I write this as someone in recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD) — as it is now described clinically — with lived experience on both sides of the line. I spent decades drinking and many years in sobriety. I’ve experienced abstinence, relapse and sustained recovery.

Whether someone chooses to describe themselves as sober, in recovery or something else is not the point of this book. The goal is to help people safely and realistically cut down or stop drinking and then remain abstinent. If you drink too much, this book will help.

I grew up in Scotland — a country known as much for whisky, parties and social drinking as for engineering, medicine and scientific progress — where drinking alcohol runs deep through everyday life. Alcohol culture is not something I’ve observed from a distance; it’s a world I’ve lived in.

Alcohol-related harm remains one of the world’s most serious public health issues, contributing to millions of premature deaths each year and affecting countless drinkers and their families in ways that often go unseen or unspoken. Many alcohol-related deaths are never fully counted. Alcohol use disorder is rarely listed as the cause of death, despite playing a central role in illness, accidents and mental health crises. Shame, stigma and denial still surround alcohol problems, even though they affect people from every background.

There is also a lot of differing opinions on how to overcome AUD — from medicine to psychology to spirituality. This book covers many of those ideas, especially addressing shame and guilt which keep people stuck. But it mainly focuses on how behavioural change is key to psychological change and sobriety (or cutting down).

Wherever you live, whatever your background, however you drank and what drove your drinking, the core mechanisms of alcohol use disorder are similar. And so are the solutions. The practical steps to cut down drinking alcohol, to stop drinking and to stay stopped do not change by country or culture, but access to care and cultural pressures do vary. But change can occur when solutions are made realistic and applied consistently.

The approach of this book is deliberately weighted towards behavioural change. This is where much psychological change can occur. Thoughts and feelings matter but they’re difficult to change quickly. Behaviour is different. It can change now, even when your mindset hasn’t caught up yet. And over time, consistent actions begin to reshape how you think and feel. Lasting psychological change most reliably follows consistent behavioural change. You cannot wish yourself sober any more than you can wish money in the bank. We must behave in ways that are good for us and take steps to maintain our sobriety. Stability comes first. Insight follows. Change lasts.

I hope this book offers clarity, reassurance and practical direction — and helps people move from chaos to stability through simple changes, even one behaviour at a time.

— J.S. McInally