Controlling Your Drinking, First Edition: Tools to Make Moderation Work for You - Softcover

Miller, William R.; Muñoz, Ricardo F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1572309032 ISBN 13: 9781572309036

Publisher: The Guilford Press, 2004

Synopsis

How many glasses of wine can you have with dinner before blowing your diet, your cool, or your budget? When it comes to alcohol use, many of us find it difficult to draw the line between problem-free enjoyment and harmful overindulgence. Studies show that 10 percent of Americans--nearly 30 million of us--drink more than we should. If you suspect it’s time to cut back but aren’t sure you want to abstain, Controlling Your Drinking provides an alternative opportunity to reflect on your habits and adjust unhealthy behaviors. Drawing on 30 years of research and nearly three dozen clinical trials, recognized experts William R. Miller and Ricardo F. Muñoz supply hard facts and current data you can use to evaluate your alcohol consumption and judge its impact on your physical and emotional health. Armed with a fresh perspective on your drinking and its consequences, you decide whether moderation fits your needs. Without resorting to labels or moralizing, Miller and Muñoz help you establish a simple, pragmatic, and adaptable plan for meeting your goals and achieving the results you want. Set apart by its science-based approach and straightforward advice, this book is the thinking person’s guide to sensible alcohol use.

About this title

About the Author

William R. Miller, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of numerous books, including Motivational Interviewing, a modern classic in the field of addiction treatment. Dr. Miller’s research, which focuses on providing a broader and more effective range of treatment approaches for people with alcohol and drug problems, has been supported by a 15-year Research Scientist Award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He is a recipient of the international Jellinek Memorial Award for excellence in alcoholism research.

Ricardo F. Muñoz, PhD, is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, and Chief Psychologist at San Francisco General Hospital. His major areas of expertise include addictive behavior, the prevention and treatment of depression, and how depression affects substance use. He has coauthored several books, including Control Your Depression and The Prevention of Depression.

Reviews

Few concepts in alcohol treatment have been more controversial than the idea of "controlled" drinking. And few researchers have been more influential in the field than Miller, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. This updated (and re-titled) version of his clinically tested 1975 manual will be of great interest to people who are concerned about their drinking, as well as to family members and clinicians. Clear, concise, non-judgmental and practical, it lays out the facts that are often obscured in the heated debate over alcohol treatments. As Miller and co-author Muñoz write, under previous conceptions of alcohol problems, a person was either alcoholic or not, and "if you are an alcoholic, then it's too late for moderation. If you're not alcoholic, then you don't need a book on it." Research has since disproved these assumptions, finding that alcohol problems occur on a spectrum and that moderation, like other behavior, can be learned. (The authors stress that readers needn't concern themselves over whether they're "alcoholics" but should instead focus on changing harmful drinking behavior.) The new book offers tools for successful moderation-like spacing alcoholic drinks with non-alcoholic ones and timing drinks to maintain low levels of blood alcohol concentration-as well as tactics for dealing with common challenges, like hard-drinking friends and social anxiety. It's also been updated to better highlight the most useful techniques. Contrary to fears that offering tips on moderation might help people rationalize further heavy drinking, Miller's work and that of others has found that trying moderation helps drinkers decide for themselves if it is an achievable goal. If not, the self-discovery provoked by being unable to learn to moderate often spurs abstinence-an outcome the authors also applaud.
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Edition details

• Publisher: The Guilford Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1572309032
• ISBN 13: 9781572309036
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 226