For Alcohol Awareness Week, Jason, who works with the Health and Wellbeing team at Wirral Ways, shares three simple ways to reduce your drinking, and what happened when he didn’t do any of them.
- Have alcohol-free days
“Try and have alcohol-free days, which is something I never did. Effectively, in the end, I became alcohol dependent from drinking every day.”
- Try “zebra drinking”
Zebra drinking means swapping every other drink, alternating an alcoholic drink with water or a soft drink. This gives you time to rehydrate, and by the end of the evening you don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything.
- Make a plan before you go out
Plan how much you’re going to drink before you go out, and take enough cash to cover that amount. If you’re carrying a lot of cash or your card, it’s easy to keep going back to the bar and drinking more than you meant to. Taking out just enough for what you want to drink that night helps you stick to the plan.
Jason started volunteering at Wirral Ways nearly five years ago, after coming through rehab for a drink problem of his own. He has now been a paid employee for over 2 years. He’s now sober for just under six years.
“My relationship with alcohol wasn’t great. I went through some trauma in my life and I drank to forget the problems I was having at the time, instead of reaching out to people and speaking about it. At the moment I’m sober, and life is so much better without the alcohol. Believe me, it is.”
Find out more: www.wirralways.org.uk | wirral.services@cgl.org.uk | 0151 556 1335
Last Updated on 25 August 2026