If you are asking this question, something has shifted. It may be a health concern, a relationship that has suffered, a job that is at risk, a quiet voice in the back of your mind that has been there for a long time, or simply a moment of clarity about what your life could look like without alcohol defining so much of it. Whatever brought you here, the fact that you are asking matters. Feeling two ways about it, wanting to change and not wanting to at the same time, is the norm rather than the exception, and the willingness to explore the question is where the process begins.
This article is written for the person asking the question directly. It is practical guidance for someone who is thinking about stopping or cutting down on drinking and does not know what the first step looks like.
Where Are You Right Now? Understanding Ambivalence
Most people who are thinking about stopping drinking are not fully ready to do so. They are somewhere in the middle, aware that drinking is causing problems, not certain they want to give it up entirely, not sure they could even if they tried. As CAMH’s guidance on motivation and change puts it, “some degree of ambivalence about making changes, about one’s confidence in being able to change and about one’s readiness to make changes is inevitable.” Ambivalence is the normal starting point, not a sign of failure.
CAMH describes change as happening in stages: recognising there is a problem, considering whether to act, preparing to make a change, making the change, and then maintaining it. People move back and forth between these stages, and each stage has its own appropriate support.
A useful self-reflection: think about your drinking and lay out two columns. In one, the ways it currently serves you or feels necessary. In the other, the problems it is causing or the things it is preventing. This is what CAMH calls the decisional balance. Making that ledger explicit, on paper, is often the moment the scale starts to tip. You do not have to resolve the ambivalence before taking a first step. The first step is often what begins to resolve it.
Before You Stop: The Safety Question
If you have been drinking heavily, every day or close to it, for an extended period, the most important question before stopping is whether you can do so safely without medical supervision. For many people, the answer is no.
When the body has become physically dependent on alcohol, stopping suddenly can bring on withdrawal. Milder symptoms include shakiness, sweating, nausea, headache, disturbed sleep, and intense worry. More severe withdrawal can involve vomiting, confusion, seeing or feeling things that are not there, chest pain or shortness of breath, and seizures. At its most serious, withdrawal can lead to delirium tremens (DTs), a dangerous state of severe confusion and hallucinations. HealthLink BC puts it plainly: a person can die of severe alcohol withdrawal, and people who drink large amounts should not try to detox at home unless they are working closely with a doctor.
Timing matters, and it can be deceptive. Symptoms may begin within about six to 12 hours of the last drink, but they can also be delayed for several days, and they often peak two to three days in. That means you can feel like the worst is behind you and then run into the most dangerous stretch, which is one of the main reasons stopping heavy drinking on your own can be risky.
Some things make severe withdrawal more likely. Speak with a health professional before stopping if any of these apply to you:
- You have had a withdrawal seizure, hallucinations, or needed medical treatment during a previous attempt to stop
- You feel shaky, sweaty, or anxious when you go even a few hours without a drink, or you drink at a set time each morning to steady yourself
- You are drinking heavily most days (CAMH notes that withdrawal serious enough to need treatment is uncommon below about six drinks a day, and can happen at lower amounts in older adults)
- You are an older adult, which can make withdrawal more complicated
- You have significant liver, heart, or other health conditions
If any of these apply, reach out before you stop, not after symptoms appear. Your family doctor, an addiction medicine specialist, or an interventionist can assess your situation or point you toward the right help, and a local withdrawal management service can set up a safe plan, which may include medication prescribed and monitored by a clinician. Many withdrawal management services accept self-referral, though what is available varies by area, so it is worth calling ahead or asking your doctor what exists near you.
If you are unsure, the safer choice is simple: contact a clinical service before stopping rather than waiting to see how bad it gets.
Setting Your Goal: Aiming to Stop
If drinking has become a problem in your life, the goal worth aiming for is stopping. For most people with a genuine alcohol problem, cutting back to a “controlled” level tends not to hold, and continued drinking keeps the health risks in place, since risk rises with the amount you drink. The 2023 Canadian clinical guideline on alcohol use disorder and Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health both point the same way: less is safer, and none is safest.
That said, the goal still has to be workable for you, and this is where a plan helps. As CAMH’s guidance on negotiating a change plan describes, a useful goal is specific, realistic, and truly your own. “I’ll drink less” is vague and hard to act on. “I am going to stop drinking, starting with the next 30 days, and I will call my doctor this week to set it up” is concrete and gives you something to actually do.
For some people, stopping all at once is not safe to do on their own, as mentioned in the previous section, and the first steps may be medically supervised or may involve cutting down under a clinician’s guidance on the way to stopping. That is a plan made with a professional, not a reason to put off starting.
Some questions to help you get specific:
- What does your drinking look like now, and what do you want it to look like three months from now?
- What has happened when you tried to stop or cut down before? What helped, even briefly, and what got in the way?
- What situations, times, or feelings tend to lead to drinking, so you can plan for them?
- Who could you tell this week, a doctor, a counsellor, or someone you trust, so you are not doing it alone?
If you have more serious alcohol dependence, for example if you feel withdrawal when you stop, have tried and struggled to quit before, or drinking is affecting your health, work, or relationships, stopping fully is the goal worth working toward, and it is best done with support rather than alone. The path there may include smaller interim steps, but the direction is the same: free of alcohol.
What You Can Do Right Now
While you arrange proper help, there are things you can start today that support stopping. If you are physically dependent on alcohol, read the safety section above first, because your first step is medical, not self-managed. If you are not, the steps below help you build awareness and get ready to stop.
Track Your Drinking
It is easy to underestimate how much you actually drink. Keeping an honest record, when you drink, how much, where, and who you are with, makes the real pattern visible, and that awareness is often what gets change moving. CAMH’s treatment guidance recommends keeping a drinking diary for exactly this reason: seeing the pattern clearly helps you see what to change.
Know Your High-Risk Situations
CAMH’s guidance on managing relapse treats triggers, the people, places, feelings, and routines that reliably lead to heavy drinking, as a central thing to plan for. Common ones include certain drinking companions, particular places (a specific bar, or home alone after work), certain feelings (stress, boredom, loneliness), and habits tied to a time of day. Write down yours. Naming them is the first step to having a plan for each one, including staying away from the people and places where you consistently drink heavily while you build new routines.
Set Up Your First Day Without Alcohol
A few practical steps make stopping easier and safer. Clear alcohol out of your home. Tell someone you trust what you are doing so you are not doing it alone. Plan what you will do during the times you would usually drink. And make the call that starts real support, to your family doctor, a counsellor, or a treatment or community program, this week rather than someday.
When to Involve a Health Professional
If the steps you can take on your own have not moved things the way you wanted, or if your drinking is at a level where handling it alone is not safe, bringing in a health professional is the next step. A professional can give you an honest assessment, help you build a plan, and open up options, like prescribed medication or supervised withdrawal, that are hard to arrange on your own.
Your family doctor or nurse practitioner is the most accessible place to start. CAMH’s treatment guidance describes a brief, non-judgmental conversation with a primary care provider, one that links your drinking to your health, asks about your goals, and offers specific advice, as an effective first intervention. You do not need to be in crisis, and you do not need to ask for a specialist referral. Telling your doctor you are concerned about your drinking and would like help with a plan is enough to begin.
Other places you can turn, many without needing a referral:
- An addiction medicine specialist or a low-barrier addiction clinic: In some areas, walk-in addiction clinics (sometimes called Rapid Access Addiction Medicine, or RAAM, clinics) let you be assessed without an appointment or referral. These are useful if you want quicker access to a clinician who can prescribe medication for alcohol use disorder, such as naltrexone, which a doctor can start even before you have stopped drinking.
- Withdrawal management services: If you have significant physical dependence and want to stop, this is the safest route, since stopping can be dangerous without supervision. Many services accept self-referral, though what is available varies by area, and a phone call is usually the first step to sort out the right level of care.
- Addiction counsellors and outpatient programs: Provincial health authority addiction services in most cities offer individual counselling, group programs, and more intensive outpatient options. Many are publicly funded, so the cost may be low or nothing depending on where you live, though some programs may still ask for a referral.
- Trusted online starting points: Helpwithdrinking.ca, developed by the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters and the BC Centre on Substance Use and based on the 2023 Canadian guideline on alcohol use, walks you through where to start, what to expect from care, and how to talk to the people around you about your drinking.
Whichever door you go through, the important part is going through one. You do not have to have it all figured out first. Reaching out is how the plan gets made.
Medications Can Help; Ask About Them
Many people do not realize there are medications that can make stopping drinking easier. The 2023 Canadian guideline on alcohol use disorder recommended that clinicians offer these medications, and found that fewer than 2 per cent of Canadians who could benefit currently receive them. In other words, this is help that works and that most people are never offered.
Three medications are used in Canada for alcohol use disorder, all described in CAMH’s medications guidance:
- Naltrexone is the first-line option. It reduces heavy and binge drinking and eases the urge to drink. You can start it while you are still drinking, so you do not need to have stopped first. One important caution: it cannot be used if you are taking opioids, so tell your doctor about any opioid use.
- Acamprosate helps you stay abstinent once you have stopped. It is started after you have already been off alcohol for a few days, so it is used to hold the gains rather than to get you through the first days.
- Disulfiram causes an unpleasant physical reaction if you drink while taking it. It only works when someone helps you stay accountable, for example a partner or pharmacist, and it is not currently manufactured in Canada, so it is used less often.
These medications work best alongside counselling or a program, but CAMH’s guidance notes they can be offered even before someone is ready for that step, so being unsure about counselling is not a reason to wait. If stopping drinking is on your mind and no one has talked to you about medication, ask your doctor about it directly at your next appointment.
A note on how we see these medications: they can be a real help, and our view is that they work best as a bridge. They quiet the cravings and the pull of alcohol so you can do the deeper work of recovery, with the aim, for those who want it and can do it safely, of eventually being free not only of alcohol but of the medication too. That is a goal to work toward over time, not a race. Any decision about when and how to come off a medication should be made together with the doctor who prescribed it, never on your own, so the timing is right and the change is planned. The destination is a life that no longer needs alcohol, and in time does not need the medication either.
Peer Support: AA, SMART Recovery, and Similar Groups
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is the best-known peer support network for people trying to stop drinking in Canada. Meetings are free, need no referral, and are found in almost every community, including online. AA uses a 12-step program with a spiritual framework, and for many people the community, the accountability of others who understand, and the structure become an important support alongside or after formal treatment. CAMH’s guidance on managing relapse notes that attending AA is associated with a lower chance of relapse.
SMART Recovery is a peer-led alternative that does not use the 12-step model or a spiritual framework. It draws on practical, skills-based tools from cognitive behavioural therapy and motivational approaches, and offers both in-person and online meetings. If the spiritual side of AA feels like a barrier for you, SMART Recovery may be a better fit.
Neither is a replacement for treatment, and they tend to work best alongside it rather than instead of it. But for many people, staying connected to a group like AA or SMART Recovery over the long term is one of the things that helps recovery hold. The right group is the one you will actually keep going back to, so it is worth trying more than one.
If You Slip or Relapse: What It Means and What to Do
Most people who change their drinking hit setbacks along the way. It helps to know the difference between the two kinds. A lapse is a single slip, one drink or one occasion, while a relapse is a return to your old pattern of drinking. The important thing is that a lapse does not have to become a relapse, and what happens next matters more than the slip itself. As CAMH’s guidance on managing relapse describes, slips and relapse are a normal part of the change process for many people, and each one usually teaches you something that makes the next stretch easier.
None of this means change is impossible or that you have failed. If it happens, here is what helps:
- Do not treat it as the end of the effort. A slip does not erase the progress you have made or what you have learned.
- Try to understand what happened. What was the trigger, what made that moment especially hard, and what would have helped you get through it differently?
- Reach out early rather than hiding it. Go back to your doctor, counsellor, or support group now, not once you have “gotten back on track.” Slips grow in secret, and telling someone quickly is often what keeps a single slip from turning into a full return.
- Revisit your goal and your plan with what you now know about what you need.
If drinking has returned more than once and lighter approaches on their own have not held, it can make sense to step up to a more intensive level of support, such as residential treatment. That is not a failure or a punishment. It is simply matching the amount of support to what you need right now.
You Do Not Have to Do This Alone
Stopping drinking is hard. It is not hard because you lack willpower or character. It is hard because dependence on alcohol is a real physical and psychological condition, not a personal weakness, because drinking becomes part of your routines and your social world in ways that take time to unwind, and because the discomfort of the early days is real. None of that means you cannot do it.
The one thing worth holding onto is that you do not have to do this alone, and getting free of alcohol is far more achievable with support than without it. That next step might be a conversation with a doctor, a medication that quiets the urge to drink, a counsellor who helps you understand your triggers, a peer group of people who have been exactly where you are, or simply a plan with one concrete first move. Each of these makes a real difference, and they add up.
The question “how can I stop drinking?” already carries the beginning of its own answer. You start by asking it out loud, and then you tell one person, or make one call, this week, or even better, today. That is the first step toward a life that no longer runs on alcohol.