Why Is It So Hard To Stick To One or Two Glasses of Wine?

Ever wonder why moderation is so tricky?! It actually has nothing to do with you not having strength, willpower, or motivation. You are fighting against your own brain's chemical responses and your body's physiological reactions to the drink.

Here's what I mean...

Moderation means you are always making decisions and thinking about alcohol. You are fixated on thinking about the drinking “rules”, not liberated from thinking about it all the time (That’s freedom!)

Alcohol is extremely addictive. Physiologically one drink makes you crave another drink. So it's difficult to just have one. Alcohol increases our craving for it. The dopamine hit (the process which is associated with both pleasure AND learning) caused by alcohol causes us to crave it more and more. We try to moderate using our own willpower or strength but we are fighting against chemical reactions happening in our brain.

Alcohol impairs your ability to stick to the moderation rules you've made. Alcohol impairs our prefrontal cortex, which is the part of our brain where we make our decisions. So, how are we going to stick to the rules we've made when our own brain can't even properly make those decisions?

Alcohol makes you thirsty and dehydrates us. It is a diuretic. This is another reason it's hard to stick to one or two because when we are drinking we are super thirsty. This is why when you switch to mocktails you can only have one or two. Because those mocktails quench your thirst. Alcohol makes you more thirsty. It creates a thirst for itself.

This is why it makes zero sense to beat yourself up time after time and carry around shame or guilt about not being able to "just have one" - it's not your fault. It's the alcohol's fault.

Has moderating your alcohol driven you bonkers!?