Skip to main Content

Tips and hints

How to avoid getting too drunk on a night out:

  • Eat before you go out
  • Drink water regularly and before you go to bed after a night out
  • Alternate alcoholic drinks with soft drinks or water
  • Don't try and keep up with friends who drink more than you
  • Try to avoid buying drinks in rounds
  • If possible, sit down while you drink - you will drink less than you would standing up
  • Use more mixers - diluting a drink with another long mixer will make it last longer and lessen the effects
  • If you're on medication, ask your doctor if it's okay to drink.
  • After a session of heavy drinking, take a break for 48 hours to let your body recover.

On a night out keep yourself safe and out of trouble by:

  • At the start of the evening plan how you'll get home - keep one of our taxi cards with you so that you always have the number of a good taxi firm. Never get into an unlicensed taxi or a strangers car
  • Don't leave your drink unattended
  • Don't get into a car with someone who's been drinking
  • Don't leave your friends to go off with someone you don't know
  • Carry a condom - if you have sex, make sure you don't take unnecessary risks
  • Don't leave your purse, bag or phone lying around - keep your belongings with you at all times

Tips on cutting down:

  • Keep a record - if your drinking is gradually increasing but you're finding it hard to gauge by how much, use a drinks diary to work out how much you're drinking
  • Try a new tipple - try swapping your favourite tipple for a soft drink a few nights each week. It doesn't have to be a boring orange juice - there are lots of non-alcoholic drinks such as cocktails, sodas and smoothies available. You may discover something new and your head will be clearer the next day!
  • Try a new activity - sometimes alcohol can be linked to relaxation - if you reach for a drink after work why not try something different such as going for a walk or taking up a yoga class!
  • Save money - tot up how much money you would normally spend on alcohol during a normal week. Work out how much you could save by cutting back and treat yourself to a gift (non alcoholic!) as an incentive

Did you know…?

  • Darker drinks give you worse hangovers - there are chemicals in their dark colourings called congeners. Mostly found in red wine, brandy and whiskey, congeners irritate blood vessels and tissue in the brain
  • Drinking water before you go to bed will help reduce your level of dehydration (which might mean less of a hangover) but it won't make you any less drunk, or protect your liver from the damaging effect of alcohol
  • Four or five single vodkas in one evening might make you feel happy and uninhibited - but it will also push you over your daily limit and could harm your health if you drink regularly at those levels.
  • The cost of alcohol related crime is estimated to be as much as £7.3billion per year. 1.2 million violent incidents (around half of all violent crimes) and 360,000 incidents of domestic violence are linked to alcohol
  • If you are driving with the legal limit of alcohol for driving in your blood you are more than twice as likely to have an accident as if you had not been drinking. The risk is up to five times greater if you're a less experienced driver. The best thing to do if you know you will be driving is not to drink at all