After the chaos, parties, and obligations of the holiday season, you may view January as a month to start healthy habits and ditch unhealthy ones. The promise of a new start, including giving up alcohol, is enticing, but is quitting alcohol during January a good idea? While there are some health benefits to going dry, there are also hazards.
What Is Dry January?
Dry January is a public health awareness campaign. The intent is to convince you to stop drinking for the month. Public health officials and those with ties to addiction hope that, by giving up alcohol for the month, you will continue to abstain for the rest of the year. People in both the United States and Europe engage in this relatively new campaign.
You may be trying to give up alcohol for the month to determine if you have a drinking problem. However, you may see engaging in this tradition as a way to free your body from the toxins alcohol leaves behind. Whatever reason persuades you to stop drinking for the month, you should consider the pros and cons of quitting.
Unhealthy Fad or Healthy Decision?
Generally speaking, experts do not recommend fads that involve your health. Whether something goes viral on the internet or is overall gimmicky, you should consider how any new habits can affect your health and well-being, as they are a priority.
One problem with anything that promises a new behavior is that it might one day become a staple in your routine or lifestyle. Quick solutions with short timeframes do not always build healthy habits. For example, a fad diet may only temporarily fix a weight or diet problem, but fads fail to address underlying issues like what caused the weight gain to begin with. Before you jump into the trend, think about why you want to take a month-long break from alcohol.
What's Your Relationship With Alcohol?
When you commit to thirty days of not drinking, you have the opportunity to see a clear, alcohol-free future. The time you spend participating in a month of alcohol abstinence is ideal for assessing your life and relationship with alcohol.
Everyone has a different baseline when it comes to drinking alcohol. If you are indifferent to having a drink or not, Dry January will have little or no effect on your life. However, if you are a heavy or moderate drinker, you may have more difficulty giving up alcohol for a month. Below are facts to help identify if you are a light, moderate, or heavy drinker.
Light drinkers consume less than one drink a day or none at all.
Moderate drinking equates to a couple of drinks a day for women and a few drinks a day for men.
Women who binge drink have four or more drinks, and men have five or more drinks within two hours.
Heavy male drinkers consume more than 14 alcoholic drinks per week, while females drink more than seven per week.
Also, evaluate your emotional patterns when you consume alcohol. Do you need a drink to feel comfortable, brave, less anxious, or depressed in social or personal situations? If so, your relationship with alcohol may be toxic.
Will Your Health Improve in January?
If you have an alcohol use disorder (AUD), your physical and mental health may not be at its strongest. Alcohol affects your heart, blood pressure, cholesterol level, and liver and can increase your risk of specific cancers. Maybe you use alcohol to alleviate feelings of anxiety or depression. Regardless, there are benefits to removing alcohol from your life.
Consider how you will feel once your body begins to heal from the harmful effects of alcohol. One study found that those who gave up alcohol for a month did experience some improved health benefits.
Should I Quit Now?
Dry January is a way to press pause and recuperate from the chaos of the holiday season. Unfortunately, it can be common to use Dry January as part of a binge/abstain pattern of drinking. Any binge/abstain behavior comes with its own risk. When you create and follow behaviors that encourage both excess and abstinence, you will still experience harmful health effects. One dry month does not erase the accumulative effects of heavy or binge drinking. However, if you have an AUD, you will require a medically supervised detox.
Can I Afford a Detox Program?
One common reason you may avoid seeking medically supervised detox services is cost; however, not all detox centers come with a high price tag. You can afford to detox in a comfortable and caring environment while minimizing complications. If you decide to quit drinking, you may experience acute withdrawal symptoms, including erratic heartbeat, seizures, nausea, vomiting, or death. Your well-being depends on entering a medical detox program.
The urge to make healthier choices can consume you after putting the last holiday ornament away and beginning the new year. You may think participating in Dry January is an opportunity to cleanse the body from toxins or counteract the holiday stress. Your reason for participating in a month free of alcohol is personal. However, don't use Dry January as an excuse to drink heavily every other month. When you take the step to join others in an alcohol-free period, be aware of the risks. If you're a heavy drinker, you shouldn't quit without medical supervision. Monte Cristo Recovery, in Santa Ana, supports your decision to stop drinking. We believe you deserve a safe, comfortable place where you can focus on healing your body and mind. Our medically supervised detox program is staffed by people who know what you're going through because addiction has personally impacted our lives, too. Call us today at (714) 824-9896.