Review of Forbes Article Featuring 16 Expert Tips To Reduce Drinking

Moderation Management is always thrilled to see articles that talk about how to reduce drinking vs. how to quit drinking as in Forbes.com’s recent article:  “16 Expert Tips For Reducing Your Alcohol Consumption.” We’re always on the lookout for new tips to present to our members. Sometimes, ok, most of the time, we end up disappointed to read the same old-same old tips that we’ve been sharing with each other for years. Sometimes we get pleasantly surprised. This article isn’t one of those times. We are excited that they did mention moderation.org aka Moderation Management aka MM, though, that is happening more often these days.

“How much is too much? One simple sign: “If people think they need to cut back, then they probably do,” says Fulton T. Crews, Ph.D., a pharmacology and psychiatry professor and director of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine.”

That’s what we keep telling everybody. However, most people don’t know that there is support to help them reduce drinking. They spend years trying to do it on their own because they are afraid that if they seek help, they’ll be told, “You need to quit. You need to go to AA.”

Pro’s of the article:

The article includes a questionnaire that helps the reader gauge their level of Alcohol Use Disorder.

The 16 Tips include  many of the same recommendations we discuss daily in the MM Communities and Kickstart Moderation program.

Our website, moderation.org is mentioned,  although it does not provide a link or the name of our organization which is Moderation Management.

Hey, it’s an article about reducing drinking instead of how to quit completely!

Cons:

Except for Moderation.org and Sunnyside.co, the support options recommended in the article are abstinence-focused groups such as SMART Recovery, AA, and Recovery Dharma-in the section “When to Seek Help.”  There is no mention that there are therapists that will also support the reader in their goal of moderation, such as the therapists listed on our Moderation-Friendly Therapist Directory.

In the section, “Get Online Support,” MM is listed  after Tempest which is a group that states on their About page, ” We’re Here to Help You Quit Drinking and Live Alcohol Free.”  Hmmmm… I thought the article was about reducing, not quitting.

AA and/or its literature is mentioned twice in an article that is supposed to be about 16 Tips to Reduce Drinking.

There is no mention of research studies that compare the success rates of people who pursue moderation vs. abstinence or the number of people who delay seeking support to change their drinking because abstinence-focused groups continue to be the dominant referral option by therapists for people who are concerned about their drinking, no matter their level of AUD. Read more about how abstinence-based treatment delays recovery . here

Want to read the article yourself?  Read the article!!