Quick Start Preparation Course (FREE)

Download our Quick Start Preparation course as our FREE gift to help you stop drinking alcohol and get the best start to your new life. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.

Should I Quit Smoking and Drinking at the Same Time?

by | Stop Drinking Alcohol | 1 comment

Quitting Smoking and Drinking Together Transcript

This question is from Dan Bethards on YouTube:

Great vid. It didn’t sound rambling to me. I really enjoy the vids. The wisdom and experience are very helpful. Thanks again for your help.

We are the same age and it sounds like we have much of the same history – smoking, thirty years of drinking, etc. I’m on Day 6 of not drinking and I tried to stop drinking and smoking at the same time. I couldn’t do it. It was too much at once. I feel kind of bad for it. I started smoking again but I’m very proud of my six days of not drinking.

Do you think tackling those two items together is too much and separating them is wise? I’m definitely going to quit smoking soon. With a high stress law enforcement job, quitting drinking and quitting smoking were too much. What is your opinion on my situation? Break the problems down individually or go all in and handle them at once? Thanks!

There’s sort of a divide about which is the best way to go. Some people say that you should handle multiple things at once. Other people say that you should only try to do one thing at once.

Because of this divide and because I haven’t made a connection with any of the arguments, I can only go from my own experience. That is every time I tried to quit doing more than one thing at once, I’ve always failed.

For instance, I’d say, “That’s it. New Year’s coming. Fresh start.” I’d have a long list of stuff that I wanted to do and that was not really good. I think it’s just impossible to make so many changes at once. I think if you have the right tools, if you have a good plan, I think it’s possible to make two to three things at once.

When I stopped drinking for instance, I did lose weight. It wasn’t a goal ultimately to lose weight but the goal was to stop drinking. I just wanted to get that out of my life and then once I’ve done that, I could work on other things.

I was exercising, getting out and trying to fill the void in my life with different things. So just taking all the alcohol out of the equation and adding the exercise in and carrying on with the way I was eating, I did lose some weight.

Which Do You Quit First?

As you said it yourself, doing both together was just too much. What you have to do is to really see which is the thing that you want to get out of your life more.

When I was trying to stop, I was trying to stop smoking first for years. It was only recently, relatively speaking, that I even considered that I had a drinking problem. It was only since I stopped drinking that I can see things as they really are.

Just focus on one thing at a time. That’s from my experience. For now, I can’t see any other way to get past one big thing than to really focus on it.

There are a few different reasons for that. One is if you try to do many things at once and you fail at one of them, then that failure could lead to you doubt yourself and your ability to quit other things.

Another reason is you can learn so much about yourself, about how you implement the changes in your life and how you deal with things. You can learn about your strengths and weaknesses just by doing the one thing.

Once you’ve gone through one thing, that bit of education about yourself can help you with the next habits that you need to deal with. It’s the same thing that can help you to build up good habits as well.

So which would you quit first? I’d say that whichever one is causing you the most grief. Do that one first.

Thanks for visiting the site.
Until next time…
Onwards and Upwards!
Kev

Some Previous Posts From Alcohol Mastery

Is Alcohol Affecting Your Relationships?
To Never Drink Again
Alcohol and Infectious Disease

Where Else To Find Alcohol Mastery

Alcohol Mastery TV on YouTube
Alcohol Mastery Shorts on YouTube
Alcohol Mastery on Facebook
Alcohol Mastery on Twitter

1 Comment

  1. James

    I stopped smoking then a month later drinking. Get over the initial shock of one then it becomes kind of addictive to feel good. It’s all about choices, I made the decision to wake up feeling good was a treat, how can waking up feeling like death be a treat.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.