Low Alcohol Wine

If you are looking for low alcohol wine then you are probably a lot like I was, drinking too much wine every day, day in and day out. Waking up every morning and promising yourself that tonight you would give up and as soon as you get home all that resolve just melts away. We tell ourselves lies to avoid facing the truth which is that we have a drink problem. I used to tell myself that I drank wine because I liked the taste and if I could find a low alcohol alternative that tasted the same then I would happily drink that instead. I never found one but I did try. I even began experimenting with boiling off the alcohol from my favourite wines but it didn't work, the wine was still alcoholic or horrible tasting or both.

Please note that this page is only a summary of my personal drink problem and the solution I eventually found to work for me. I share it in case it may help someone else. All ideas and statements and assumptions are my own or gathered from things I have read. This is not a medical resource and I am not a psychologist or medical doctor and I am not trained to advise or help. This is just my story and what I would tell anyone. If you have a drink problem please take advice from someone trained to help.

The first problem with giving up alcohol is that you need to want to give it up and I failed this first test. I liked drinking. Still do, so I could never give up but I DID want to cut down. I was fed up being the one that was always really pissed at the end of the night or asleep in a stupor. I did want to do something about it but it was very hard. I have however found a solution which has been a revelation to me and I will happily share that and if it helps just one other person then all the better.

First let me make a few statements that sum up my drinking problem to see if they match yours:

• I hold down a good job and my drinking does not affect that
• I don't crave a drink all day
• The first thing I do when I get in at night is open a bottle of wine
• Once I start drinking I find it hard to stop
• I do enjoy drinking and I love wine
• For years now I have been racked with worry about my drinking
• If I try to have a night off it is really hard and I keep thinking about opening a bottle
• I have habits that accompany drinking like sitting down to a meal with wine, cooking with wine, watching telly with wine and those pastimes become hard without a drink because they constantly remind me to drink
• I don't wake up wanting a drink but I often vow not to drink that night and yet I still do
• I don't want to give up totally just cut down
• Every time I gave up my mind would be telling me why it was ok to have a drink: "red wine is good for you", "you had a tough day, you deserve a glass" etc.

That last one is tough. I tried giving up totally and managed for 3-4 weeks at a time but I was still under drinks spell. I still wanted to drink even after 3 or 4 weeks without and it was real purgatory. I was miserable and unhappy even though I felt proud of myself at the same time.

If your problem i worse than mine and you drink all day then you most likely have a physical addiction and this page will not help you, please consult a doctor.

I tried again and again to cut it out and sometimes I would last no more than 5 minutes. Then I literally stumbled on an answer which has worked perfectly for me. Instead of drinking 2-3 bottles of wine a night and 3-4 at weekends I now drink 1-3 glasses a night in the week and 1-4 glasses at weekends and have the occasional day off completely. I wish I could say that my secret was something really clever that I had worked out myself and I that i was a real genius but the truth is it came around because of a side effect of my drinking. After years of drinking too much acidic wine the enamel on my teeth was being worn away and my teeth had become sensitive after drinking wine. Not mega painful just all day long gnawingly sensitive and aggravating. I had to do something about it eventually because it was driving me mad. I tried using a straw to bypass my teeth but it is still hard to not swill any around your mouth and it didn't work. I considered changing drinks to something less acidic but new that beer would bloat me and if I started drinking spirits I could just end up underneath the arches! I don't know where the idea came from but I tried drinking spritzer, white wine diluted with fizzy water. 50/50 wine and water. This was the answer to all my alcohol problems. By diluting the wine I reduced the acidity so my teeth stopped hurting. This was the driver that helped me stick with this. However there came some unexpected side efffects. I expected to drink as much alcohol but just diluted except I couldn't because of the volume. The first effect was to halve my drinking literally overnight. Then came a 2nd effect. Because I never got as drunk I was able to make more rational decisions such as to "not drink any more and go to bed". If you are drunk you carry on drinking (at least I do). Now at the same time as I started doing this a lady I worked with gave up smoking by telling herself that she was not giving ip smoking but just that she would choose not to smoke. The psychology of that worked for her and in some ways it was similar for me. As I could still go home and pour a drink, and do all the things I enjoyed whilst having a drink I wasn't trying to kick a habit that had got into me for the last 20 years so I wasn't miserable or thinking every 5 minutes of all the reasons why I should have a drink.

Then some more benefits kicked in, I began to be able to sleep without getting drunk. I began to feel like I didn't even need a drink after about 3 weeks but I held off of this because I was afraid that giving up would be like the times before and if I gave up I would feel like I was giving up and then wreck the whole thing. I also stayed awake longer at night, could watch a long movie without falling asleep. Have friends around and not be pissed as a fart by the end. My life had improved.

After about 7 weeks I decided to cut the alcohol down a bit further and switched to 1/3rd wine to water during the week. Then I took the plunge and had the odd night without wine or alcohol at all and I had no problems with that.

Now in about 12 weeks I have only drunk on 3 occasions as I would have done every day. On each occasion I drank red wine, it was a deliberate decision to let my hair down and kick back. Each time was thoroughly enjoyed much more than the previous every day drinking affair and because it was red wine I never felt the need next day to start drinking again. Every time I ever gave up for weeks and then had fell off and had a drink of white wine it lead me straight back into my old routine immediately.

I am not a doctor or psychologist but I am sure there are psychological and physical reasons why this regime seems to have helped me put a lid on my excess binge drinking and take control again. I was fortunate to have an incentive of painful teeth to keep me on the program and maybe that is why or the fact that this time I wasn't trying to give up, I wasn't even trying to cut down. I would happily have had 3 bottles of wine with water but my body couldn't take 5 litres of fluid!

I think however that the important points were:

• I did not "give up" I just changed my drinking at first in a way that reduced it
• The reduction of alcohol help remove any physical addiction slowly
• Whilst I did not want to give up I did strongly wish to be able to cut down
• I was able to disassociate drinking from other activities - breaking habits
• I was able to have a drink now and again when the fancy took me without ending up back on the downward spiral

In addition I have since managed to also improve my diet to a more healthy regime and as with the drinking I still allow a little "blow out" now and again on my favourite curries and the like. In the past I often wanted to eat more healthily but when you get half cut cooking the good intentions are easily waved and in goes some nice cream or butter etc. not any more.

I have also just begun exercising. I have had a running machine for 3 years that had been used twice and some weights I bought 6 months ago still in the box (sound familiar). They never saw the light of day as once you get in and start boozing exercise is the last thing on your mind. Now I find that a 30 minute workout is a better stress reliever than that first bottle of wine.

However please take small steps in your journey. Cut down the booze a little at a time, do not give up completely unless you can. When you have the drinking more under control start to add in better diet and then when you feel ready add the exercise. I don't think you can go from slobbed out, drunk and lazy to a sober, healthy eating and exercise fanatic overnight it has too high a risk of failure.

Finally I would like to just say that despite the fact that I have been doing this for 3 months at the time of writing and feel that I have my life back under control for the first time in 20 years I am not naive enough to think I cannot relapse and go off the rails again. I could easily but I don't want to. The AA advise alcoholics to never drink again and that is why I could never take the AA approach personally. It is the right way for many especially if drinking is destroying your life. It was not destroying mine, I have a good job, and loving family and my drinking never affected either. This regime is working for me and if it works for you great.

If you are a very heavy drinker you should consult your doctor before starting any attempt to cut down or give up as it can be dangerous.

If this helps then it was worth writing up. If not then I hope you find the help you need.