The first step in learning how to stop drinking alcohol is not a plan. It is a safety check. For most people, stopping is uncomfortable but safe.
For a smaller group who drink heavily every day, stopping suddenly can be dangerous, even life-threatening, and knowing which group you are in changes everything about how you should do this.
You don’t need to have everything figured out to start. In fact, believing you need a perfect plan first is what keeps most people researching for another six months. Here is where to actually begin.
Step 1: Check Whether It Is Safe to Stop
This is the step people skip, and it matters most.
Michael Damioli, LCSW, CSAT, Clinical Director at CMAR, says the most important question isn’t how much you drink. It is whether you drink to relieve withdrawal.
The questions that decide your risk
Ask yourself honestly:
- Do you drink in the morning to stop shaking, sweating, or nausea?
- Do you drink heavily every day, and have for a long stretch?
- Have you ever had a seizure or hallucinations when you cut back?
If any of those are yes, do not stop cold turkey. The NIAAA is clear that abruptly stopping after prolonged heavy drinking can trigger seizures and delirium tremens, which can be fatal without medical care.
That is not a reason to keep drinking. It is a reason to have support in place when you stop, which is what medically supervised detox is for.
If you are lower risk
If you drink moderately, have no morning symptoms, and have never had withdrawal, stopping on your own is generally safe. The rest of this guide is built for you, and it still helps to tell someone what you are doing.
Not sure which group you are in? One phone call answers it. CMAR is at (833) 448-0127, and the assessment is free.
Step 2: Decide Whether to Cut Back or Quit
There are two honest paths, and the right one depends on you.
| If this is you | The likely path |
| Low risk, want to reduce harm, still have control | Cutting back, with clear limits |
| Alcohol is harming your health or relationships, or “one” never stays one | Quitting completely |
Damioli’s clinical read is blunt: if you have already tried cutting back with rules, only weekends, only beer, nothing before six, and it keeps not working, that is your answer. When you need a rulebook to manage a substance, the substance is usually already managing you.
There is no shame in that. It is information, and it points toward the path that will actually work.
Step 3: Change Your Environment Before Willpower Is Tested
Willpower loses to a hard Friday night. Setup beats willpower, so do the easy work first.
- Get the alcohol out of the house, or as much of it as you can
- Tell one or two people what you are doing, so you are not alone with it
- Plan for the specific moments you always drink: the 6 p.m. wind-down, the social event, the stressful call
- Have a non-alcoholic drink ready to reach for
- Write down why you are doing this, and keep it where you will see it
None of this is dramatic. It just removes the friction that makes drinking automatic.
Step 4: Get Through the First Week
The first week is the hardest, and knowing that in advance helps you not read it as failure.
Expect disrupted sleep, irritability, anxiety, and cravings in the first few days. For lower-risk drinkers, these are uncomfortable but not dangerous, and they ease over the week. If symptoms are severe, that is the signal to get medical help, not to push through alone.
Sleep as much as your body wants, eat regularly even without appetite, drink water, and get through it a day at a time rather than staring at forever.
Step 5: Handle Cravings Without Fighting Them
Here is the thing about a craving: it peaks and fades, usually within 15 to 30 minutes, whether or not you drink. You do not have to defeat it. You have to outlast it.
- Notice it without panicking. A craving is a wave, not a command
- Delay. Tell yourself you will decide in 20 minutes, and let the wave pass
- Change your physical state: walk, shower, call someone, eat something
- Get curious about what set it off, because triggers repeat and you can plan for the next one
This is also where a medication like naltrexone helps for some people, by quieting the cravings enough that these skills have room to work. Whether it fits you is a conversation with a medical provider.
Step 6: Know When to Bring in Support
Some people stop on their own. Many need more, and needing more is not a failure of willpower. Alcohol is a coping skill, a bad long-term one, and removing it without replacing it is why quitting alone so often does not hold.
Support is a ladder, and you can step onto it wherever you need to:
- A doctor or the SAMHSA National Helpline for a starting point
- Medically supervised detox if withdrawal is a risk
- Outpatient programs like IOP that fit around your life
- Peer support and community, which is what makes it stick
If you have tried the self-directed version and it has not held, that is not a verdict on you. It usually means the drinking is doing a job that needs to be addressed directly, and that is what treatment is for. Do I need rehab for alcohol can help you tell.
Step 7: Treat a Slip as Data, Not Defeat
If you drink after deciding to stop, that is a lapse, not the end. What determines the outcome is the next 24 hours, not the slip itself.
Get back to your plan immediately. Look at what led up to it, what the trigger was, what you would do differently. People who treat a slip as useful information recover from it. People who treat it as proof they failed tend to spiral. The difference is the story you tell yourself about it.
How CMAR Helps People Stop Drinking in Denver
For a lot of people, the honest answer to “how do I stop” is not a better willpower strategy. It is the right support, matched to their actual risk.
CMAR is built for exactly that:
- A free assessment that tells you first whether it is safe for you to stop
- Medically supervised detox so the dangerous part is handled properly
- PHP and IOP that fit around work and family, not instead of them
- Medication and therapy together, treating the drinking and the reasons behind it
- A step-down structure so support decreases as you stabilize
As a CARF-accredited provider of alcohol rehab in Denver, CMAR is in-network with most major commercial plans and accepts Colorado Medicaid. You can verify coverage before deciding anything.
The first step is not a life overhaul. It is a phone call, and it costs you nothing to find out where you actually stand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Start by checking your withdrawal risk. If you drink heavily daily or have morning symptoms, get medical support before stopping, since withdrawal can be dangerous. If you are lower risk, remove alcohol from your environment, tell someone, plan for triggers, and take it one day at a time.
For light to moderate drinkers, usually yes. For heavy daily drinkers, no. Stopping suddenly after prolonged heavy drinking can cause seizures and delirium tremens, which can be fatal. If you drink to relieve morning shakes, do not quit without medical supervision.
Physical withdrawal usually eases within a week, but building lasting change takes longer as your brain rebalances and you develop new coping skills. Many people need a few months of support before it feels stable. Recovery is a process, not a single event.
Many people cut back or stop on their own, especially lower-risk drinkers. If you have repeatedly tried and it has not held, or you have withdrawal symptoms, that points toward needing support. An assessment tells you honestly which applies to you.
With a phone call, not a plan. People think they need it all figured out first, and that pressure keeps them stuck. The real first step is figuring out whether it is safe to stop, since that shapes everything that follows. Everything else you build together.
