, other relaxation techniques will help those people reduce stress.

The simple steps mentioned above are nice and effective for reducing stress during that situation. These techniques will work the best in the beginning. Once you have got that person under control, there are some advanced techniques that you can use for maximum benefits. Take a look at these techniques.

  • Talk to the person to take a look at the triggers quite closely. In this way, it will help that person understand the types of cravings and the main causes behind them. This is a bit tough in the beginning but the understanding will play a major role in solving this problem once and for all. The triggers are very personal in nature and it will help those persons to understand their personal triggers.
  • Teach that person about the cravings in a detailed manner. Make sure that the person understands that craving is not something serious instead it is just a regular occurrence that is quite normal during recovery.
  • You should also give them education about the threats to cravings. There are several such threats like meditation, exercise, distraction, etc.
  • All these techniques are inclined to help the person develop his/her personal technique to cope with this issue. Once a person becomes able to do it, he will be conscious enough to avoid alcohol in the future.

Final words

We hope this article helped you in getting familiar with the concepts of Alcohol Cravings. In case someone becomes too sick to manage such situations, there are several rehab centers in India has. You can get to one of those to get more assistance.

Lokesh Goyal
Author
LOKESH GOYAL

Sanctum Wellness is a reputed Drug and Alcohol rehabilitation centres in Delhi. Where we help to addiction relief with care and love by an experienced psychiatrists. Consult with us today.