How the method works

The plan treats drinking as a habit: a cue, a routine, a reward. It keeps the cue and the reward, and changes the routine in the middle. It is habit coaching for adults who want to drink less. It is not medical care, therapy or treatment for alcohol use disorder.

The four tools

• Counting. Every drink is logged in standard drinks (5 oz of wine, 12 oz of beer, 1.5 oz of spirits), the measure the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism uses.
• Cues. Habits are triggered by context (a time, a place, a mood) more than by decisions; that's why changing the context and the routine works better than willpower alone (Wood and Neal, habit research).
• If-then plans. "If [cue], then I will [new routine]." A meta-analysis of 94 studies found these plans raise follow-through on goals (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006).
• Urge surfing. Watching an urge rise and pass instead of fighting it, a technique from mindfulness-based programmes (Bowen and Marlatt, 2009).

Who made the lessons

We're product designers and engineers. The 30 lessons, the drinks book and the Dry January kit were drafted with AI writing tools by our system, then checked line by line against the sources below. No one is presented as a doctor, counsellor or coach, and no lesson makes a medical claim.

Safety

The quiz asks about heavy days and about shakes or sweats on days without a drink. Heavy drinking answers see a note to talk to a doctor. Answers that suggest withdrawal end the quiz without a sale: cutting down alone can be unsafe then. SAMHSA's National Helpline is free, confidential and open 24/7: 1-800-662-4357.

Sources

1. Rethinking Drinking: What's a standard drink; Is your drinking pattern risky — NIAAA, National Institutes of Health.
2. Wood, W. and Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the habit–goal interface. Psychological Review 114(4).
3. Gollwitzer, P. M. and Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38.
4. Bowen, S. and Marlatt, A. (2009). Surfing the urge: brief mindfulness-based intervention for college student smokers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 23(4).
5. Ebrahim, I. O. et al. (2013). Alcohol and sleep I: effects on normal sleep. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 37(4).
6. SAMHSA's National Helpline — Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 1-800-662-4357.