Alcohol addiction increases the risk of liver disease, cancer, and cognitive decline. However, quitting can improve and even reverse damage.
Quitting drinking and achieving long-term recovery can improve physical health, reduce the risk of severe medical conditions, improve emotional well-being, and strengthen psychosocial functioning.
Read on to understand more of the benefits of quitting alcohol and how to achieve this.
Why Do People Become Addicted to Alcohol?
There’s not one overall cause of alcohol addiction, and drinking triggers often look different for everyone. However, it’s usually influenced by a combination of factors. These include:
- Genetics: Alcohol Use Disorder has a 50% to 60% heritability rate through multiple gene variants, affecting how the body metabolizes alcohol and increasing risk [1].
- Family History: Growing up with alcoholics in the home or in a culture that normalizes heavy drinking is associated with higher rates of alcohol abuse.
- Trauma: Nearly 75% of trauma survivors go on to develop alcohol use disorder, according to the National Center of PTSD. This may include neglect, abuse, or those who have served in military combat [2].
- Mental Health Challenges: People with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorders, and other unresolved mental health challenges are more likely to also struggle with addiction.
- Early Exposure: Drinking alcohol during adolescence increases the risks of addiction due to brain development vulnerability and learned behavior patterns [3].
Understanding The Decision: Benefits of Quitting Drinking
There are several reasons to quit drinking that can benefit someone’s mental health, physical health, emotional well-being, relationships, and social functioning. These include:
- Improvement or reversal in cognitive damage, such as with memory, organizing tasks, planning, impulse control, and reaction time.
- Long-term alcohol abuse can lead to stretching and drooping of the heart or irregular heartbeat. Quitting drinking helps this and reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.
- Improved mental health. Lowers risk of anxiety and depression. It also reduces the risk of serious cognitive complications, such as Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome (WKS), a potentially irreversible brain disorder caused by a severe thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency.
- Improvements in liver and kidney functioning.
- Weight loss, lower insulin resistance, and regulated blood sugar.
- Lower risk of cancer with each year of sobriety [4].
- Reduces the risk of infection and slow wound healing due to immune suppression caused by alcohol abuse.
Preparing for The Journey Ahead: Practical Steps
Deciding to recover from alcohol addiction is the first step in the recovery journey. Some ways to help you prepare to enter treatment include:
- Acceptance. Accept that alcohol is impacting your life negatively and that, in order to grow, change is necessary.
- Build a Support System: Seek out the support of loved one, family members, friends, a mental health professional, or support groups such as AA or SMART Recovery. Having the support of others can increase motivation and reduce feelings of isolation that drive drinking.
- Establish Clear Goals: Define your reasons for quitting alcohol and set realistic goals that help your progress.
- Begin Healthy Habits: Get engaged in activities that support your physical and mental health, such as regular exercise, eating well, and stress management.
- Commit: Recovery from alcohol is an ongoing journey. Attend therapy, participate in peer support groups. If you are prescribed mental health medication, take it regularly.
These practical steps can help support you as you begin your recovery journey and increase the long-term effectiveness of treatment.
Treatment Options and Professional Support: Why Are They Necessary?
Stopping alcohol cold turkey can increase the risk of severe withdrawal complications such as nausea, vomiting, mental confusion, and in some cases, seizures. Alcohol increases GABA, a neurotransmitter involved with reducing activity in the nervous system to produce feelings of euphoria, sedation, and relaxation.
However, this quickly leads to physical dependence, and when alcohol use is stopped, GABA levels quickly drop, causing intense and sometimes life-threatening withdrawal symptoms. This is where supervised withdrawal management (“detox”) comes in. A supervised detox program often has a licensed medical team that can monitor vital signs and prescribe medication as needed to alleviate symptoms.
After detox, to prevent relapse and encourage sustained healing, residential inpatient treatment or a structured outpatient program is recommended. At Rushton Recovery, we offer several evidence-based therapies and holistic services to address all aspects of alcohol addiction and support your long-term recovery. These include:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps patients understand triggers, set goals, and build coping skills to prevent relapse.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) focuses on helping patients process complex and difficult emotions that drive addiction, centered around four key concepts: distress tolerance, mindfulness, interpersonal relationships, and emotional regulation.
- Trauma Therapy focuses on processing and integrating traumatic experiences to reduce emotional distress and internal pain that contribute to addiction.
- Integrated Wellness activities such as yoga, massage, and meditation sessions support ongoing recovery by helping to increase resilience and manage stressors.
Healthy Habits to Maintain Sobriety After Treatment
Even long after treatment ends, recovery is often a lifelong journey that requires commitment to building, implementing, and sticking with healthy habits. These help prevent relapse and maintain long-term sobriety. Some include:
- Sleep hygiene: Follow a consistent sleep schedule to maintain the energy needed for recovery, improve mood, and reduce cravings.
- Regular exercise, such as walking, jogging, swimming, yoga, and dance, releases endorphins to improve emotional well-being and build mental stamina.
- Eat well: A diet filled with protein, vitamins (especially vitamin B1), and minerals can help repair nutrient loss caused by alcohol.
- Avoid people, places, and situations that are temptations or triggers to reduce the risk of relapse.
- Get creative or find engaging hobbies that can relieve stress, reduce cravings or boredom, and replace old habits.
- Attend follow-ups, take medication as prescribed, and use your coping skills when you are stressed and tempted to have a drink.
- Be compassionate with yourself: If you lapse or relapse, be compassionate with yourself and use your coping skills or reach out to your sponsor, a loved one, or therapist for support.
Luxury Detox and Residential Treatment for Alcohol Addiction
At Rushton Recovery, our supervised medical detox and residential treatment center offers a healing space to embark on your recovery journey from alcohol addiction. We address the underlying factors that increase the risk of alcohol abuse, such as trauma, mental health challenges, work stress, and burnout.
Our compassionate team combines evidence-based therapies, medication management, and holistic healing activities in a serene environment nestled in South Lyon, Michigan, to heal from substance abuse and mental health challenges.
Reach out to our Admissions team now.
Sources
[1] Koob, G. et al. (2017). Genetic studies of alcohol dependence in the context of the addiction cycle. Neuropharmacology, 122, 3–21.
[2] Bux, D. (1999). The role of uncontrollable trauma in the development of PTSD and alcohol addiction. Alcohol Research & Health: The Journal of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 23(4), 256–262.
[3] Raninen, J. et al. 2024. Early Drinking Onset and Subsequent Alcohol Use in Late Adolescence: a Longitudinal Study of Drinking Patterns. Journal of Adolescent Health.
[4] Kim, S.(2022). Association Between Changes in Alcohol Consumption and Cancer Risk. JAMA Network Open, 5(8), e2228544.