Obesity increases alcohol-related cancer risk

New UK research on over 400K people over 12 years says that being overweight, and in particular having a high body fat percentage, increases the risk of developing alcohol-related cancer. This means overweight people do not have to drink as much alcohol as others to experience elevated health risks. See here for the full article.

It’s only an observational study, but as a result of it, there have already been calls to adjust healthy drinking limits lower based on body weight (see one such call here in the UK’s Telegraph).

(As background, many countries in the world have recommended drinking limits to minimize the health risks of drinking. We share these limits in our app, Drinker’s Helper, so our users around the world can get their government’s guidance to lower health risks.).

We’re sharing this so that anyone who’s trying to drink at a safe level knows that level might be a bit lower if they’re working on their weight. It’s also important to remind all of us that drinking alcohol is a risk factor for developing some cancers (an estimated 4% of cancers in 2020 were alcohol-related).

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. You can try it out for free for a week before joining.

Best of luck with your goals,
The Drinker’s Helper Team

UK to allow alcohol at football matches - here's why it matters

For the first time in almost 40 years, football (soccer, for my fellow Americans) fans may be able to drink alcohol while watching games in their seats again. Here’s the full article from the Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10750859/Plans-allow-fans-drink-alcohol-seats-matches-time-40-years.html.

They'll test the scheme first for safety reasons (after all, safety is why drinking alcohol was banned in the first place in 1985!), but it looks like the plans are going ahead.

You might think it doesn’t matter much, because people can already “pre-game” the matches, and there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence confirming they do so already.

Here’s why it matters: the government, it seems, is primarily making this change to provide the teams in the English Football League with 2 pounds of additional revenue per attending fan per game. That means this type of practice (adding drinking to previously dry activities) is likely to become more and more common as we slide into a global recession. It means more and more, people are going to have to look inward for the coping strategies that help them abstain or reduce their drinking levels in daily life.

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. You can try it out for free for a week before joining.

Best of luck with your goals,
The Drinker’s Helper Team

New research suggests possible breakthrough on alcohol use disorders

We thought it was exciting that Time Magazine, a well-trusted news source, has published new scientific research results showing that psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, shows promise for treating alcohol use disorder.

Just to be clear, psilocybin is currently a Schedule 1 drug in the United States, so it’s not available widely (it’s been decriminalized in some cities, like Oakland, CA, but possession is still illegal in most places).

Although much of the research on psilocybin has focused on opioid addiction (because of the scale of that problem in the US), some early research has also shown that psilocybin may help people who’ve struggled with alcohol addiction stay sober.

Here’s the full article: https://time.com/6167638/psilocybin-addiction-therapeutic-breakthrough/ and here’s the link to the specific study on rates of alcohol use disorder (again, it’s early research and a small sample size, but still - exciting!): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269881114565144?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed&.

It’s just one more encouraging finding, because there are solutions out there for this problem. If you’re afraid that you’re drinking too much, reach out for help. There are so many low-cost and free resources out there, from AA to apps like Drinker’s Helper.

All the best of luck with your goals,

The Drinker’s Helper Team

Seeing the cost of alcohol: it works

We thought this was a bit of a pointed glimpse into the obvious, but this study of over 1300 young drinkers in the UK shows conclusively for any doubters that people are less inclined to drink if their alcohol bottles display prominent health warnings.

We all recall seeing health warnings on cigarettes our entire lives, so seeing similar warnings for alcohol (which does in fact have similar health risks) may help to shift some people’s views of how safe or socially acceptable heavy drinking is.

We try in our app, Drinker’s Helper, to educate users about the downsides of drinking, particularly the lesser-known mental health risks (hangxiety, anyone?). It can be a powerful tool in a person’s arsenal as they attempt to truly convince themselves to stop drinking (or cut back to a lower level).

Here’s the link to the full text of the study:

https://www.stir.ac.uk/news/2022/april-2022-news/prominent-health-warnings-on-alcohol-products-make-drinking-unappealing-new-study-finds/

Here’s hoping there are continued efforts to let people know about the risks of heavy drinking!

All the best of luck with your goals,
The Drinker’s Helper Team

We think you should check out Nanobar

In the past, we’ve shared mocktail recipes on our blog because early on in quitting drinking, it can really help to have fun, sophisticated non-alcoholic beverages to drink to avoid feelings of boredom or deprivation. Too often, parties offer plain water or OJ and little else for non-drinkers. It can help to have your own mocktail supplies, to avoid feeling left out of the fun.

Now, there’s a website that brings together tons of different kinds of alcohol-free drinks in one place. (Note: we’re not getting paid to promote it - just think it’s worth bringing to your attention!)

Nanobar has everything from non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits to canned mocktails like alcohol-free mimosas and mules. We’re fans of Athletic Brewing’s non-alcoholic beer and Surely’s non-alcoholic wine, both of which they carry. They’ve even got other “functional” beverages like special coffee drinks and flavored water drinks with ingredients that support immune function and focus. You can also support friends who are cutting back or quitting drinking by getting them gift cards to Nanobar.

Here’s hoping this helps a few more people achieve their sobriety or moderation goals this year!

Tips to see fewer alcohol ads online

We saw a couple of helpful posts on Reddit recently about how to stop yourself from seeing alcohol ads online on some platforms, so we thought we’d gather this information in one place, and pass the info along to you!

After all, it’s hard enough to cut back or quit drinking without being bombarded with alcohol ads online.

Luckily, many large online social platforms have recognized the importance of protecting users from potentially harmful ads, and have relevant controls to help you see fewer alcohol ads.

Here are the instructions for several major online platforms:

1. On Facebook:

   1. On desktop:

      1. Step 1: Click on the down arrow in the top right of Facebook.

      2. Step 2: Select Settings & Privacy, then click Settings.

      3. Step 3: Click Ads in the left menu. This brings you to your Ad Preferences page.

      4. Step 4: Click Ad Topics. Below Manage Ad Topics, you’ll see a list of topics, including Alcohol, Parenting, Pets and Social Issues, Elections or Politics.

      5. Step 5: Click See Fewer for the “Alcohol” topic.

   2. On mobile:

      1. Step 1: Tap the three-line menu at bottom right.

      2. Step 2: Tap Settings & Privacy, then Settings.

      3. Step 3: Go to Ad Preferences under Permissions.

      4. Step 4: Pick Ad Topics.

      5. Step 5: Tap “See Fewer” next to the Alcohol topic.

2. On Instagram (mobile):

   1. Step 1: Go to your profile.

   2. Step 2: Go to the three line menu at top right.

   3. Step 3: Go to Settings.

   4. Step 4: Go to Ads.

   5. Step 5: Go to Ad Topics.

   6. Step 6: Select Alcohol as the topic you’d like to See Fewer ads about.

3. On YouTube:

   1. Step 1: Sign in to your Google Account.

   2. Step 2: Go to Ad Settings.

   3. Step 3: Under “Ad categories on YouTube,” click See fewer next to the ad category you’d like to see less.

4. On Snapchat: 

   1. Step 1: Tap your profile picture in the top-left corner of the screen.

   2. Step 2: Tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

   3. Step 3: Scroll down to the “Additional Services” section and tap “Manage.”

   4. Step 4: Tap “Lifestyle & Interests.”

   5. Step 5: Scroll down to the “Ad Topics” section and tap the toggle to the right of “Alcohol” to see fewer ads on Snapchat related to this topic.

5. On Twitter:

   1. While there is no option to block the topic of Alcohol, you can at least block specific alcohol brands that advertise to you. Here’s how to block a user on Twitter.

That’s all we’ve got so far! If you know of another platform that has this option to reduce your exposure to alcohol ads, definitely give us a shout, and we’ll add it to the list.

Hope this is helpful to you, especially those of you just getting started or starting anew in 2022 with your sobriety or moderation plans.

Even more non-alcoholic drink ideas

Non-alcoholic drink ideas are one of our favorite kinds of blog posts. We’ve written about the topic a lot; see here and here for starters.

But when the urge to drink strikes, particularly early in the process of quitting, it can be hugely helpful to have a go-to non-alcoholic drink that hits the spot. Sometimes it’s a mocktail; sometimes it’s a non-alcoholic beer or wine. As many of us associate alcohol with relaxation, sometimes tasting something similar can really help with curbing cravings. And in these difficult times, we feel the need for healthy substitutes all the more.

So without further ado, here are some new non-alcoholic drink ideas hot off the presses:

1. If you used to mainly drink beer: Surreal Brewing Company, of Campbell, CA has a line of non-alcoholic craft beers that sound like desserts (no, really - it’s called the Dessert Series), and they just released a new one called the Milkshake IPA. It has 17 calories and tastes like orange and vanilla, according to their release. Sign me up, please.

2. If you used to mostly drink wine: wine expert Matthew Jukes has created a non-alcoholic drink called Jukes based on an 1800s farmers’ recipe called Haymaker’s Punch (it involves apple cider vinegar and fruit/vegetables, apparently!). It comes in small bottles, designed to be diluted with tonic water or sparkling water for an interesting and complex drink. It, too, is low-calorie (similar to the Milkshake IPA above). Hells yes.

3. If you used to mainly drink cocktails: the Daily Mail has a fabulous writeup on some of the new mocktails-in-a-can on the market, and we were pleasantly surprised by the variety of delicious-sounding and low-calorie options. I expected to find simple tonic-based drinks, but found you can get anything from an alcohol-free cosmpolitan to a mojito in a can today. I’m ordering mine now.

Hope this helps someone out there with an idea for some booze-free relaxation! And if you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. You can try it out for free for a week before joining.

Many people aren't aware they have drinking problems

Before I quit drinking, I would have said I didn’t have a drinking problem. But when I first looked up moderate drinking limits as recommended by the US government (14/week and 4/day for men, 7/week and 3/day for women), I was shocked by how low they were. And once I quit, I was surprised by the strength and frequency of my urges to drink (one of the signs of an alcohol use disorder).

The reality was that I spent time with other heavy drinkers, and thus didn’t recognize that my own level of drinking was too high. It’s an easy mistake to make - the top 10% of drinkers drink more than half of the alcohol consumed in the United States, meaning if you are in the right heavy-drinking social bubble alongside others with similar habits, you may not realize the extent of your problem.

It turns out I’m not alone in that. Many people around the world are unaware that by most healthcare experts’ consensus, they drink too much, putting themselves at risk of alcohol-related problems. The latest results of Ireland’s Drug Prevalence Survey found that two thirds of regular binge drinkers were not aware they drank at a level harmful to their health.

So just how prevalent is a heavy level of drinking that puts people at risk of developing addiction or other health problems?

According to that same survey in Ireland, about half of drinkers fall into a ‘harmful pattern of consumption.’ If we take into account the non-drinkers in the population (according to the recently released Global Drug Survey) about 1 in 5 adults drink so much they feel out of control at least once a month. The heavy drinking problem is so widespread that alcohol-detection systems could eliminate 25% of car accident fatalities in the United States.

All of this I’m sharing merely as a reminder that if you think your drinking is out of control, or is causing problems for you, it’s worth the time to investigate. Look up your recommended limits. Try to stick to them. Discover if it’s hard for you to do. And if needed, figure out how to quit or cut back.

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. You can try it out for free for a week before joining.

Six sobriety Instagram accounts that inspire us

We’re all coping in our own ways with the changed situation in the world due to coronavirus. While a lucky few in some parts are getting back to normal, many of us are still unable to go outside without a mask on, see friends socially, or visit a restaurant without fear of falling ill.

It’s especially hard on those of us who are trying to maintain sobriety right now. It’s easy to give into depression and decide that life is so tough, we just need that anesthetic of liquor. We are working hard to stay happy ourselves, and we post regular inspirational quotes on our Instagram feed (@drinkershelper) to try to inspire others as well to stick with the sobriety or moderation goals that have made them healthier and happier.

But there are also some accounts that inspire us, too. And in the spirit of spreading the love and helping everyone stay happy on this rollercoaster ride, here are a few accounts in the @drinkershelper feed that we love to see and bring us a little joy anytime we open up the app:

1. Asoberfriend (@asoberfriend): We like that this blogger’s account doesn’t just confine itself to sobriety (although it does advocate for it!), but also spreads encouragement for other mental health issues including disordered eating. Often, a drinking problem is a symptom of a mental health disorder of another kind (for us, it was anxiety and depression). We find the posts positive and encouraging without being cringey or fake.

2. Euphoric.af (@euphoric.af): We’re not normally the types to take advice from life coaches, but this Karolina lady (who also hails from San Diego, like Drinker’s Helper!) seems to know her stuff. We find her posts generally very uplifting, because they’re coming from someone who seems centered, authentic and optimistic. Follow away!

3. Sober Living Ireland (@soberlivingireland): We like the honesty of this account, because it helps to know you’re not alone when you’re struggling, too. We’ve noticed in Drinker’s Helper that people send fewer messages when they’re exceeding their drinking limits. It’s sad because it’s actually the most important time to reach out and ask for help. This account really shares the feelings of someone who’s been about 3 months sober, and we relate big time.

4. The Sober Sisters (@the_sober_sisters): The posts from this account are authentic, clear, funny, and well-written. Some include tips for sticking with your sobriety goals (e.g., load up on non-decaf coffee; have an exit strategy at wet functions). But the sisters also post thought-provoking questions for people who are still on the fence. We’ve found a lot of their stuff to be spot on.

5. Asobergirlsguide (@asobergirlsguide): This account is a liiiitle heavier on memes than the others we’ve recommended, but they’re pretty fun, and everytime I see that little sunshine logo I know it’ll be something that will make me feel good about my choice not to drink. There’s also a related podcast and book.

6. Unexpectedjoyof (@unexpectedjoyof): The posts from this account are remarkably insightful and deep. We like the strong message against judgment and comparison to others in multiple areas of life, not just the choice of sobriety. The book this author wrote is incredible, too (check out our review, here).

We hope you get something out of these accounts, and stick with the goals that have made you healthier and happier.

There is no situation that alcohol cannot make worse. We don’t feel a desire to drink again even at our worst because we’ve finally truly convinced ourselves of that. We hope to help others do the same.

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. You can try it out for free for a week before joining.

Re-labeling alcohol: a mental trick

When you examine a soda can or a granola bar wrapper, you expect to find out what its ingredients are, and to learn about any relevant allergens or other health risks.

But a new review out of the WHO (full report here) says that alcohol labeling requirements across the European continent are inconsistent, don’t meet WHO recommendations, and are not well-monitored.

The recommendation resulting from the report was pretty straightforward: make it mandatory, rather than voluntary, for alcoholic beverage companies to label their products with ingredients, nutritional information and health risks. It turns out, unsurprisingly, voluntary labeling tends to be of inconsistent quality and is hard to enforce. The most important risks the WHO called out in the policy recommendation as good ideas for labels were warnings against drinking and driving, harm to minors from drinking, and harm to pregnant women.

All of that makes sense, and those do seem like some important risks to mention. But reading the article sparked an idea for us: what if we could mentally re-label alcohol such that every time we look at it, we remember the risks and downsides we’ve personally seen from heavy drinking?

As a mental exercise: how would you re-label alcohol to remind yourself or spread awareness to others of the negative effects it’s had on your life? Here are some of our ideas for warning labels we thought of based on our experiences and the experiences of our friends:

• May worsen self-esteem with repeated use

• May create new lows in terms of ‘most embarrassing moments’

• May cause regrettable decisions in your sex life

• May ruin relationships with close friends or family

• May cause you to spend tomorrow in a foggy mental haze, unable to do anything right

• If you consume this product to excess, you run a reasonable chance of awakening in a puddle of your own vomit

• May ruin your enjoyment of other things in life

• May cause dangerous and stupid altercations with strangers

It’s a helpful mental trick to look differently at a previously tempting bottle or can. You know what the effects tend to be for you; why not remind yourself before drinking?

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. You can try it out for free for a week before joining.

AppGrooves: "If you're ready to stop drinking, apps can help"

We had a chance to speak with Chris Ortiz from AppGrooves about how apps like Drinker’s Helper can help people cut back or quit drinking, particularly as most of us are avoiding in-person meetings in the near term. Here’s the article, entitled “If you're ready to stop drinking, apps can help.”

Why consuming alcohol hurts rather than helps with COVID-19

This was a Quora answer that we shared originally with folks who were wondering about whether consuming alcohol would help protect them against the coronavirus. It didn’t seem broadly relevant, but since the US President recently speculated vaguely that injecting disinfectant would help fight the disease, we thought there might be some confusion out there, so we’d share this answer more broadly just in case it helps someone else!

The question: Does alcohol consumption have any effect on COVID-19?

The answer:

Consuming alcohol most likely makes it harder to fight off COVID-19 (see WHO guidance here).

Here’s the long answer as to why:

1. The concentration of alcohol that kills the virus on your hands is dangerous to drink. Alcohol is a critical component of hand sanitizer used to kill viruses and bacteria on your skin. However, to use alcohol-based hand sanitizer to kill the virus, the alcohol has to be at a high concentration by volume - 60% or higher (per the CDC). That concentration is required to be effective at dissolving the envelope protein around the coronavirus. But consuming even 1-2 mouthfuls of a 60% or higher ABV alcohol beverage can lead to alcohol poisoning per the CDC (for reference, even a shot of hard liquor is usually only about 40% ABV).

2. Even if you could safely drink the right concentration, it wouldn’t help you because you’re not applying it effectively by drinking it. When you use hand sanitizer, the idea is you’re killing the virus before it ever enters your body via your hand touching your face (when you touch your contaminated hand to your face, the virus gets into your body via the mucus membrane of your eyes, nose, or mouth). When you use hand sanitizer, you are applying the high-concentration alcohol directly to the virus, breaking up its envelope proteins. When you drink alcohol, though, it goes partially into your digestive tract and partially into your bloodstream, and in both cases, it’s heavily diluted. The concentration of alcohol in your blood after drinking it is nowhere near high enough to kill the virus. And even if you could somehow ensure it wouldn’t be diluted, you would not want the ABV in your blood to be 60%; you’d die at around 0.35%.

3. On top of that, regular heavy drinking compromises your immune system, making the chances higher that if you were infected, you’d suffer from a more severe form of COVID-19. This is the part where alcohol actually may hurt your chances of surviving COVID-19, per WHO guidance. Those with weakened immune systems are at higher risk for severe complications from COVID-19. And according to this 2015 research, 1) there is a clear association between excessive drinking and susceptibility to pneumonia (which is a severe symptom of COVID-19), 2) alcohol is proven to harm the functioning of the body’s immune system in multiple ways (via its effects on gut bacteria and immune cells in our airways). Put that together, and it’s clear that drinking is a bad idea for someone who wants to fight off this disease.

Hope this helps someone out there, and stay safe, everyone!

10 really good reasons not to drink during the apocalypse

Ok, so this might not be the actual apocalypse, but this week feels like things with this coronavirus have escalated quickly. Unilateral mass travel bans, national emergencies, testing shortages, mask donations, all large events cancelled and countries on lockdown, all in the span of just a few days. It’s enough to make anybody’s head spin.

And sadly, it’s enough to make a lot of people think, “Screw it. I might as well get drunk.” After all, if there’s no tomorrow, then might as well live it up in the present, right?

So for those people, we thought we’d share just a few reasons to still hold off, and stick with your original goals, even when things seem a little bleak out there.

Here are 10 really good reasons not to drink during this coronavirus apocalypse:

1. Drinking weakens your immune system. In fact, there’s an association between heavy drinking and susceptibility to pneumonia in particular. As this is a virus that is most dangerous to the elderly and those with other medical conditions, you want your immune system as strong as it can be to fight it off.

2. It may make your feelings of despair worse. Depression can be worsened by drinking. These times are bleak enough without adding to the problem by making it hard to get pleasure from activities other than drinking.

3. It may increase your anxiety level. We’re all freaking out right now (see empty grocery shelves). Do you really need to consume something that’s likely to make you worry even more?

4. Binge drinking compromises your judgment. Do you think Contagion would have worked out better if the CDC leadership had been drunk the whole time? Probably not. You need to make a lot of judgment calls right now about how to deal with the possible ways this crisis impacts you. Keep your wits about you the old-fashioned way: stay sober.

5. The money for that $15 cocktail or $30 bottle of wine could be better spent on food. (Yes, food like canned goods or dried beans, not toilet paper. What in God’s name is going on with the damn toilet paper?). If you have enough food, consider donating to a food bank. A lot of people (restaurant staff, physical retail store staff) are going to be out of work in the near term and need help.

6. That brings us to #6: other people need your support. Are you at your best, personality-wise, when you’re hungover? What about when you’re drunk? Other people (whether it’s your family members, your partner, or your friends) need you functioning at 100%. Keep it together for them.

7. This is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s likely some level of disruption to ordinary life will go on for at least a month (there are talks about even hosting the Olympics without a live audience, and that’s in July). You might be ok with one night of heavy drinking, but what about 30? Drinking can’t be your go-to coping strategy.

8. The crutch theory. It’s this: if you cope with tough emotions by drinking, you won’t build the skills needed to control those emotions in healthier ways. Now is the time to invest in learning to meditate, practice mindfulness, try radical acceptance. Try as many approaches as you can to manage anxiety that do not involve ingesting toxins like alcohol.

9. If you spend your time doing something more productive, you’ll come out of this thorny period with a new skill, a new achievement, or some progress on an important life goal. If you spend your time drinking, you may come out of it with a drinking problem. Now is a great time to invest in your hobbies and interests.

10. Last but not least, there will be a tomorrow, not too far away (a year?), when this thing is either preventable or treatable, and you will have to live with the consequences of what you do now. Most people live through the disease caused by this virus. So live in a way you’ll be proud of when tomorrow comes.

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. You can try it out for free for a week before joining.

50 things to do if you're self-quarantining that are NOT drinking

We weren’t sure if this post was necessary. After all, the current guidance (see WHO here) in many countries is primarily focused on hand-washing, respiratory hygiene, and social distancing to reduce risk from the coronavirus, so most young and healthy people aren’t staying at home.

But we also know that there is a lot of value in slowing the rate of infection to avoid overloading our healthcare systems, and so we fully expect that, in the next few weeks, we will see many people staying inside for unusually protracted periods out of an abundance of caution.

This quarantine-like situation is risky for those of us who used to drink too much, because boredom can be a powerful trigger. It’s also tempting to let the gloom and doom take over, and give up on important long-term health goals in favor of short-term relief from difficult emotions.

For those people, then, who are staying inside and are trying to avoid drinking out of boredom or self-destructive impulses, we put together a list of 50 potential activities that are not drinking alcohol to help keep you busy.

Here are ideas for 50 things to do if you're self-quarantining that are NOT drinking:

1. Ask your closest friends for their favorite movies, TV shows, and books. Then, work your way through the list that comes back.

2. Same thing, but for favorite foods.

3. Keep a journal. These are interesting times we live in. There’s a blog there somewhere, but even if not, you’ll get more in touch with what’s going on inside your own head if you write it down. Bonus points if you make a point of writing down something you’re grateful for each time; it really can make a difference in your happiness!

4. Same thing, but with art. Did anyone else do this in high school? We had to keep a journal full of art - anytime we were inspired, we’d open it and do a page in a different medium - pastels, crayons, collages, sketches, stamps, whatever. It doesn’t have to be prize-worthy; it’s just for your own self-expression.

5. Take a virtual painting class. There are tutorials online (Bob Ross on YouTube is a good place to start). All you need are brushes, paints, canvas, and newspaper to cover up your surfaces.

6. Get out an old yearbook and find out what everyone from high school is up to.

7. Make plans to FaceTime a different friend every day. It can be important to socialize just a little bit for your own sanity! Plus, it makes sure everyone feels cared for.

8. Think of a different friend each week and deliberately do something nice for them. If they’re worried about an upcoming job interview, help them prepare. If they’re working through a breakup, listen to their story. It will do you good to focus on someone else’s needs.

9. Pick your favorite author and read everything they’ve written.

10. Pick your favorite author and read all of their favorite books. This is a great way to discover new books you might never have heard of otherwise. Look for something like this list from Stephen King.

11. Pick your favorite director and watch every movie they’ve ever made. If you don’t know who that is, pick your favorite movie and figure out who directed it.

12. Same thing, but for actors.

13. Pick your favorite director and watch their favorite movies.

14. Pick your favorite movie or TV and check out recommended similar ones on Tastedive. We’ve found a lot of our latest favorites this way.

15. Work your way through the latest good documentaries. RottenTomatoes has a good list to consider.

16. Watch Contagion (apparently, almost everyone is doing this right now). Consensus appears to be they get the science pretty close to right, so it’s helpful to get a sense of what outbreaks like this can look like.

17. Pick a day of the week and dub it Halloween, and have everyone at home dress up and watch a horror movie. Bonus points if you add some candy corn.

18. Same thing, but for Christmas (you don’t have to give gifts every time, but you could listen to the right festive music, decorate, watch Home Alone, and have holiday-appropriate foods, for example).

19. Grow a garden. If you’ve not got a ton of space, you can do a small herb garden on your kitchen counter. If you do have a little outdoor space like a balcony or a backyard, you can do a citrus tree or tomato plant. It can be incredibly satisfying to watch something grow, and it’s a calming habit.

20. Learn how to sew. There are tutorials available online, it’s a very useful skill for repairing stuff even if you don’t end up pursuing secret dreams of being a fashion designer.

21. Learn how to knit. It’s easier than sewing, and you have a new cheap gift you can give literally everyone (who doesn’t appreciate a homemade scarf?).

22. Tie-dye something. Here’s how if you’ve forgotten!

23. Bedazzle something (for those unfamiliar, it means sticking rhinestones on your clothing). And yes, you can in fact still buy a bedazzler on Amazon. What a throwback!

24. Create some DIY home decorations, like a new vase or mirror.

25. Try a photography tutorial and go nuts with Portrait mode around the house.

26. Learn a new language. The Duolingo app is great for that, from our personal experience. It can be fun to do with someone else, so you can try to make small talk in your new language.

27. Work on learning to code using Codecademy or other similar resources. Now is such a great time to put in the effort!

28. Learn about our amazing planet by watching Planet Earth all the way through.

29. Learn how to meditate. It can really help you to stay calm. There are great apps to help with it, too, like Headspace and Calm.

30. Learn more about your taste in music by drilling into Spotify’s recommendations for you.

31. Learn more about your taste in coffee and tea by trying a few varieties and keeping notes (we use a lot of David’s Tea and there’s a lot out there to explore; there are even coffee subscription clubs to check out).

32. Learn more about your taste in chocolate. Nuff said.

33. Pick a topic you always wanted to learn more about, but never did, and explore it on Coursera or Udemy. Greek mythology? Great! You’ve got the time. History of flight? Why not!

34. Pick a sport you don’t typically watch, and watch either its purported best games in history, or a documentary about the sport. If you need ideas, the new Formula One series on Netflix is incredible.

35. Educate yourself about upcoming elections and the candidates and political issues that affect you. There’s no excuse now - you’ve got the time!

36. Take the time to find interesting accounts on Instagram and follow them. It’s amazing the content that is out there to be discovered from travelers, pet lovers, food bloggers, fashion bloggers and more. Plus, you’ll see more of the kind of content you like if you follow the right stuff.

37. Pick a different world cuisine every week and try to make one of its signature main dishes.

38. Same thing, but for desserts. Nom.

39. Buy a non-alcoholic spirit (like Seedlip) and make every mocktail you can find. Some brands of non-alcoholic spirits even have their own recipe lists on their websites.

40. Read quit lit. Quit Like a Woman is next on our list. There are a lot of great books out there, like This Naked Mind, The Alcohol Experiment, Goodbye Hangovers, Hello Life, Rewired, The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober and many more. Reading these can help you remember why you wanted to quit drinking in the first place, so you can stay motivated now.

41. Play cards. Egyptian Rat Screw is a great game if you only have one deck.

42. Play Cards against Humanity. Or dig up old kiddie board games like Candyland and give them a whirl. If you don’t have any board games, a good twist on charades is to play bowl of nouns.

43. Teach yourself chess and play, at home or online.

44. Download a fitness app and do your workouts at home. Strong is a great app if you have small weights you can use. There are also countless yoga videos on YouTube. A little exercise can go a long way toward improving your mental health, so it’s worth figuring out a plan.

45. Slowly increase the number of push-ups (or sit-ups, or both) that you can do, day by day.

46. Clean out your closet. You know damn well you need to. If you need tips, consult Marie Kondo. Just be careful when taking it to Goodwill.

47. Plan out how you want to re-decorate a room in your place. You can use Homestyler or another design app to get an idea of what you might like.

48. Research places you might like to live. Even if you’re not planning to move, it can feel good to have a sense of where you might like to live, so you know what your options are.

49. Plan a trip for after the coronavirus outbreak has subsided. Pick where you want to go; plan the activities you want to try and the sites and restaurants you want to visit. Don’t spend a dime yet; just plan it.

50. Re-set on your New Year’s Resolutions. Set some personal goals for the year and plan how you want to get to them. Weight loss? Check. Promotion at work? Got a plan for it.

And a bonus one:

1. Do nothing. You’re allowed to do that, too. If all you feel up to is staring at the ceiling, that is just fine.

Stay safe, and we wish you all the best in sticking with your sobriety or moderation goals!

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a personalized support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. You can try it out for free for a week before joining.

Drinking as a (terrible) coping mechanism

A new study from Emory University has found worse life outcomes for a specific type of drinker, and we’re not surprised.

The study looked at over 1,000 people and categorized them into three types of drinkers:

1. Those who drank at a low level continuously through adolescence and young adulthood

2. Those who showed a modest increase in alcohol intake from adolescence into adulthood

3. Those who showed a sharp increase in alcohol intake in the same time period

We’re guessing you can guess which group was worst off.

Turns out the third group was having a harder time in several areas of life:

1. Work conflict, including job-related motivation

2. Family conflict

3. Physical health, including sleep

Now, it may be that their drinking levels caused all these problems. Certainly, heavy drinking has been known to cause all three.

But the causation may also run the other way. If you are fighting with your family, struggling with anxiety and sleep deprivation, and unhappy in your work life, and if you haven’t developed strong sober coping skills to deal with the difficulties of everyday life, you may be more likely to feel you “need” a substance to get through the day.

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises (like those about anxiety and depression), drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. Try it free for a week before joining!

New intel on alcohol & anxiety

As people who suffer from anxiety and depression, we’ve always been personally struck by the importance of letting people know that drinking can exacerbate both conditions. Having an anxiety disorder increases the likelihood of having an alcohol use disorder, and vice versa.

But there has been a lot of debate about the causation of these disorders, and a relatively new article in the Journal of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has linked alcohol and anxiety even more deeply than past research.

Although the article is complex reading (see here), we think we’ve got the gist of its core idea, the “opponent process model” here:

1. Binge drinking activates the brain’s reward system, and you drink to have fun

2. As binge drinking becomes a regular pattern, your brain fights against the calming effects of alcohol to maintain balance, throwing off your regular emotional health. You are sadder, more discouraged, more anxious, especially when sober. Now, you drink to mitigate this negative effect of withdrawal.

3. The underlying causes in the brain of this poor coping system are the same; neurotransmitters in the brain associated with the reward system are involved throughout

Although this research has not led to new medical treatments for alcohol use disorder yet, we were excited to see it because it coincides so well with what we have observed in ourselves and others through our work on Drinker’s Helper. In the exercise “Stages of Drinking,” this is more or less the process we elucidate. And that means the methods we use in the app to try to help you find alternative ways to feel that sense of reward may be quite helpful.

You can help someone else stop drinking

One of the common misconceptions we worry about in the alcohol addiction space is that “you can’t help an addict; they have to decide to change on their own.”

The second part of that statement may be true; people who are internally motivated are more likely to be successful with quitting drinking.

But the first part is not, and evidence for that came out of a Yale study this week. The study appears to be sound, based on data from over 2500 participants over seven years.

The findings were that if 12th grade teens knew that their parents disapproved of them drinking and were monitoring them for signs of drinking, they were less likely to do some of the riskiest behaviors associated with drinking even years after they went to college:

1. Driving drunk

2. Riding with a drunk driver

3. Blacking out

Now, the study didn’t get terribly specific about the method for helping teenagers become aware of their parents’ disapproval and monitoring of their alcohol use. But we have to imagine treating them with respect and sharing candidly with them your informed reasons for disapproving would work well.

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises (like those about anxiety and depression), drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. Try it free for a week before joining!

Mindset matters in quitting drinking

We disagree with the common belief that you have to hit rock bottom in order to quit drinking. For one, addiction is a spectrum, so that some struggle much less than others to change (studies show many can even make moderate drinking work!). For another, the search for bottom can leave people getting worse and worse before getting better. It defies common sense to wait to change until things cannot get worse.

However, a recent study showed that people who started to cut back on their drinking before entering a 12-week outpatient therapy program were more successful at sticking with it than those who made no changes prior to treatment. All groups were helped by the therapy program, with the most improvement among those who were drinking heavily prior to starting. But the most long-term success was had by those who started to change before they ever started treatment.

In other words, some people knew they needed to make changes for their own health and happiness, and didn’t wait for anyone to help them do it. The most internally motivated people were the most successful. And that may be the grain of truth that underlies the rock bottom narrative.

We try through the Tracking & Insights experience in the Drinker’s Helper app to help members increase their internal motivation to cut back or quit drinking by reflecting on the downsides of drinking and the benefits of sobriety for them. If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help! Try the app free for a week before joining if you like it.

Anxiety leads to drinking problems: more proof

We will keep mentioning the link between alcohol and anxiety until we’re blue in the face. Too many of us drink when we’re stressed in order to block it all out. But over time, and even shortly thereafter, drinking leads to increased anxiety, as you’ll find in the exercise “Alcohol & Anxiety” in the Drinker’s Helper app.

This recent study, however, focused on finding evidence showing the connection going the other way: when anxiety causes harmful drinking patterns.

Studying 2,000 participants over three years, researchers at the University of Bristol found that generalized anxiety disorder (the official name of the diagnosis for the most common form of anxiety) was associated with harmful drinking behavior, and that the effect persisted for several years. This was true despite the fact that many participants didn’t seem to consciously use alcohol to self-medicate for anxiety when stressed.

If your anxiety causes you to drink, then one logical way to get yourself back on track is to learn new coping skills for anxious moments. Here are some of the tactics we use when we’re in a panic:

1. Make (or look at an existing) gratitude list, to remember the big stuff that matters that is going well

2. Take a break through a bath or a walk to mentally re-set

3. Focus on breathing deeply and slowly (one study recently confirmed that breathing exercises helped people calm down and reduced their desire to drink when exposed to stress)

4. Logically question the anxious thought, seeing where we might be exaggerating the ‘danger’ in the situation

5. Remind ourselves that life’s too short to spend worried all the time, and there’s always something new to worry about

We know how important is is to address the anxiety and depression that can lead us to drink, which is why we have several courses of exercises dedicated to helping members in Drinker’s Helper improve their mental health.

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises (like those about anxiety and depression), drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. Try it free for a week before joining!

Compulsive drinking on-off switch found in mice

We’ve been amazed since starting Drinker’s Helper to learn about some of the new research into alcohol addiction. It’s clear that this space is evolving quickly, with a lot of interest from governments and educational institutions, and there is a steady stream of new ideas to help people recover from any level of addiction to alcohol.

In catching up with some of last year’s biggest findings, we stumbled across this amazing find from research into the drinking behavior of mice.

It’s been clear for a while that drinking problems have their origin in the brain (one person was famously purported to be cured of his addiction to alcohol through removal of problematic pieces of his brain).

But this study found that:

1. You could predict which mice would become compulsive drinkers by seeing how their brains reacted to their first drink

2. The compulsive drinker mice had problems in communication between two regions of the brain: one involving behavioral control and another involving response to “adverse events”

3. They could use light to turn on or off the relevant parts of the brain, and saw that doing so cured the mice of their behavioral problem

We found this encouraging because it could lead to new medicines that target these areas of the brain. It confirmed that drinking problems are in our heads, and that adjusting the connections in our brains (through therapy or another method) is a great way to change. It’s not clear that addiction in humans works the same way, but it’s a promising start.

If you’re looking to cut back or quit drinking, we’d love to help. Drinker’s Helper is an app that provides motivational exercises, drink tracking and insights into why you drink, and a support group of your peers to help you make needed changes. Try it free for a week before joining!