You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart episode 344.

Whether you want to drink less or stop drinking, this podcast will help you change the habit from the inside out.

We're challenging conventional wisdom about why people drink and why it can be hard to resist temptation.

No labels, no judgment, just practical tools to take control of your desire and stop worrying about your drinking.

Now, here's your host, Rachel Hart.

All right, everybody.

We're talking today about the problems of focusing on the health risks of drinking and why I think this approach can backfire for so many people.

Now, before I go any further, I know that some of you are listening or like, listen, educating myself about the health risks of alcohol.

It worked for me when I read up on all the harms that alcohol does to my body.

That was the thing that convinced me to stop.

And my approach with everything is listen, if that works for you, great.

But I've worked with thousands of people and I will tell you there are a lot of people who have the opposite experience.

You get stuck in the place of, okay, I know it's not great for me.

Why do I keep giving in?

Or maybe it works a while to kind of remind yourself, yeah, it's bad.

It's poisoning my body.

But then that desire starts to creep back in.

And I'll say this, a lot of people in my world of teaching people how to quit drinking or how to cut back.

A lot of people really go heavy on the health risks of drinking.

They talk about alcohol being an addictive poison.

I know it's bad for your brain and your liver and your heart and it increases the risk of cancer.

And I'm not saying that we should close our eyes and ignore the science or pretend that alcohol consumption doesn't increase the risk of injury or certain diseases.

...