Support for drinking less
If you’d like to talk to someone about your drinking, complete the self referral form here for our confidential specialist support.
There’s also plenty of self help available – here are a few suggestions.
Drinkaware is a very useful site which focuses on helping to reduce your drinking. It also offers Drinkchat, a confidential online web chat service, for anyone who wants to talk to someone about their own or someone else's drinking. It's available weekdays 9am to 2pm at Drinkchat.
Alternatively, you can call Drinkline on 0300 1231110 on weekdays 9am to 8pm and weekends 11am to 4pm.
Club Soda helps you live well by being more mindful about drinking, whether you want to cut down, take a break from alcohol or stop drinking altogether. In the last seven years, they’ve grown from a small Facebook group to a global mindful drinking community.
There’s a short free course and you can join their Facebook group @clubsodauk for free and receive regular updates and offers. Longer courses and additional support are charged for.
Co-founder Laura Willoughby:
“I still wanted to go the pub (I still do), and wanted to feel positive about what I was gaining, rather than mourn what I was losing. This is why I have set up Club Soda. We want to support you whatever your goal. Whether you want to cut down, stop for a bit or quit. You can set your goals, track your progress, and natter with others doing the same - after all, we get pissed together so why should we get sober alone?”
The OYNB site offers drink free challenges and provides inspirational stories. It is a paid for process, starting at £59 for a month, but claims 95% success. It focuses on the habit changing process: “Rather than just deleting alcohol from your life we’ll help you break down and rebuild new habits and a new mindset that gives you complete control, that will last way past finishing your challenge.”
This site is for women who want to quit or take a break from drinking. There are free guides and blogs, and a paid for six week online course.
This site helps you to give up drinking for 14, 21 or 31 days in October – and fundraise for Macmillan Cancer Support at the same time. It also has tips on cutting down after your sober October, as well as other healthy lifestyle advice.
Download the free Dry January app to help you meet your goals, whether you want to take on Dry January (or another dry challenge), cut down on your drinking, or go totally alcohol-free. Search for the app on the Apple Store or Google Play.
Mindfulness and mental health
Five steps to mental wellbeing
These suggestions may help you to feel calmer and more relaxed when you find yourself reaching for a drink.
This American site has lots of links, podcasts and other resources on mindfulness and meditation, and is worth a look to get an idea of what might help you.
Search for Apps on the Apple Store or Google Play. Many apps have a free trial period but then charge, sometimes annually, so try them out first if you’re not sure. Here are a few that are either free or only require a relatively low cost single payment:
Smiling Mind
Practice daily meditation and mindfulness exercises from any device. Smiling Mind is a completely free not-for-profit tool developed by psychologists and educators. It’s an Australian app (so you’ll need to be ok with the accent!) and has lots of options for all ages.
Anxiety Solution: Calmer You
This is an app for iPhones only. It features over 70 mindfulness, meditation, breathing tools, sleep stories and fitness routines based on proven science for stress relief, helping anxiety, depression, improving mood and getting your mind calm. Free trial then £5.99
Buddhify
Whether you're looking to reduce stress and anxiety, or get a better night's sleep buddhify has easy-to-follow guided meditations to help you live happier and healthier. £4.99
Calm
This is one of the most popular and award winning meditation and sleep apps, with lots of content including guided sessions, music and sleep stories. There is a free trial, but it is then £28.99 so give it a try first.