10 Signs You MUST Quit Alcohol NOW

. Listen , when it comes to alcohol , there are 10 certain signs that can come up that you must not ignore . They're warning signs that it's time to do something , and if you ignore them , it might be too late . Listen , I'm not here to call you out or cause stress or anything of the kind . The thing is , conversations like this are hard .

It's going to be hard for your friends to talk to you about this , hard for your family to talk to you about this , and it'll be even hard for you to have this conversation with yourself . And today , in this video , I'm not going to be the friend you want .

I'm going to be the friend you need , because you need to hear this and just so you know you're not alone here .

All of these 10 signs are things that came up in my own life and for the 10 years I drank , for I was either too scared to look at these signs or too proud to address them , so I'm going to use plenty of personal and almost embarrassing examples because I want to do my best to help . So let's get into sign number one .

The first sign is drinking to manage your emotions . Think about it like this we get home from a stressful day of work where there's all this chaos and demands on our time , and we finally get home and we pour ourselves a drink . We're de-stressing , we have an argument with somebody , somebody upsets us , we're feeling angry . What do we do ?

Escape with the bottle . And when you do this continually , it's a sign that you're not just drinking for the sake of drinking anymore . You're drinking to deal with emotions and basically you're using it as a form of escapism . I used to do this all of the time Feeling lonely . Have a drink . Feeling a little bit underconfident . Have a drink .

Meet a new person and feel a bit shy . Have a drink . Look at my life and not feel happy one day . Have a drink . Have a massive win and make a sale or make some money . Have a drink . You see the pattern here . What started happening in my own life is every emotion I'd use as an excuse to drink .

At first it didn't seem so bad , but the problem is , is . It spirals and I'd need to drink more and more and more to escape that emotion . So that's the first sign . The second sign is having failed attempts to moderate .

So if you're repeatedly telling yourself that I'm only going to have like two drinks on a Friday and one drink on a Saturday , and then you drink more , this is another massive sign . Listen , this was me for 10 years . I always said to myself I was going to moderate . There was probably a handful of times in my life where I was intentionally getting drunk .

Most of the time I'd say , all right , I'll just have one and then see what happens . Or I'd actually promise myself I'm only gonna have one , two , three drinks , and nine times out of 10 , I wasn't sticking to it . Another big thing that would happen is I might stop for a period of time .

But if you keep telling yourself this and you keep failing I don't want to sound too brutal , but it's going to be like a sledgehammer to the face . But you're lying to yourself . You're lying to yourself . It's not going to be different this time . The drug remains the same .

Alcohol is still one of the most addictive drugs on the planet , regardless of how you promise yourself . It's going to be different this time . The drug never changes . Moderation is a fallacy . The best thing you can do for yourself is change the way that you view alcohol and then make a decision . Make one decision and then be done with it .

It's not going to be different this time , it's not going to be different next time . It's the same drug . This keeps happening . Maybe it's time to do something different . If you do want to do something different , don't forget to go to soberclearcom . Learn about that . But now let's get into number three .

The third sign is you're starting to engage in risk-taking behavior . This might mean driving after drinking , thinking it's going to be okay . It might mean risking certain medications with alcohol and I'm not going to sit here and list a million bad decisions that you could make .

But what happens when you drink is we don't think about the consequences of what could happen later on down the line . It's all in the moment and we just want to feel good now . So , for example , with drink driving , people just want to be in their own environment and get themselves home .

They don't want to pull out their phone , get a taxi , go and pick the car up the next day , which is obviously the right thing to do . But when people are drunk in the moment they don't think this far ahead and listen . When it comes to risk-taking behavior , sometimes I don't think I should be a lie . I try to keep this channel relatable .

I try to keep it on topic on alcohol , but when I was drinking , when I was growing up , I made some of the most ridiculous life choices ever Going out drinking with criminals , with people that have just got out of jail when I was 18 . Drink driving completely blackout , drunk at three in the morning .

See , this is the thing is that even though I was 16 , I was still drinking like a lunatic . When I drank , I drank . I remember I was 16 and I had a 50cc scooter like a moped . I don't know if other countries do that . It's like a thing in England when you're 16 , you're allowed a moped , 17 , you're allowed to drive .

So when I was 16 , I was getting the moped , I remember driving it home , so drunk I walked in the door . It was like two put myself in some incredibly , incredibly dangerous situations . Now the thing is is when I reflect and look back at this stuff , I think what was I thinking ? But once I've got a few drinks in me , those thoughts disappear .

I'm not thinking about the consequences of anything . And if you're starting to see this in your own life maybe not as extreme as my examples , but if you're starting to see it it is a sign because guess what ? Maybe one day you're a little bit over the limit , you get pulled over , you've lost your license for a year .

Maybe one day you're over the limit , kid runs out in front of you . You don't know , accidents can happen and I've met people , I've spoke to people , who have had their lives turned around because of this risk-taking behavior . Now the fourth sign is in memory gaps , and they're becoming much more common .

So if you're regularly experiencing blackouts or your memory's just not really what it used to be , this is a real , real sign . This can be a massive , massive sign that it's time to change . The scary thing for me was this started happening even if I didn't drink too much .

Sure , if I went out and drank 10 pints , I'm probably going to black out , especially if I was drinking on an empty stomach .

But then there would be times where I might drink three to four pints and still have these massive lapses in my memory and that got scary and I've had some pretty scary blackouts and I can actually still remember the feeling of waking up and not having any recollection , of getting home having no idea what happened .

You know I've had some pretty scary blackouts in some pretty nasty areas . The thing is is I'd love to tell you more about my blackouts but , to be frank , I can't remember . And that's the scary thing . Maybe I said something to the wrong person that night . I don't know , but the consequence of a blackout can be so severe it can end in death .

You just don't know . The fifth sign is in a declining physical health . This is when you might have things like unexpected digestive issues , weight gain . Your blood work might not look great . You might get some bad results with your liver . If you ever get blood work done , you might be getting headaches .

If you're starting to see physical health scares , this is one of the biggest signs of all . What happened to me was the more I drank , the more I could feel it in my health . Now , if you have drank for a long time , you'll know what I'm talking about . If you've never really drank a lot , you won't kind of get this . But I felt unhealthy .

The more I drank , the worse I'd feel . I could just feel like I was poisoning every cell of my body , which I was , but I could really feel it .

I could feel the shakes and it's really hard to describe , it's really hard to put it into words , but I just knew I was battering my body , I was beating it and when I'd wake up with a hangover it's like I could feel it all rattling around in my brain .

But then I've also had specific things that have happened , like I once threw up blood on a computer after a night out , scared the life out of me . Actually , that scared me into stopping drinking for like six months . When I was drinking , I started putting on weight . The physical signs were very apparent . That's happening to you .

Another sign , the sixth sign , is in prioritizing drinking occasions . So this is when you start planning your schedule or planning activities around when you can and can't drink , and also thinking about the recovery , so what days and what nights you can drink more than usual .

If you're starting to think like this , it's not normal and I'm not again , I'm not trying to belittle you , I've done this . But I'll give you an example . If I went out with somebody that didn't really drink a lot , let's say , I'm just going to catch up with a friend . We're going to have a dinner . They might have one drink . I have two drinks .

Afterwards I'd have a plan in my head of where I'm going to go next , because I know that that I wanted to spend time with were drinkers , and if you didn't drink , I didn't really see a point of spending that much time with you .

So instead of doing something good for myself , like I don't know going to a gym , spending time with my family , I'd always want to prioritize my drinking . Now , the seventh sign is in the strain that happens in your relationships .

Now this is when friends , family , loved ones , maybe children , spouses they're starting to express a concern and you can see that it's straining your relationships . Now this is big . When this used to happen when I drank , I would immediately get defensive oh , it's not that bad , I can stop anytime . It's just not that bad . I don't drink that much .

It's not like I'm drinking vodka in the morning . It's not like I'm like that person , like this person . It's not that bad . And I was in denial . And when people are continually coming up to me and expressing concern and I keep just brushing them off , what do you think happens ? People got sick of it . My mum has been to AA for over 20 years .

That's how she got sober . It wasn't how I got sober , but that's worked for her that program and when I used to drink , she knew that I was drinking pretty heavily . So imagine the fear . Imagine how terrified she would have been . Alcohol has destroyed romantic relationships .

For me , it's destroyed friendships , and listen , I'm so grateful that I stopped drinking six years ago because this was only getting worse . A big thing in my relationships is I'm 32 years of age but I have an 18-year-old brother . We have a huge age difference Now .

When I was drinking he was a lot younger , but now that I'm older , I want to set a good example to people around me , especially the younger ones . I don't want people coming up to me that love me , that are worried , sick about my drinking . Anyway , this actually touches my heart . This , like that , was a big thing for me and a big motivator to stop .

But if your relationships are straining , maybe it's time . The eighth sign is when you start losing interest in other things . This is when hobbies that you might used to have had just start taking a backseat to the drinking .

Maybe in the past you enjoyed sport , skiing , maybe playing an instrument , maybe reading , and these days you just either don't seem to find the time or you've just kind of lost interest in those things altogether . They don't give you the pleasure that they once used to . The only thing that seems to give you pleasure is alcohol .

Honestly , when I was drinking alcohol , I don't think I had a single hobby . I used to think of my hobby as drinking alcohol . Listen , that's not a hobby . There's nothing fun about doing this . How is this a hobby ? It's ludicrous . It's not a hobby . It's drug addiction and there's no other way to put it . The ninth sign is in the financial impact .

So if you're spending an increased amount of money on alcohol or it's causing a loss of productivity , this is huge . Think about the average drinker they're spending $150,000 , $200,000 on alcohol over the course of a lifetime .

But the problem is is that when people get older , they usually have more disposable income , so they end up drinking more and spending more drinking in restaurants , and it just goes up and up and up .

And another big thing is the loss of productivity , especially if you've got a business or a career where there are promotions , there are clients that you might be missing out on , and this can be huge . Now , I think one of the problems is when we drink we're so focused on the moment and feeling good that in the moment we don't really care .

We order some things on Amazon after a few drinks , whatever we buy a round for a bunch of strangers in a bar . Who cares ? I mean , I've done that a bunch of times . But when you do finally stop , that's when you'll see not only the gain in the money that you saved , but the lost potential of spending all that time drinking .

You are capable of so much more . And the 10th and final sign is in withdrawal symptoms . If you're experiencing shakiness , anxiety , irritability when you're not drinking , then this is one of the telltale signs that you are actually drunk . Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking Podcast by Sober Clear .

If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking effortlessly , then make sure to visit wwwsoberclearcom .