Empowering women to feel in control of decisions and overcome the bind of habit
It can be difficult to determine the difference between developing an unhealthy habit and suffering from an addiction, but distinguishing between the two helps you find the right treatment.
So how can you tell the difference?
Habits can be positive and/or negative, for example they can be tools of survival, but sometimes, you can loose control of habitual behaviours and they can develop into addictions.
Breaking a habit it takes less effort, less time and less attention than overcoming an addiction. Breaking an addiction often needs a longer term plan to treat negative physical symptoms like withdrawal as well as the emotional connection between the body and behaviour. Being honest about your behaviour and how it is affecting your health, relationships, job, spirituality, and life can help you understand the difference between habit and addiction.
It is possible to gain control of a habit or addiction and for you to have the help to be empowered to make take positive steps towards freedom from the bind of your habit or addiction.
Websites Offering Support:

Rehab 4 Addictions
is an advisory and referral service for people who suffer from alcohol, drug and behavioural addiction.
Rehab 4 Addiction works closely with rehabilitation centres and outpatient clinics throughout the United Kingdom and the admissions team match a patients’ addiction with an appropriately placed rehabilitation centre.

Open Minds
aim to improve the lives of people affected by chemical dependency by providing quality, affordable abstinence-based treatment.

One Year No Beer
is a 28, 90 or 90+ day coaching and accountability program designed to help you take a break from and challenge your relationships with alcohol, especially for people who have questioned how much they drink. This isn’t a free service however, it has an 83% success results (based on a survey conducted in June 2016 with the help of Stirling University). The 83% refers to the number of respondents who agreed to carry on passed the 90 days. Likewise, 96% of respondents have changed their relationship with alcohol regardless of whether they said they achieved 90 days or not.

Have I Got a Problem?
offers free online resource to help you understand issues or concerns you may have about addiction issues and mental health.

Frank
helps you find out everything you might want to know about drugs (and some stuff you don’t). For friendly, confidential advice, Talk to FRANK.

CAP Release groups
are support for when you want to stop. Is there something in your life that you just can’t stop doing even though you want to? Maybe it’s smoking, binge drinking, gambling or an Internet addiction? Do you feel like it’s just too hard to tackle it on your own?
Whatever it is you are struggling with, the groups provide a safe and confidential place where you can tackle the issue right at the core to break free and stay free.

Alcohol Concern
helps people with information, advice and support with their questions about drinking and the problems that can sometimes be caused by alcohol.
Their big aim is to create a society in which alcohol does no harm.
Books on this subject:

Your Beautiful Mind: Control Alcohol and Love Life More: Discover Freedom, Find Happiness & Change Your Life
Are you worried you’re drinking too much? Has alcohol become a major part of your life? Do you fear it’s affecting your health? Your relationships? Your career?
Millions of people are dependent on alcohol to self-medicate trauma, stress, depression, or succumbing to peer pressure to drink more than they want. They’d love to cut-back but fear loosing the buzz they associate with alcohol, and mistakenly believe that a sober life will doom them to a life of loss, boredom, pain, and misery.
Integrating groundbreaking research, neuroscience, cognitive therapy, proven tools, and teachings, in this deeply personal book, Cassandra talks candidly about her own challenges with controlling alcohol. Drawing on Eastern and Western approaches to help people suffering from alcohol dependence and addiction, Cassandra shows us how to cut back or quit drinking entirely without becoming a hermit, being ostracized, or cutting back on an enjoyable social life.
Not everyone wants or needs to join a support group to deal with their drinking problems. Many of these easy to implement strategies can be mastered in the privacy of your own home, office party or hip location.
Whatever your pain, whatever your motivation, Your Beautiful Mind: Control Alcohol will help you achieve your goals-whether that’s getting sober or just cutting back-and create positive, permanent transformational change in your life.

This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life: Volume 1
In a world defined by ‘never enough’ Annie takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of alcohol and specifically the connection between alcohol and pleasure. She dispels the cultural myth that alcohol is a vital part of life and demonstrates how regaining control over alcohol is not only essential to personal happiness and fulfillment but also to ending the heartache experienced by millions as a result of secondhand drinking.

This Isn’t Me!
What makes one person a social drinker and another an alcoholic? How is it that some can drink for years and not become addicted, whilst others seem to freefall in a matter of months straight into the abyss of alcoholism? Can you feel the point of ‘alcoholic no-return’ racing towards you, or does it approach with stealth, drawing you in and then like a Venus Fly Trap, snap shut over your unsuspecting head tightening its grip as you struggle to escape? This book is about my struggle and ultimate survival. In writing this book I hope to reach out to those that are suffering and lost and give them the hope and inspiration to fight their demons and go on to live happier lives.

The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober: Discovering a happy, healthy, wealthy alcohol-free life
Ever sworn off alcohol for a month and found yourself drinking by the 7th? Think there’s ‘no point’ in just one drink? Welcome! There are millions of us. 64% of Brits want to drink less..
Catherine Gray was stuck in a hellish whirligig of Drink, Make horrible decisions, Hangover, Repeat. She had her fair share of ‘drunk tank’ jail cells and topless-in-a-hot-tub misadventures.
But this book goes beyond the binges and blackouts to deep-dive into uncharted territory: What happens after you quit drinking? This gripping, heart-breaking and witty book takes us down the rabbit-hole of an alternative reality. A life with zero hangovers, through sober weddings, sex, Christmases and breakups.
In The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, Catherine Gray shines a light on society’s drink-pushing and talks to top neuroscientists and psychologists about why we drink, delving into the science behind what it does to our brains and bodies.
Much more than a tale from the netherworld of addicted drinking, this book is about the escape, and why a sober life can be more intoxicating than you ever imagined. Whether you’re a hopelessly devoted drinker, merely sober-curious, or you’ve already ditched the drink, you will love this book.

The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit
No matter what your bad habit is, you have the power to change it. Drawing on a powerful combination of neuroscience and spirituality, this book will show you that you are not your habits. Rather, your habits and addictions are the result of simple brain wiring that is easily reversed. By learning to stop bad habits at the source, you will take charge of your habits and addictions for good.

The Alcohol Experiment
From the bestselling author of This Naked Mind
It’s YOUR body…
It’s YOUR mind…
It’s YOUR choice…
There are a million reasons why you might drink. It tastes great. You feel more sociable. Sex is better. It helps you relax.
But are you really in control?
Whether you’re reading this because you know you drink too much and want to quit, or whether you just want to cut back for a while, this book is for you.
The Alcohol Experiment is a 30-day programme with a difference. Each day, it will show you a new way of thinking about booze, and ask you to look a little closer at why we drink, what we get out of it, and whether it’s really the alcohol that’s giving us what we want.
In the bestselling This Naked Mind, Annie Grace offered a completely revolutionary solution to dependency, and a path to sobriety. Now, let Annie give you the tools you need to understand alcohol – whether or not it’s a problem. Packed with humour, patience and the latest research, try The Alcohol Experiment today, and take control of your drinking for good.

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
Dr Gabor Maté is one of the world’s most revered thinkers on the psychology of addiction. His radical findings – based on decades of work with patients challenged by catastrophic drug addiction and mental illness – are reframing how we view all human development.
In this award-winning modern classic, Gabor Maté takes a holistic and compassionate approach to addiction, whether to alcohol, drugs, sex, money or anything self-destructive. He presents it not as a discrete phenomenon confined to a weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs through (and even underpins) our society; not as a medical ‘condition’, but rather the result of a complex interplay of personal history, emotional development and brain chemistry.
Distilling cutting-edge research from around the world, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts avoids glib self-help remedies, instead promoting self-understanding as the first key to healing and wellness. Blending personal stories and science with positive solutions, and written in spellbinding prose, it is a must-read that will change how you see yourself, others and the world.

Chasing the Scream: The Search for the Truth About Addiction
What if everything we’ve been told about addiction is wrong? One of Johann Hari’s earliest memories is of trying to wake up one of his relatives and not being able to. As he grew older, he realised there was addiction in his family. Confused, he set out on a three-year, thirty-thousand mile journey to discover what really causes addiction – and how to solve it.
Told through a series of gripping human stories, this book was the basis of a TED talk and animation that have been viewed more than twenty million times. It has transformed the global debate about addiction.

Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits
HABITS ARE THE INVISIBLE ARCHITECTURE OF EVERYDAY LIFE.
Most of us have a habit we’d like to change, and there’s no shortage of expert advice. But as we all know from tough experience, no magic, one-size-fits-all solution for everything from weight loss to personal organisation exists. In Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin answers the most perplexing questions about habits with her signature mix of rigorous research and engaging storytelling (and a personality quiz).
Videos on this subject:
Sorry, we couldn't find any videos.