Possible Lifestyle changes Alternative and Home remedies

Lifestyle and home remedies

As part of your recovery, you'll need to focus on changing your habits and making different lifestyle choices. These strategies may help.

• Consider your social situation. Make it clear to your friends and family that you're not drinking alcohol. Develop a support system of friends and family who can support your recovery. You may need to distance yourself from friends and social situations that impair your recovery.
• Develop healthy habits. For example, good sleep, regular physical activity, managing stress more effectively and eating well all can make it easier for you to recover from alcohol use disorder.
• Do things that don't involve alcohol. You may find that many of your activities involve drinking. Replace them with hobbies or activities that are not centred around alcohol.

Alternative medicine

Avoid replacing conventional medical treatment or psychotherapy with alternative medicine. But if used in addition to your treatment plan when recovering from alcohol use disorder, these techniques may be helpful:

• Yoga. Yoga's series of postures and controlled breathing exercises may help you relax and manage stress.
• Meditation. During meditation, you focus your attention and eliminate the stream of jumbled thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress.
• Acupuncture. With acupuncture, hair-thin needles are inserted under the skin. Acupuncture may help reduce anxiety and depression.

Coping and support

Many people with alcohol problems and their family members find that participating in support groups is an essential part of coping with the disease, preventing or dealing with relapses, and staying sober. Your doctor or counsellor can suggest a support group. These groups are also often listed on the web and sometimes in the phone book.

Here are a few examples:

• Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a self-help group for people recovering from alcoholism. AA offers a sober peer group and is built around 12 steps as an effective model for achieving total abstinence.
• Women for Sobriety. Women for Sobriety is a nonprofit organization offering a self-help group program for women who want to overcome alcoholism and other addictions. It focuses on developing coping skills related to emotional and spiritual growth, self-esteem and a healthy lifestyle.

Al-Anon and Alateen. Al-Anon is designed for people who are affected by someone else's alcoholism. Alateen groups are available for teenage children of those with alcoholism. In sharing their stories, family members gain a greater understanding of how the disease affects the entire family.