Originally Posted by rainyrecovery

I'm new here, so I don't have the same level of experience as the other people responding. I can say that I spent 2+ years trying to moderate, and it wasn't a successful experiment. I even (truthfully) have tracked every drink I've had since back in 2012, so I can tell you EXACTLY what triggers I have and where my moderation would falter. Now I've gone 6 days without a drink and it frankly has been easier than moderating. It's only been 6 days, but I surmise that difference is the forced discipline. Instead of saying, "I'm only going to drink a glass of wine tonight instead of a whole bottle," I'm forced into doing something completely different. So, I go to the gym, read a book, go for a walk, sleep, binge on House of Cards. Anything. No happy hour, booze in the house or dinners out for now.

Now here's the rub. I have a couple of days on the calendar when I know I'll want to have a few beers with the boys. So for me, that's my moderation. I'm not trying to downgrade to "X drinks per day." Instead, I'm going back to what I did when I was happiest in my life. I limited myself to a few days per month when I enjoyed going out and having some drinks. Not total abstinence, but discipline. Breaking the bad habits and replacing them with good ones.

We'll see how many wheels are still on the wagon the week after that first date on the calendar comes around. But that's my "moderation" plan: Lots of days with no drinks. A couple of days with some drinks.