When it comes to substance abuse, the decision to cut down or quit drinking is ultimately up to you. If you can stick to one or two drinks and no more, then you can reduce your consumption to a low-risk drinking pattern. But if you find that those first two drinks make you want to drink more and you rarely drink just two, moderation may not be an option. Not everyone who drinks has a problem with alcohol.
Many people enjoy an occasional beer or cocktail with friends and don't experience any negative consequences. So if you drink occasionally when you're out and about, or have a glass of wine at night, you may not need to worry. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), there are other reasons why quitting drinking may be the best choice for you. If you've been drinking at a level that's considered high-risk or excessive, it's time to consider changing your drinking patterns or stopping drinking altogether.
If you've noticed a decrease in your energy levels and you drink frequently, alcohol could be the cause. However, it's not always easy to tell when you start drinking too often. It's clear that alcohol, and excessive alcohol consumption in particular, can increase the chances of developing several types of cancer, including in the esophagus (digestive tract), mouth, throat, and sinuses. Whether you're concerned that you might have a drinking problem or just wondering if you should cut back, it's always worth looking into.
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the inability to control or stop drinking despite negative consequences. If you stopped drinking six 175-ml glasses of wine a week, you would save about 960 calories, which is equivalent to three hamburgers or five and a half bags of French fries. This is a common sign that your body is developing a tolerance to alcohol, which could mean that you're drinking more often. Excessive drinking (at least 15 drinks for men and eight or more for women a week) can damage the organs and cause fatty liver, cirrhosis and other problems.
While you're supposed to have between six and seven cycles of REM sleep per night, when you've been drinking, you usually only have one or two. One of the main reasons why people decide to stop drinking and seek help doing so is because they realize they have lost the ability to control how much they drink. If you stopped drinking six 175-ml glasses of wine per week, you would have saved 1920 calories at that time and 2160 if you had stopped drinking about six pints of beer. At this point, if you had previously drunk six 175 ml glasses of wine a week, you would have lost 2,880 calories in three weeks.
