Category: Articles

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Cognitive Dissonance

cognitive dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance is a term used to describe the mental discomfort that you feel when you hold two conflicting beliefs or find your actions contradict your beliefs.

For example: Someone can acknowledge that their alcohol drinking has caused problems in their life. Such as missed work or strained relationships with loved ones. However, they continue to justify their drinking behaviour by telling themselves that they need alcohol to cope with stress or anxiety.

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Relapse Prevention Plan

What if you can predict when you’re about to relapse? Can you imagine being able to avoid it before it happens?

There are many red flags that indicate that a relapse may be coming your way. I like to call this the “Pre-lapse Stage”.  Triggers and events that lead up to your relapse.

Having a relapse prevention plan means you will be better prepared to prevent a relapse from happening. Here I’ll show you the common triggers and stages that lead to a relapse so you are better prepared.

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Am I Drinking Too Much?

If you have to ask yourself “Am I drinking too much” then the answer is probably yes.

I imagine you already feel that your drinking is getting to an unhealthy level and starting to negatively impact parts of your life. If you weren’t concerned about it, would you even be asking yourself this question?

This does not mean you’re an alcoholic or even alcohol dependant. Although it does mean you need to take a look at your drinking, because it’s not making you feel great, right?

Now, what’s too much for one person is not necessarily too much for another. It all comes down to the way your drinking makes you feel.

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Fading Affect Bias

What is the Fading Affect Bias?

Simply put the Fading Affect Bias, or FAB as phycologist call it, refers to the way your brain will forget or fade memories associated with unpleasant emotions faster than memories associated with pleasant emotions.

Your brain’s ability to dampen a negative memory over time is a great coping mechanism but it can be a problem for the newly sober. What happens if you need to remember the bad drinking days to avoid relapsing?

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Dry January Tips

Dry January Tips

Dry January is the UK’s one month alcohol-free challenge. After all the excess of Christmas and New Year you may be ready to give up the booze for January also so here are my Dry January tips.

In the past, I have attempted Dry January many times but only managed to stay the course for about two weeks before I would make up an excuse to drink.

Heard of any of these?

“I’ve got a party to go to next week”

“2 weeks is enough time to detox”

“I’ll have a drink tonight and tag an extra day on at the end of the month”

These are all just excuses.

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