I tried to cut back over a period of time but only seemed to go round and round in circles, I knew I was drinking too much and life was becoming a struggle, hangovers getting up for work, started having health issues and I really needed to slow down, but I didn't want to quit.
So I made deals with myself, only drink at weekends, not on work nights, have 2 non drinking nights a week, only one night, only drink beer, only drink wine, the goal posts were always changing and my drinking always spiralled to 7 nights a week and as much as before.
After a year of trying to "moderate", the penny finally dropped that the only solution was to permanently part ways with alcohol, the first drink was my problem and so cutting that out was the solution.
Life has been looking up ever since!!
