How to handle alcohol cravings

It's worth separating them, because they need different responses and people often prepare for only one.

The solitary craving is the familiar one: a hard day, the end of the evening, wanting the edge taken off. It behaves like other urges — it rises, peaks and passes, usually within about fifteen to twenty minutes if you don't act on it.

The social craving is different and more dangerous, because it isn't only an internal state. There's a drink physically present, someone offering it, a norm you're visibly departing from, and a social cost to explaining yourself. Willpower is only part of what's being tested.

1. 1

   Start a timer before deciding

   Fifteen minutes. Most urges are considerably smaller on the other side, and the version of you at minute sixteen gets a much better vote than the one at minute one.

2. 2

   Eat something

   Underrated. A drop in blood sugar at the end of the day is frequently mistaken for wanting a drink, particularly if you've eaten badly.

3. 3

   Change the room

   Cravings attach to place, chair and time. Moving breaks part of the cue without requiring any resolve.

4. 4

   Replace the ritual

   If the pull is the pouring, the glass, the sitting down at 7pm — do that with something else. Removing the whole routine is a bigger ask than removing the alcohol.

Nearly all of the work here happens before you arrive. In the moment, you're managing a room as well as an urge, and that's not the time to be composing an explanation.

• Know what you'll say, in one short sentence, and don't over-explain — people accept a brief answer far more readily than a justification
• Have a drink in hand from the start, so the offer comes less often
• Decide when you're leaving before you go, and have your own way home
• Expect one person to push. Usually it says more about their relationship with alcohol than yours
• If a particular event feels genuinely risky this month, it's allowed to skip it

• Deciding in the moment. By then you're negotiating with the part of you that wants the drink.
• Just one, to prove you can moderate. This is the single most common route back, and it rarely feels like a decision at the time.
• Willpower on an empty stomach at the end of a bad day. That's the worst possible test conditions, and you can simply not schedule it.
• Waiting for the craving to be gone forever before you feel safe. Occasional urges attached to specific situations are normal for a long time.

There's a difference between an urge on a Friday and a persistent daily pull that isn't easing. The second is worth taking to a professional rather than managing alone with an app and a timer.