Drinks meter is an online tool for finding out how risky your drinking is. It’s being used in a lot of countries and now the Western Region Drug & Alcohol Task Force have commissioned an Irish version of Drinks meter.
Online trackers
We’ve mentioned before a very useful tip of tracking your drinking which helps get your drinking under control. (Click here for more details and how to get started)
There’s plenty of online apps and websites. We particularly like Drinkcoach as it’s very easy to use. The trouble with this though is it uses English drinking units. These are different from Irish measurements. Ireland uses standard drinks according to WHO organisations rules which are easier to understand.
This is why we’ve never recommended Drinks meter before, because it uses English units. But now there’s an Irish version, it is worth looking at.
Drinks meter
Drinks meter has been developed by a well-known addiction psychiatrist Dr Adam Winstock who is worth listening to. Although based in England he does present at events in Ireland
Drink meter is pretty unique because it allows you to compare your drinking to other people. Other nice features include
It looks at your body weight and height (this influences your risk)
It looks at other factors such as family history and ethnicity (these also influence your risk see here )
It looks at other medications you may be taking (see our blog here for more details)
It allows you to calculate how much you can reduce your drinking risk by different actions e.g. one drink less each day or not drinking on one day.
You don’t have to give an email address to get your results
It gives great advice on how to reduce your risk based on your drinking pattern
You can save your data using a unique anonymous ID. (Though this feature did not work when I used it- I was using google chrome on windows 10)
Allow 15 minutes to complete
You will need to have your weight and height handy to complete Drinks meter. It’s also handy if you have the alcohol volume of your favourite tipple handy, though you can use the “average” estimate on Drinks meter.
Stick with it
The first screen is irritating as it looks for information to help Drinks meter rather than letting you get straight in. But I’s worth sticking with it as it does give you some valuable information which is personal to your situation.
Which one is better?
If you’d like to see how your drinking compares to other people than Drinks meter is better.
If you don’t mind using English drinking units and want an app on your phone then Drinkscoach is better The screens are easier to use and there’s some extra help such as meditation guides to help with cravings for alcohol.
if you’d like to find out more about reducing alcohol harm, you’ll find our free lesson here useful.
Asking yourself these 5 key questions before setting a target for your drinking can be really helpful. As we explained in our last blog post it is important to choose an approach that will work for you as one size does not fit all.
Is it better to stop drinking altogether or simply to reduce your drinking? These questions will help you decide what’s right for you.
5 key questions
If you find once you start drinking, you cannot stop drinking then maybe giving up drink altogether rather then reducing is easier.
If you always go out to get drunk rather then socialise then maybe giving up drinking is easier.
Pressure from friends can influence our drinking. If you go out with friends who drink heavily it may be easier to not drink. Or the opposite, if you go out with friends who drink a little, drinking a little could be easier.
If you have frequent blackouts, where you can’t remember parts of the night out then not drinking at all may be easier.
Finally, not drinking at all can be easier to do as it needs less planning than setting a drinking target. so if you hate planning and organising, not drinking at all might be better for you.
Once you’ve answered these questions you may be able to make your decison. If you’re still unsure, there’s other things you can do which can also help you make the right decision for you.
Talk to a friend
Take a look at your advantages and disadvantages of drinking as this can also help you to decide what’s best for you. Find out more on this here
Consulting a friend or family member who you trust and will listen to you and will not shame or judge you can be helpful. Be a little careful though, often if people have been hurt by our drinking, they can demand more than we can do at this stage.
Decide on your target for a week
It can be easier to set a target for a short time rather than saying I’m giving up drink for ever.
If you simply want to take a break from drinking, then setting a goal of not drinking this week at all might be helpful.
If you’ve been drinking every day for the last 10 years, setting a goal of not drinking one day this week might be good for you.
Don’t forget to check whether you have a physical dependence on alcohol before setting your drinking target. You can find out more about this here.
Believe in yourself
So there is a wide choice of targets and the choice is yours. What’s really important is that you believe in your ability to reach your target as this will build your confidence in managing your drinking.
In many ways, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you believe you can achieve your target you will and if you believe your target is not “do able” then you will be more likely to fail.
So if you want to give up drinking entirely, but don’t feel able for this, set a smaller target that you think you can achieve.
As the Chinese say
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”
If you’d like to check the low risk drinking guidelines please click here.
Many people ask should they set a drinking target in order to manage their drinking. So they may not want to give up alcohol totally, but they want to drink less. But with so many people saying we have to give up drink altogether to live a happy life, it can be really confusing.
Setting a drinking target can help
If you want to reduce your drinking, setting a target can help. But safety first, before setting a drinking target ask yourself the following three important questions.
Physical dependence on alcohol needs medical help
Have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you started?
Have you failed to do what was normally expected from you because of drinking?
Have you needed a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?
If you‘ve answered “often” to the above 3 questions then you may have a physical dependence on alcohol and may need medical treatment. The medical treatment helps to reduce the side effects of reducing your drinking. These can be really serious if you have a physical dependence on alcohol. If this applies to you we strongly suggest you seek medical advice before setting any targets for your drinking.You can find details of services here. Look for services providing “detox” You can find out more about physical dependence here.
So having made sure you don’t have a physical dependence on alcohol, there are two main approaches.
What will work best for you?
There are lots of myths around fixing alcohol problems But the key thing is to remember one size does not fit all.
Scientific evidence to determine which types of approaches work best are still being debated. There are two main approaches. The first approach is not drinking at all – often called sobriety or abstinence. This approach is used in AA.
The second less well known approach is known as harm reduction. Sometimes this is called moderation. This approach aims to reduce the amount a person drinks, rather then giving up drinking for ever.
But remember you are the expert in deciding what will work best for you.
So which approach will work best for you? In our next blog post, we ‘ll go through some key questions to ask.
We’ve been working with the nice folks in Mental Health Ireland and thought you might find their top tips to feel happy useful.
1.Connect
The research shows people with good social relationships tend to be happier. This is n’t about spending time on social media but actually meeting people face to face.
So try to make time every day to chat to people you know- even if it’s just a 15 minute chat with a work colleague away from your work desk.
If you’re finding it difficult to connect to people, because in Ireland it always seems to involve drinking you can find out about alcohol free events here.
2.Be Active
You’ don’t have to get all sweaty to be active. A daily walk to the shop instead of taking a car is great. Even better is a relaxing walk in nature- such as the beach or country side. It really does help me to feel happy and more grounded. Exercise is also great for filling the wine shaped bottle hole as Lucy explains here.
You can find lots of help on getting more active here.
3.Take notice
Life is so busy, it’s easy to just rush from one thing to another. Actually stopping for a moment and paying attention to our own thoughts, feelings and the world around us can make a big difference.
4. Keep Learning
Learning new ‘things’ can boost our self-confidence, self-esteem, build a sense of purpose and help us connect with others. It does not have to be classroom type learning, even trying out a new cooking recipe helps.
5. Give
From small acts of kindness to volunteering, giving can give us a sense of purpose, community and connection to others. Giving can be a simple as saying thanks to the bus driver.
We would add a caution, on giving though. Sometimes people who are drinking too much or in relationships where the other person is drinking too much can be “co-dependent”.
Co-dependent is a word used to describe people who give too much. So if this is you, giving more will not help you feel better. You can find out more about co-dependency here.
One final tip from us.
6.Drink less
Stay within the low risk drinking limits shown below and you’ll start feeling better. It may take a while, but even moving towards one day a week without alcohol will make a difference.
If you would like more information on safer drinking click here.
Interested in more stuff which will help you feel happy?
If you liked these tips, Mental health Ireland run free “mind your mental health” courses nationwide which you might enjoy. Find out more here
Nearly all of can feel at times we’re stuck in a dark place with too much going on, drinking a little too much but feeling too low to even think about manage your drinking. We know drinking alcohol helps us to relax but don’t realise too much alcohol, is actually stopping us getting out of that hole or dark place we’re stuck in.
We need to take some kind of action but there’s too much pressure at the moment to think about changing our lifestyles. That glass or two of wine at the end of a long stressful day helps us get through the day. Maybe we just don’t have the energy to take on and plan a major lifestyle change. Anyhow in our society, it’s just so difficult to get away from alcohol is n’t it? So it’s just too much effort to do anything to manage your drinking.
Don’t run away
But don’t give up. There is one simple thing we can do which all the psychological research shows really does help us to take control of our drinking.
All we have to do is to actually record how much we’re actually drinking. So why not try tracking your drinking for just one single week?
Track your drinking for a week
Tracking our drinking really does improve our motivation to actually take action on reducing our drinking. It really helps us to see just how much we are drinking on different days, helping us to see if we are drinking too much. The really nice benefit from this is many people find the very action of recording their drinking helps them to actually reduce their drinking. They don’t have to do anything else! This can happen even when we don’t set specific targets for our drinking.
How to get started
First thing is keep it really simple. You can get into very complicated calculations but we recommend using a “standard drinks” approach. So you simply find out the standard drinks for your usual tipple of choice and use that.
To make it easy we‘ve shown the standard drinks for the most popular drinks below.
If you have any trouble knowing your standard drink, you can use this official HSE online calculator here.
Start tracking
So now you know your standard drinks, every time you drink, complete the form below. Try and fill it out before you have each drink. This helps you to be more aware of what you’re drinking. It takes less than a minute. If you forget to complete it when you’re drinking try and complete the form the next morning.
Use this form below to start tracking your drinking. Each line should be for a separate drink.
You can download a copy of this form to print here
We’ve completed a form below to show you how. You can see this person is drinking more than the low risk drinking guidelines of 12 standard drinks for women. (explained here)
You can add other helpful comments such as who you were with or what your mood was like, but to get started we recommend keeping it really simple and not too complicated.
You really can manage your drinking
Sometimes if feels like we’re on one of those hamster wheels & have to keep running. Constantly trying to stay on top of things. Finding a drink or two is helping to keep our feet running and not fall off the hamster wheels and get stuck in a really dark place.
So if you feel like this and are finding it really hard to motivate yourself to start managing your drinking to a safer level, try this tip. It takes very little time and effort as you’re simply recording your drinking and not making any major life decisions.
More free help to manage your drinking is just a click away here.
Teetotaller Martin Mc Guinness’s decision to step down because of health issues has been widely covered. Whatever your politics when even Ian Paisley Junior praises him, you have to accept he has made a big contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland.
The life of a politician means very long hours and is very health and family unfriendly.
A friend who was once a politician told me people expect you to be available all of the time. Even on Christmas day for the most mundane of matters. It got to her eventually. As did the amount of time spent in endless meetings where she felt nothing was really achieved.
Long hours don’t mean results
I think working constant long hours is one of the reasons why so many of our big problems are not being solved. From homelessness, mortgage arrears and mental health to hospital waiting lists. People working very long hours tend to lose the ability to question the status quo. They don’t notice something’s badly wrong. In the politicians case they seem to be disconnected from the reality of many people’s lives. Their acceptance of salary increases and failure to see the Dail and Seanad needs urgent reform. (Watch or read any Dail proceeding and it will prove this point)
Coping with long hours by drinking
Strangely, given they are in the public eye, we’ve seen plenty of examples of drunk politicians. Remember when this politician pulled another politician into his lap in the Dail? Or the then Taoiseach Brian Cowen infamous “Garglegate” appearance on Morning Ireland where he appeared to be hungover. The interview went viral and did not help our image of being drunken paddies.
It’s incredible that our Dail has not one but two bars providing subsidised alcohol. Maybe many of our politicians cope with the long hours by drinking too much? Perhaps this is why our politicians are refusing to see the benefits of the proposed alcohol bill. Most of them are being fooled by alcohol industry lobbying and putting profits ahead of the lives of the three people drying every day from alcohol problems.
I drank more when working long hours
I know when I worked seventy to eight hour weeks my ability to make good decisions became weaker and weaker. I drank more. It was a way of getting instant relaxation and rewarding myself after a long hard day. I never drank too much. Not because I’m a saint or anything, but because I get horrible hangovers all too easily. So I decided to become a teetotaller during the week. It did make a difference to my ability to get through work, but ultimately I had to leave that job. I had plenty of money, but low quality of life and my health was being affected.
A tragic example of the impact of long hours
A really tragic example of the impact of long hours is the Stewart/Conroy case where a consultant noted incorrectly that the left kidney was to be removed on a then eight year old boy rather than the diseased right kidney. Despite the parents raising concern on four different occasions, the operating doctor removed the healthy kidney, without reviewing the X-rays.
Both doctors worked very long hours of up to 80 hours a week. Both come across as caring and responsible professionals who immediately admitted the mistake. The Medical Council still does not appear to have addressed the issue of doctors working long hours though.
Airline pilots not allowed to drink for 8 hours
Officially airline pilots are not allowed to drink less than 8 hours before their shift starts. However many airlines impose a 12 hour rule, such is their concern over the impact of alcohol.
Now most of us don’t have jobs, like the surgeons or pilots where one little mistake can seriously injure or kill people, but these examples show the serious impact alcohol has on our ability to do our jobs properly.
Famous Teetotallers
As well as Martin Mc Guinness, one other famous teetotaller includes ex Taoiseach Albert Reynolds RIP. a key player in the Northern Ireland peace process. Very surprisingly, John Teeling the founder of Cooley distillery whiskey is also a teetotaller.
Be a teetotaller during the working week
If you are working very long hours over an extended period of time, be aware your decision making ability is probably impaired. Not just in your working life but in your personal life as well. Drinking while working long hours will make this worse.
If you’re stuck in a rut and don’t feel able to take action to change the long hours, do seek professional help. If this is not an option try to get some physical exercise. Pick something you enjoy. Once a week is good and better than nothing. However for real benefits, aim for 3 times a week.
Being a teetotaller, at least during the working week will also make those long hours easier to survive.
It’s that time of the year when people are “failing” their New Year drinking resolutions. So here’s some quick tips to make your New Year drinking resolutions stick
1.Set a goal which is bigger than your drinking
I’m a great believer in setting goals because as Harvey Mackay says
“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline”
I find setting goals and writing them on paper helps me to keep moving forward as I’m clearer on what I want. We usually know where we want to go when we turn the key in the car ignition, so why not know where we want to go in life?
2.Set a goal which is positive
It can be very depressing in January to decide my new year drinking resolutions means I stop drinking or I’m going to drink less. This implies sacrifice, pain, drabness and losing pleasure. A better way is to set a positive goal.
For example,
“I’m going to treat myself to a weekly beauty treatment with the money I save from drinking less.”
So develop a goal that has positive meaning for you using the tips below.
3.Understand what’s important to you
Is it family, money, fun, health, career advancement, and friends? Susan Jeffers in her book “feel the fear and do it anyhow” suggests making a nine box grid and putting the nine most important components in your life into it.
What changes would you like to make when you look at this grid?
For example leisure might be important but you’re always too busy working or doing housework to get any, so a goal might be to have more leisure time. So make sure your goals relate to your nine box grid.
4.Understand what stage you’re at
Make sure you understand what stage your motivation is at using the “Stages of Change” model below as this will help determine which goals are most useful for you.
Prochaska Stages of change model
So if you’re not totally convinced that you need to reduce your drinking, as you’re still in the “contemplation stage” maybe your goal should be to get a better understanding of your pro’s and con’s of drinking, rather than setting a goal of not drinking. You can use our course here for this.
5.Don’t set too many goals
It’s very easy to get carried away and try to tackle every area of our lives, but it’s better to focus on one or two aspects, as then we can be more committed to these.
So if you’re decided to reduce your drinking, make sure to balance this with something fun that you enjoy, rather than also deciding your house is going to be spotless from now on!
6.Leave out the “I should have’s”
When people set goals, they often give out to much to themselves when they “fail”.
We find this is often the biggest problem with clients we see.
“I’ve failed, I should n’t have drunk that bottle of wine last night”
rather than
“I’m great, I went four nights without drinking and only drank too much on the 5th night”
As you saw from the “Stages of change” picture above changing our behaviour does not happen in a straight line. We can go back and forwards as we attempt to change how we live.
7.Recognise our culture makes drinking less difficult
The majority of people who drink are abusing alcohol according to the Health Research Board.
In this culture with social media pressure that sees drinking too much as normal, it can be difficult to reduce drinking so accept that sometimes drinking less can make you feel a little isolated from your friends.
Again your thoughts around this can help. See yourself as someone who is ahead of society, a thought leader, rather than someone with a problem with alcohol.
8.Break down your goals into smaller targets
So having set broad goals, often they need to be broken down into smaller targets. Particularly if they are very ambitious. In a work setting these are usually called objectives which many people use in their work performance reviews. So some tips on setting objectives.
9.Make sure your objectives are specific and measurable
Saying
“I want to be physically fitter”
is not as psychologically useful as saying
“I want to be able to climb the stairs at work without stopping”.
You can actually measure this achievement as it’s very specific.
10.Make sure your objectives are achievable
For example, saying
“I want to be CEO of RyanAir before the 30th of January 2017”
is unlikely to be achievable as there is n’t even a vacancy. In the same way saying you’re giving up drinking altogether when you’ve drunk every day for 20 years will be very difficult unless you can afford professional help
So in this case an achievable objective might be “I’m going to research and find out what support is available to help me reduce my drinking. You might find this post here useful if this is you.
11.Make sure your objectives are realistic within your time scale and priorities
The person wanting more leisure time might find getting an hour a week to do something fun is more realistic before moving to an hour a day.
If you drink every day on the weekend, you might find reducing the number of drinks you drink each day helpful or maybe it’s easier not to drink on a Friday.
So set goals that are a little challenging but not too difficult as you want to have a good chance of succeeding by a specific date.
You’ll notice the tips for objective setting make up the acronym SMART:
If you can learn from your failures you’ll be further along the path towards your goal then when you started. Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb had thousands of failed experiments before he was successful. When asked how he kept going, he siad he did not see it as failure but thousands of ways he had learnt how not to make a light bulb. So never lose hope, you can succeed.
Bo Bennett put it well when he said
“The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself.”
Did n’t set new year drinking resolutions ?
So maybe you’re not ready to set a goal or did n’t set new year drinking resolutions? For everybody who is thinking about their drinking a really useful tip is to track your drinking. We like this free app developed by an English Charity as it has some useful tools as well.
If you enjoyed this post and you’d like to receive a weekly email full of practical tips and personal stories click here.
Here we are again at Christmas office party season – a time met in equal measure with excitement and a slight sense of dread. There can be very few people out there who haven’t at some point in their past slightly regretted their alcohol intake at a work Christmas “do”.
You serenade the crowd with a chorus of “Last Christmas”
Something about the occasion causes everyone to relax their inhibitions. The excitement of season, the novelty of mixing with colleagues outside of the office environment and before you know it you’ve had one glass of prosecco too many and are serenading the crowd with a chorus of ‘Last Christmas.’
I’ve been that soldier and whilst it’s a common enough occurrence, it’s not something I personally want to repeat. So how to approach the looming Christmas invites?
Don’ t go under duress
Firstly, I think it’s important to remember that it’s OK to say no, if you don’t want to go – parties are supposed to be fun, so you don’t want to be there under duress.
Top tips for the Christmas Office party
If you do want to go though, here are a couple of tips to help limit the alcohol intake.
Start off the night with a soft drink. I find that the first drink can often be the one that really goes to your head, particularly if you haven’t eaten. So starting off with a soft drink helps set the pace for the evening.
When having a soft drink, have it in a fancy glass with ice and lemon.
Stick to a drink your’re familiar with – now is not the time to start drinking fancy cocktails if you’re not used to them.
Try non-alcoholic cocktails if you want to join in the festive fun – anything with Cranberries is a perfect festive alternative.
Don’t get caught up in drinking rounds, stick to your own pace – good advice at any time of year, but particularly in the excitement of the office party, when you’re mixing with people you wouldn’t normally socialise with.
Finally, enjoy it – at your own pace! Happy Christmas.
Editor’s note
For more tips on enjoying your drinking without harm click here
Thomas is Valerie’s husband. Here are his top tips if your loved one is drinking too much.
Try to understand why
Don’t question the drinking too much, question the reasons behind it.
Seek a middle ground
Never demand “you ‘re drinking too much, you need to quit drinking.” It’s easier to seek a middle ground.
Don’t hide or throw away drink
Don’t drive yourself crazy looking for bottles in hiding places.
Don’t bother throwing the drink down the sink. It makes it worse. Trust me.
Don’t argue when your partner is drunk
Never argue with your partner while s/he’s drinking or hung over. Mate, you’re flogging a dead horse if you try. Just let her/him sleep it off first
Not all residential rehabs offer mental health care
Stay away from residential rehabs that offer religion in their care plans.
Stay away from rehab services that don’t provide mental health care delivered by mental health professionals. (Editor’s note see “rehab, when is it needed“)
Trust your own judgement
Trust your own judgement. You know your partner longer than any doctor or specialist. If it looks like they are trying to convince you to do something, you don’t feel is right for you, then don’t do it.
Get help with your children
If necessary have a family member move into the home to watch your children.
If there’s no family member available, as a very last resort check out the social services. Preferably with some one who has recently used your local social services. Don’t assume they know what they are doing though. I’ve heard both good and awful stories.
Get help at work
Talk to your boss if things get bad. But only if you know, he/she will be willing to give you time off if needed..
Say it’s a mental health problem, not a drinking problem. Bosses are more sympathetic to you going home to care for your mentally ill partner than your drunk partner!
Protect your partner from verbal abuse
Your partner is not an emotional punching bag. No matter what arguments ye have don’t allow others to speak to him/her like he/she’s worthless. You know he/ she’s not well. If he/she had cancer, you wouldn’t allow family members to insult or upset him/her. Addiction is no different and insults will only make things worse.
Don’t change your drinking habits to control your partner
If you usually wouldn’t drink at home then don’t agree to drink with him/her. You might think you will change his/her drinking pattern. You won’t. He/She’s emotionally drinking and getting drunk with her/him won’t fix that!
Harm reduction can be useful
Look at harm reduction (reducing the drinking) as a starting point. He/She gets to address her drinking, which often is an emotional difficulty. He/She isn’t forced to quit, and you get to take a breath.Win, win.
AA doesn’t work for everyone. That’s only real in the movies or tv soaps. So don’t force it on him/her.
Try to agree what is not ok
Try to come to an agreement about what’s not ok. Drinking and driving. Drinking and calling you or other people. Drinking and getting on facebook talking about their family life, etc
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