How to Cut Down on Drinking

Pam: Hi! I’m Pam from Florida. If someone thinks they have a drinking problem, can they just cut down in their consumption or do they have to quit altogether?

Laura Bierut: Pam, it really depends on the amount that people are drinking and the type of difficulty they have. There is heavy drinking and in men, heavy drinking is defined as drinking more than 21 drinks a week and women define these drinking more than 14 drinks a week.

If someone is having a problem with heavy drinking, my first advice is for them to cut down and to drink below the at-risk drinking. Two drinks a day is fine, more than that is it starts to get immediate problems.

There are some people out there who have alcoholism or alcohol dependence. These individuals don’t seem to be able to control their drinking at all and they’re unable to cut down and control their drinking. For those individuals, quitting is the best.


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