Beat the booze: break the habit of drinking

Leading hypnotherapist David Allen explains why we drink too much and how to control your relationship with alcohol. You may be suprised to learn how unhealthy your ’social habits’ can be.

Many of us drink more than we are cognitively comfortable with and do that regularly either at home or at social events and do that it in such a way, that it doesn’t appear to have a direct impact on our work, or family, or the things that we need to do in our lives.

The signals are consistent. You know, the one glass of wine or beer that turns into three or four; being able to drink quite a lot without becoming legless; no real hangover the following day; really looking forward to that end of day drink.

All of these are signs of an increased tolerance to and dependency upon alcohol and it can be difficult to change particularly in an environment where alcohol is relentlessly promoted and constantly associated with beauty, success, sexual desire and a necessary part of a good time.

Up until two years ago I was a part of that routine until I stopped and got off. I don’t mean total abstinence or in the words of the AA, ‘one drink is too much and a million is not enough’. I mean a change in my relationship with alcohol to the extent that I rarely drink, not because I don’t allow myself to but because I don’t really want to. But when I do the need to continue to the end of the bottle or the evening no longer exists.

The question is how can you achieve the same thing?

It’s easy. Just change what you believe about alcohol and the need to use it at every practical opportunity disappears.

Your addiction is not physical and it is not genetic. Your body doesn’t need alcohol to function properly and there is nothing in your cellular make-up to cause you to need it. It’s important to understand that you inherit more than chromosomes and genes from your parents, you also inherit a belief system and it is these individual perceptions of reality that determine who you are today and how likely you might be to embody some compulsive behavioural trait.

So how do you change? It doesn’t work consciously and by that I mean by willpower, or rationale, or determination because if it did no one would be an alcoholic and the problem you want to solve wouldn’t exist and you wouldn’t be reading this. The changes have to be made at the unconscious level because your unconscious really calls the shots when it comes to stuff you believe you need and it will not be easily overridden by conscious bidding.

SOME WAYS TO CHANGE THE UNCONSCIOUS

1. New information. Yes, often a heartfelt belief can be changed if you receive credible information that changes your entire perspective about the subject in question.

2. Hypnosis directly accesses the unconscious mind that is where the beliefs are held. A significant benefit of this method is that nobody, neither the hypnotist nor the client needs to know the exact nature of the belief that will be changed because the unconscious mind does know and it will change those beliefs with information presented to it in trance because suggestions in trance are not inhibited by conscious analysis. One could almost imagine a statement that says ‘go find this problem and fix it’ and that is not far away from the way hypnosis works.

3. EFT. Emotional Freedom Techniques target the emotions brought about by the stress created through the process of a belief/behaviour conflict. The tapping not only removes the damaging, negative emotions but can also re-frame the beliefs underpinning the problem. The tapping re-orders the energy system and breaks any unwanted connections with core beliefs by changing them, creating a correction re-set to what’s right rather than supporting a limiting untruth.

Just when you thought the problem was that you drank a bit too much – you discover that it’s your filtered perceptions of the world and your place in it (beliefs) that are the real culprit. The good news is that they can be changed and you can be who you want to be and achieve what you want to achieve.

You will have realised by now that your belief system affects far more than just your drinking, imagine applying the same principles to your business success, promotion, advancement and the establishment of relationships.

I specialise in helping people with alcohol dependency using a combination of the methodologies above and provide hypnosis CDs HERE and run the world’s first on-line interactive therapy program for alcohol dependency at www.control-your-drinking.co.uk.

The one thing I am certain of from my personal experience and those of others whom I have helped with this methodology is that you can really and permanently change the way you feel about alcohol and better your life as a result.

Reach David Allen on 0800 458 8014 or david@control-your-drinking.co.uk

VALIDATED PRACTITIONER REGISTERED

General Hypnotherapy Standards Council
General Hypnotherapy Register

David Allen courses are available online for a one-off fee of £35. He also runs week-long retreat programmes in Portugal for £1,995 per person (based on single occupancy per room) including accommodation, therapy, and all meals.