In the modern world, millions of people struggle with alcohol. They constantly use it to soothe their pain, sadness, even when they want to quit drinking cold turkey.

If you’re reading this article, you’re likely sick and tired of drinking and how much damage it deals to your life. Not only does binge-drinking lower your testosterone, increase the risk of cancer, and cause cirrhosis, but it also damages your career, relationships, and fulfillment.

Unfortunately, 3 million people die either directly from alcohol or from causes influenced by it every year. Despite its devastating effects, alcoholic beverages are widely available for all adults to consume.

Despite this circumstance, though, you can still quit drinking and reclaim control of your life. You can learn to be happy, achieve goals, and spend your days with enjoyment again.

In this article, I want to tell you why you’re struggling with drinking, and offer 8 strategies to quit drinking alcohol cold turkey. Let’s begin.

Why You Actually Struggle With Drinking

Excessive drinking is a complex problem that can’t be solved just by trying to quit. If you don’t resolve the issues I’ll name below, you’ll keep coming back to alcohol, and using it as a way to soothe your soul.

I’m not gonna waste your time. The most important reason you struggle with drinking is bad mental health.

1: You Have Poor Mental Health

A man’s mental health directly correlates with the activities he does on a daily basis. If you feel good, have little or no negative thoughts, and possess a clear mind, you don’t wish to drink, indulge in pleasure, smoke weed, or do any of this degenerate stuff. Why?

It’s because healthy people actually feel worse when they do these activities than when they are at their normal state. They don’t feel intense pleasure from degeneracy, as their baseline mood is much higher than that of alcoholics or addicted people.

When you, however, struggle with bad mental health, limiting beliefs, and constant bullshit thoughts, you feel overwhelmed and seek an escape from your miserable life.

Alcohol tastes like shit, yet you still drink it, since you only feel good when you’re drunk, away from this world’s problems, tasks, and responsibilities.

In this article, we’ll primarily focus on improving your mental health. Once you eliminate the primary causes of drinking urges (stress, anxiety, uncertainty), you will no longer feel like drinking.

Related article: 7 Signs You Hate Yourself (& What to Do About It)

2: Your Life Lacks Direction

Another reason people drink more than they should is that their life lacks meaning. These people feel like they don’t bring much value into the world, that they are useless, pathetic, and deserve nothing but pain.

Unfortunately, instead of questioning these beliefs, creating a meaning for their lives, and making small steps to improve their existence, most people fall victim to their urges for instant escape and gratification.

Some choose to escape through drugs, while others escape their guilt through alcohol. In either case, such escapism later turns into an addiction that is extremely hard to break.

Once you find your purpose in life and start working to fulfill it, you will feel many fewer urges to drink, because there will be no more reason to.

You won’t want to waste your time on such self-destructive activities, and transform from passive to proactive – someone who creates and defines their life the way they want to.

3: You Have Few Hobbies

You could also struggle with drinking because you don’t have much to do. After you come back home from work, you don’t engage in any meaningful hobbies, like reading, writing your own book, or woodworking.

Instead, you decide to take the easy way out, and waste your time scrolling on social media, consuming junk food, and watching TV series.

Listen. I know that jobs can be stressful and overwhelming. But the “hobbies” you have right now make your life significantly worse in the long run.

Drinking alcohol and doing other self-destructive habits make you lazy, complacent, and unable to explore and enjoy life fully.

If you want to quit drinking cold turkey, you’ll need to find activities that would replace drinking and give your brain healthy stimulation that contributes to your development.

Recommended article: 15 Things to Do Instead of Scrolling on Social Media

4: You Don’t Know How to Relieve Stress

Last, but not least, you struggle with alcohol because you don’t know how to manage your stress. Work, responsibilities, bills, relationships, unexpected events – all these things cause stress and uncertainty on almost a constant level.

I don’t blame you for wanting to escape that feeling. It’s a natural reaction to being in an unhealthy and hostile environment.

However, I want you to know that there are other healthier ways to deal with stress. Yes, alcohol is more “effective” in the sense that it acts quickly and provides great relief in an instant.

But it makes your life significantly worse later. It destroys your liver, brain, affects your heart, and lowers your baseline mood, meaning that you feel worse each time you don’t drink alcohol.

By learning to deal with stress without relying on substances, you will obtain inner peace, become more effective, and gain an opportunity to create a better life.

8 Strategies to Quit Drinking Cold Turkey

Now that you know the real reasons you struggle with drinking, we can move on to learning practical strategies to deal with this evil habit.

The first thing you should do to get rid of alcohol completely is throw it out of your house.

1: Throw Alcohol Out of Your House

Yes, take all bottles and cans of beer, whisky, wine, or whatever else you may have, and throw them all into the dumpster. Say out loud that you are sick of this shit and will not indulge in it anymore.

Not only will you mentally affirm that you are no longer a drinker, but you’ll also change your environment in a way that supports your efforts. Your house won’t have any alcohol, which means that you’ll get much less temptation to drink.

Despite these great advantages, your mind is likely trying to resist. It’s telling you that this advice won’t work anyway, or that your willpower is strong enough to resist.

Don’t give in to these lies. Your mind is making excuses to continue being addicted, and it feels uncomfortable following this strategy.

No matter how you feel right now, get up, grab all the alcohol in your house, and throw it out. Without completing this step, all the following ones will be useless.

2: Find Your Life’s Purpose to Quit Drinking Cold Turkey

Once you’ve gotten rid of poison in your home, it’s time to do some introspection. As I said before, you indulge in alcohol and instant gratification to escape the lack of meaning in your life.

This time, instead of running away, sit down in a quiet room, grab a journal, and face the issue directly. Ask yourself some questions about your life:

• Who am I?
• What do I genuinely want to do with my life?
• What work would I find satisfying?
• Which problems in this world do I want to solve?
• Which aspects of my current life hinder my happiness?
• What goals can I reach in the next 5 and 10 years?
• What things can I do daily to reach these goals?

I know, these questions are uncomfortable, even scary to answer. But if you’re serious about changing your life, you need to answer them.

Right now, you have a choice. You can say “this article is complete BS”, dump reading it, and go back to watching Netflix with beer, even though you promised yourself to quit.

Or, you can show yourself some respect, sit down, and do something that will change the direction of your life completely. Which one is it, reader?

Before we move on to the next section, I really want you to think about these questions. Spend 1, 2, 5, or more hours in this sitting, coming up with meaningful answers. Once you’ve discovered your masculine purpose in life, we can move on to practical steps to fulfill it.

One of the most effective ways to reduce urges to drink or engage in any other bad habit is regular meditation.

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3: Meditate Daily to Quit Drinking Alcohol Cold Turkey

Your purpose should come before anything else in life. It is the most precious thing you have, and you should put most of your effort into fulfilling it.

You cannot quit alcohol or work on your Mission, though, if you have tons of shitty thoughts in your head. Poor mental health can hinder your efforts and tempt you back into alcohol addiction.

This time, though, you will not escape. You will face the issue directly and cultivate the daily habit of meditation to deal with it.

No, meditation isn’t hard, and it isn’t only for Shaolin monks in the mountains of Tibet. Any normal person can practice it and be rewarded with great benefits:

• Improved mood
• Mental clarity
• Better focus
• Longer attention span
• Nonexistent anxiety
• Enhanced self-control

The best part is: all these benefits can come after just 2 weeks of practice, and you get stronger over time. Meditate 3-5 minutes a day using this technique:

Sit down with a straight back, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths to gain awareness of now. After that, shift your breath back to normal, and simply observe it, without judging it, putting mental labels, or overthinking.

It will be uncomfortable at first, but if you manage to do it daily, you will build the habit. You can expand your sessions to 10-20 minutes a day once you gain momentum. Just do not skip them.

4: Build Good Habits to Quit Drinking Cold Turkey

After throwing out alcohol, finding your purpose, and committing to daily meditation, you should start focusing on building other good habits.

By doing so, you will eliminate several causes of drinking: you will deal with stress better, have productive things to do in your free time, and take daily steps to fulfill your purpose.

Here is a list of good habits you can adopt aside from meditation:

• Reading books
• Weightlifting
• Deep working
• Starting a side hustle
• Solving puzzles
• Woodworking
• Cooking

They aren’t hard to do, and, if you aren’t used to being disciplined or putting in big effort, start them small:

Read 5-10 pages of a good book every evening. Lift weights for 30 minutes 3-4 times a week. Solve one Sudoku every day. Pick one skill and practice it for 15 minutes a day.

If you want to, do the good habits in extremely small amounts. No matter what, just do them. The key is to simply show up as frequently as possible.

Over time, you’ll find it easier to follow these good habits. You’ll want to do them more, drink less, and make healthier lifestyle choices.

You’ve probably heard the saying “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with”. To quit drinking cold turkey, you must distance yourself from other drinkers.

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5: Distance Yourself From Drinkers

Your environment is extremely important. It subconsciously influences your brain, what you want to do, and how you perceive yourself.

If you constantly hang out with losers who do nothing but drink, you will think of yourself as a drinker and keep destroying your liver.

If you, however, distance yourself from these people and focus on self-development in solitude, your temptations won’t be as strong. You will also adopt the identity of a strong, disciplined, proactive, and purposeful masculine man.

Reduce the time you spend with drinkers, since they aren’t good people anyway. The next time they invite you to the bar, tell them that you’re busy with work.

When they hang out and waste their time, spend it on growing as a person, improving their skill set, and delaying gratification. If you have sober friends, that’s even better: invite them to hit the gym or go on a hike in nature together.

By spending time alone or with quality people, you’ll be much less likely to start drinking again. So follow this advice, work on your purpose, and move on to the next step.

Related article: How to Make Friends on Self-Improvement and Cease Loneliness

6: Practice Gratitude Journaling Daily

We often feel like we don’t have enough. Like there’s always something more we need to become happy: a new car, house, relationships, or whatever else you may desire.

Oftentimes, men put in all their ambition and energy into pursuits of new goals, ambitions, and material possessions, hoping that the next shiny thing or milestone will make them happy.

And when that doesn’t happen? They beat themselves up, tell themselves they aren’t good enough, keep doing their pursuits, and take what they already have for granted. Later, they become depressed, abandon all productive efforts, and use substances to soothe their pain.

Listen. I’m not saying that pursuing goals is bad. On the contrary, every man needs to pursue goals and work towards them. However, if you’re doing it without appreciating where you currently are, and enjoying simple things, it will quickly turn into hell and tons of wasted time.

Stop being so materialistic, stop complaining, and practice daily gratitude journaling. Write 5 things you’re grateful for every day, and take a moment to enjoy them.

Gratitude will improve your mood and make you more content with life, and thus, greatly reduce your desire for alcohol.

7: Pick up a Relaxing Hobby to Quit Drinking Cold Turkey

Aside from having meaningful work that makes an impact, every man should have a good hobby that fulfills his needs for quality rest.

And no, it isn’t the modern addictions like Netflix, TikTok, or porn. You need a hobby that is truly valuable and can help you become better as a person.

For example, you can start journaling about your thoughts every day, explore your deeper beliefs, and express yourself without constraints. Regular journaling will also help you calm down, regain clarity, and learn new things about yourself.

Aside from that, you can also do some other things, like learning coding, freelancing, and trying some other fun activities that can make you money and increase your confidence.

The more you spend your time productively, the more confident you feel about yourself, and the less you feel the temptation to binge-drink again.

8: Stop Thinking About Alcohol to Quit Drinking Cold Turkey

Finally, the last strategy I can suggest to you is to stop thinking about alcohol altogether. The key to quitting any addiction isn’t making it the goal, but forgetting about the addiction.

See, when you focus your attention on trying to quit porn, alcohol, video games, or anything else, you identify as a person who’s merely trying to quit, and has nothing to do with their life.

Your mind acts accordingly: no matter how hard you try to quit, you’ll still keep going back, since you haven’t got much in your life, and you’re just trying!

If you, however, just say to yourself, “I don’t drink alcohol”, and pursue goals proactively, you experience a shift in identity. You no longer think of yourself as a guy who’s trying to quit, but as a man who has better things to do than drink.

After reading this article, take a few deep breaths, download a habit tracker app, and focus on completing the good habits every day, as frequently as possible.

It’s much more effective than just trying to quit by using willpower, or neurotically counting your streak in the hope of becoming a normal human again.

Quit Drinking Alcohol Cold Turkey

In the modern world, a lot of people drink nonstop. They slowly kill their bodies with poison that lowers testosterone, causes cancer, and destroys brain cells.

There are various reasons why you struggle with drinking. In most cases, it happens because of poor mental health, stress, lack of hobbies, and purpose in life.

To quit drinking cold turkey, use these strategies:

• Get rid of all alcohol;
• Find your purpose in life;
• Meditate every day;
• Build good habits;
• Distance yourself from drinkers;
• Practice gratitude journaling;
• Pick up a relaxing hobby;
• Stop focusing on quitting drinking.

It’s going to feel hard at first, but as you keep progressing and improving yourself, you’ll no longer be a drinker. You’ll become a masculine man who knows what he wants, has a plan, and works every day to execute it.

Show up, work, improve, and build a life worth living. Good luck on your journey, brother.

If you liked this article and found it useful, make sure to share it on social media and leave a comment below. See you next time.