The few words that accompany the scores are very unassuming. If you’ve scored more than 2 on the MAST, DO NOT IGNORE IT.
If you’re drinking too much, chances are your coping strategy is avoidance. It makes sense that if you have a drink to avoid feeling stressed, low, making changes, (the list goes on) etc, you’ll avoid doing anything about drinking too much.
The most important thing to do is to create an action plan around drinking. I suspect the first thing is to make the action non-negotiable. A great way to do this is by asking somebody for support who you know won’t let it drop; bossy sister, concerned partner, most of us know someone who will keep pushing.
It’s dangerous to just stop drinking, you may need a supervised detox. You can ask your GP about this and get some guidance. I need to be careful what I say here about detox so I’m going to leave it up to you to read between the lines……..
I never hear anything good about the most famous place that offers detox. It’s a household name but for the money they charge, there isn’t anything else that’s useful for what you pay, above and beyond the medical support. I can recommend some basic, but great detox places that cost a tenth of the price.
If you’ve decided there’s a problem, have you also decided it’s time to make some changes?
If you need some help making things non-negotiable, I do bossy (nicely)!