The Truth About Cravings: 9 Ways to Overcome Urges to Drink
Cravings feel like they will last forever. They feel like they will kill you if you do not give in. Neither is true. Here are 9 ways to ride out the urge and come out sober on the other side.
Introduction: The Wave That Wants to Drown You
The craving hits like a wave.
One moment you are fine—going about your day, feeling strong in your sobriety. The next moment, the urge is there: intense, insistent, seemingly impossible to resist. Your body wants it. Your mind starts negotiating. Every cell seems to scream for the drink you are not going to have.
This is the craving—and if you are in recovery, you know exactly what I am talking about.
I remember my early cravings. They terrified me. They felt like proof that I could not do this, that sobriety was impossible, that the urge would never stop until I gave in. I believed the craving’s lies: that it would last forever, that it would keep getting worse, that the only way out was through.
I was wrong. About all of it.
Here is the truth about cravings that no one tells you in the beginning: they are temporary. They peak and they pass. They feel infinite but they are actually quite finite—usually 15-30 minutes of intensity before they begin to fade. And every craving you survive without drinking makes the next one weaker.
This article shares nine ways to overcome urges to drink. These are not theories—they are techniques I have used, techniques the recovery community has refined over decades, techniques that work when the wave is crashing over you.
Cravings are not evidence that you cannot stay sober. They are opportunities to prove that you can.
Let me show you how.
Understanding Cravings: What They Actually Are
Before we explore the nine ways to overcome urges, let us understand what cravings actually are—and are not.
The Biology of Cravings
Cravings are neurological events. When you drink repeatedly, your brain creates powerful associations between alcohol and reward. Certain cues—people, places, emotions, times of day—become linked to drinking. When you encounter these cues, your brain fires up the same reward pathways, generating an intense desire for alcohol.
This is not weakness. This is brain chemistry. Your brain has literally been rewired by alcohol, and those pathways take time to weaken.
What Triggers Cravings
Common triggers include:
- Environmental cues: Bars, parties, certain restaurants, the liquor aisle
- Emotional states: Stress, anxiety, anger, loneliness, boredom, even celebration
- Social situations: Being around people who are drinking, social pressure
- Physical states: Hunger, tiredness, illness (remember HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired)
- Time-based cues: Happy hour, weekends, holidays, your usual drinking times
- Sensory cues: The smell of alcohol, clinking glasses, certain music
The Craving Curve
Here is the crucial truth: cravings follow a predictable curve. They rise in intensity, peak, and then decline—whether you drink or not. Most cravings peak within 15-30 minutes and significantly diminish within an hour.
The problem is that when you are in the rising phase, it feels like the craving will keep rising forever. It will not. If you can ride out the peak, the wave will pass.
What Cravings Are Not
Not permanent: They feel eternal but are actually brief.
Not irresistible: They feel impossible to resist but people resist them every day.
Not evidence of failure: Having cravings does not mean your recovery is failing. Everyone in recovery has cravings, especially early on.
Not commands: A craving is a thought and a feeling, not an order you must obey.
Way 1: Surf the Urge (Urge Surfing)
What It Is
Urge surfing is a mindfulness technique where you observe the craving without acting on it—riding it like a wave until it naturally subsides.
Why It Works
Fighting cravings directly often intensifies them. Urge surfing takes a different approach: instead of wrestling the wave, you ride it. You observe the craving with curiosity rather than fear, watching it rise and fall without being swept away.
This technique is backed by research and is a core component of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP).
How to Do It
Step 1: Notice the craving. Acknowledge it without judgment. “I’m having a craving right now.”
Step 2: Observe it with curiosity. Where do you feel it in your body? What does it feel like? Is it a tightness? A restlessness? A pull?
Step 3: Breathe into it. Take slow, deep breaths. Direct your breath toward the physical sensations.
Step 4: Watch it change. Cravings are not static—they shift and move. Notice how the sensation changes moment to moment.
Step 5: Ride it out. Keep observing. The wave will crest. The intensity will begin to fade. Stay with it until it passes.
My Experience
The first time I tried urge surfing, I was skeptical. But I watched the craving like a scientist observing a specimen—curious, detached. And I noticed something: it changed. It peaked around 20 minutes and then started to dissolve. The craving that felt like it would kill me simply… faded.
Way 2: Play the Tape Forward
What It Is
Playing the tape forward means mentally following the craving to its logical conclusion—imagining not just the first drink but everything that comes after.
Why It Works
Cravings are seductive because they only show you the first drink: the relief, the pleasure, the ease. They do not show you the rest of the movie. Playing the tape forward forces your brain to remember what really happens when you drink.
How to Do It
When a craving hits, imagine giving in. Then keep imagining:
- The first drink… then the second, third, tenth
- How you feel the next morning
- What you say and do when drunk
- The shame, the regret, the physical misery
- The people you disappoint
- The promises you break
- Where this path leads if you keep following it
Be specific. Use your own memories. Play your actual tape, not a generic one.
My Experience
My tape is brutal. It includes blackouts and broken relationships, mornings of crushing shame, money wasted, health destroyed. When I play that full tape—not just the seductive first sip but the whole devastating movie—drinking loses its appeal fast.
Way 3: Call Someone Immediately
What It Is
When a craving hits, pick up the phone and call someone in your support network—a sponsor, a sober friend, a family member who understands.
Why It Works
Cravings thrive in isolation. The voice in your head that says “just one drink” gets louder when there is no other voice to counter it. Another person breaks the isolation and brings reality back into focus.
Also, cravings are time-limited. A phone call takes time—and while you are talking, the craving is running down its clock.
How to Do It
Before you need it: Build your list. Have 3-5 people you can call in a craving. Tell them in advance that you might call, and that you need them to just listen or talk you through it.
When the craving hits: Call immediately. Do not wait until you have convinced yourself not to. Do not try to handle it alone first. Call at the first sign of an urge.
What to say: “I’m having a craving and I need to talk.” That is enough. You do not need to be articulate or have it together. Just call.
My Experience
My sponsor told me early on: “Your disease wants you alone. Pick up the phone before you pick up a drink.” I have made dozens of craving calls—some at 2 AM, some from parking lots, some through tears. Every single one helped.
Way 4: Change Your Environment Immediately
What It Is
Physically remove yourself from wherever you are when the craving hits. Change your location, change your activity, change your surroundings.
Why It Works
Environmental cues trigger cravings. Changing your environment disrupts the trigger-response chain. Your brain was saying “this context = drinking” and suddenly you are in a different context.
Also, movement itself helps. Physical activity reduces anxiety and shifts brain chemistry.
How to Do It
Leave wherever you are. If you are near alcohol, leave immediately. Do not negotiate, do not finish what you were doing—just go.
Go somewhere incompatible with drinking. A gym, a coffee shop, a meeting, a friend’s house, a walk in nature.
If you cannot leave: Change what you are doing. Turn on different music. Start a different activity. Call someone. Change the internal environment if you cannot change the external one.
My Experience
I have left parties mid-conversation. I have walked out of restaurants. I have gotten off the couch and taken drives to nowhere. It feels dramatic, but it works. The craving that felt overwhelming in one location often evaporates in another.
Way 5: Use the HALT Check
What It Is
HALT is an acronym for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired—four physical and emotional states that dramatically increase vulnerability to cravings. The HALT check means pausing to assess whether one of these states is driving the urge.
Why It Works
Often what feels like a craving for alcohol is actually a craving for something else—food, rest, connection, or emotional release. Address the underlying need, and the drinking urge often dissolves.
How to Do It
When a craving hits, ask yourself:
Hungry? When did you last eat? Low blood sugar can feel like a craving. Eat something substantial—protein and complex carbs.
Angry? Is there unexpressed frustration or resentment? Sometimes cravings are anger looking for an outlet. Name the anger. Talk about it. Find a healthy release.
Lonely? Are you isolated? Cravings intensify in loneliness. Reach out to someone. Go somewhere with people. Break the isolation.
Tired? Are you exhausted? Fatigue weakens willpower and intensifies cravings. Rest if you can. If you cannot rest, at least recognize that tiredness is fueling the urge.
My Experience
I cannot count how many “cravings” turned out to be hunger. I would be white-knuckling through an urge, eat dinner, and realize the craving was gone. Now I check HALT first, address the underlying need, and often the craving takes care of itself.
Way 6: Delay and Distract
What It Is
Make a deal with yourself: you will not give in to the craving for a set amount of time—usually 15-30 minutes. During that time, fully distract yourself with an engaging activity.
Why It Works
Remember the craving curve: urges peak and then decline. Delay gives the craving time to run its course. Distraction keeps your mind occupied while the clock runs down.
You are not saying “never.” You are just saying “not right now.” This is psychologically easier than an absolute refusal.
How to Do It
Set a timer: 15, 20, or 30 minutes. Tell yourself you will reassess when the timer goes off.
Fully engage in something else:
- Exercise (even a short walk)
- Watch something engrossing
- Play a video game
- Call someone (doubles as Way 3)
- Take a shower
- Do a puzzle or play a game
- Clean something
- Cook a meal
- Go somewhere (doubles as Way 4)
When the timer goes off: Reassess. Usually the craving has diminished significantly. If it has not, set another timer.
My Experience
“I’m not drinking right now. I’m going to go for a run, and I’ll reassess in 30 minutes.” By the time I finished running, I could not remember why drinking had seemed so urgent. Delay and distraction have saved my sobriety countless times.
Way 7: Remember Your Why
What It Is
Reconnect with your reasons for getting sober. Remind yourself why you are doing this hard thing.
Why It Works
Cravings have a way of inducing amnesia. They make you forget why you quit, why sobriety matters, what you are fighting for. Actively remembering your “why” counteracts this amnesia and reconnects you to your motivation.
How to Do It
Before you need it: Write down your reasons for sobriety. Be specific. Include what you lost to drinking and what you have gained (or hope to gain) in recovery. Keep this list accessible.
When the craving hits: Read your list. Look at photos of people you love. Remember specific moments—the worst of drinking, the best of sobriety.
Connect to the future: Who are you staying sober for? What do you want your life to look like? What becomes possible if you stay sober that is impossible if you drink?
My Experience
I keep a note in my phone titled “Why I Don’t Drink.” It includes specific memories: my lowest moments, the look on my family’s faces, the promises I made. When a craving hits and my brain tries to convince me that drinking is a good idea, I read that note. It remembers what the craving wants me to forget.
Way 8: Practice STOP
What It Is
STOP is a mindfulness acronym that provides immediate structure when a craving hits: Stop, Take a breath, Observe, Proceed.
Why It Works
Cravings create urgency—a feeling that you must act now. STOP interrupts that urgency and creates space for a conscious choice rather than an automatic reaction.
How to Do It
S – Stop: Whatever you are doing, pause. Do not move toward alcohol. Just stop.
T – Take a breath: Take one slow, deep breath. Then another. Breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system and reduces the panic response.
O – Observe: Notice what is happening. “I am having a craving. I feel [physical sensations]. I am thinking [thoughts].” Observe without judgment.
P – Proceed: Now choose your next action consciously. Use any of the other techniques: call someone, change environment, urge surf, delay and distract. Proceed with intention, not reaction.
My Experience
STOP takes seconds but changes everything. The craving wants me to react without thinking. STOP makes me pause long enough to think. In that pause, I remember I have a choice.
Way 9: Go to a Meeting or Connect With Your Program
What It Is
When cravings are intense, go to a recovery meeting—AA, NA, SMART Recovery, Refuge Recovery, or whatever your program is. If no meeting is available, connect with program materials or online resources.
Why It Works
Meetings provide multiple craving-fighting elements at once: you leave your environment (Way 4), you are with other people who understand (Way 3), you are distracted for an hour (Way 6), and you reconnect with your recovery community and your why (Way 7).
There is also something powerful about sitting in a room with people who have survived what you are facing. Their presence is proof that cravings can be overcome.
How to Do It
Know where meetings are: Have meeting times and locations saved. Many programs have 24/7 meetings available online.
Go even if you do not feel like it: Especially if you do not feel like it. Cravings will tell you not to go. Go anyway.
Raise your hand: If you are struggling, say so. “I’m having a hard time” brings support rushing toward you.
If no meeting is available: Read program literature, listen to speaker tapes, connect with online recovery communities, work a step with your sponsor.
My Experience
I have white-knuckled my way into more meetings than I can count. I have arrived in crisis and left in peace. The craving that seemed insurmountable before the meeting often feels manageable after—because I remembered I am not alone, and I saw living proof that this works.
When Cravings Keep Coming
A few additional truths about cravings that might help:
They Get Easier
The more cravings you survive without drinking, the weaker they become. Every time you ride out a craving, you weaken the neural pathway that generates it. Early recovery is the hardest because the pathways are still strong. It gets better.
Some Days Are Harder
Cravings are not evenly distributed. Some days will be much harder than others—often triggered by stress, emotional events, or HALT conditions. Do not be discouraged by hard days. They are normal.
Medication Can Help
Medications like naltrexone, acamprosate, and disulfiram can reduce cravings and support recovery. If your cravings are severe and persistent, talk to a doctor about whether medication might help.
Cravings Are Information
Pay attention to what triggers your cravings. They reveal your vulnerabilities and help you know what to work on. A craving triggered by loneliness is telling you to build more connection. A craving triggered by stress is telling you to develop better coping strategies.
A Craving Is Not a Relapse
Having a craving is not the same as drinking. You can have intense cravings and stay sober. The urge is not the action. You did not fail by having the craving—you succeeded by not drinking.
20 Powerful Quotes About Cravings and Urges
1. “Urges are like waves—they rise, crest, and fall. If you can just ride them out, they will pass.” — Alan Marlatt
2. “The craving will pass whether you drink or not.” — Unknown
3. “Play the tape forward. The drink isn’t as good as you remember, and the consequences are worse than you think.” — Unknown
4. “One drink is too many, and a thousand is never enough.” — AA Saying
5. “The urge to drink is not a command. It’s a suggestion from your disease, and you can decline.” — Unknown
6. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” — Viktor Frankl
7. “You can’t stop the craving from coming, but you can stop yourself from feeding it.” — Unknown
8. “HALT: Are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired? Address that first.” — AA/Recovery Wisdom
9. “The craving lies. It tells you that you need the drink to survive. But you have survived every craving so far without it.” — Unknown
10. “Pick up the phone before you pick up a drink.” — AA Saying
11. “The only thing you have to change is everything.” — Unknown
12. “You are not your cravings. You are the one who notices them.” — Unknown
13. “What you resist persists. What you observe dissolves.” — Unknown
14. “I can do anything for 15 minutes—including not drink.” — Unknown
15. “The drink that would make me feel better for an hour would make me feel worse for days.” — Unknown
16. “Sobriety delivers everything alcohol promised.” — Unknown
17. “Relapse is not a requirement for recovery, and cravings are not a requirement for relapse.” — Unknown
18. “The craving will tell you that you cannot survive without the drink. That is a lie. The drink is what you could not survive.” — Unknown
19. “Don’t give up what you want most for what you want right now.” — Unknown
20. “This craving will end. The question is: will it end with your sobriety intact?” — Unknown
Picture This
Close your eyes and imagine yourself six months from now.
You have six months of sobriety. You have survived countless cravings. You have used every technique in this article—probably multiple times each.
You remember specific cravings that felt impossible. The one at the party where everyone was drinking. The one after the terrible day at work. The one that woke you up at 3 AM screaming for relief. Each one felt like it would kill you if you did not give in.
But you did not give in. You called someone. You left the party. You played the tape forward. You checked HALT and realized you were exhausted. You set a timer for 20 minutes and went for a walk. You white-knuckled your way into a meeting and raised your hand.
And every single craving passed. Every one.
Now, six months in, the cravings still come—but they are different. Weaker. Less frequent. Shorter in duration. The neural pathways have weakened because you stopped reinforcing them. Your brain is rewiring itself.
You have developed a kind of craving confidence. When an urge arises, you do not panic like you used to. You recognize it: “Oh, here’s a craving. I know what to do with you.” You apply your tools, and you watch it pass. It has become almost routine.
The cravings that once made you doubt you could ever be sober now serve as proof that you can be. Each one you survived is evidence of your strength, evidence of the techniques that work, evidence that the craving—however loud—cannot actually make you drink.
You used to fear cravings. Now you almost welcome them—each one is an opportunity to strengthen your sobriety, to prove to yourself once again that you are stronger than the urge.
The wave still rises. But you have learned to surf.
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Disclaimer
This article is provided for informational, educational, and supportive purposes only. It represents one person’s experience combined with established recovery wisdom. It is not intended as professional medical, psychological, or addiction treatment advice.
Severe cravings, especially in early recovery or after long-term heavy drinking, may require medical supervision. Alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous and should be medically managed.
If you are struggling with alcohol use, please seek support from qualified professionals and evidence-based treatment programs.
Resources include: SAMHSA’s National Helpline (1-800-662-4357), Alcoholics Anonymous (aa.org), SMART Recovery (smartrecovery.org), Moderation Management (moderation.org), and local treatment providers.
Medication-assisted treatment (naltrexone, acamprosate, disulfiram) can be effective for managing cravings—consult with a healthcare provider.
If you are in crisis, please contact emergency services or the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988).
The author and publisher make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, or applicability of the information contained herein. By reading this article, you agree that the author and publisher shall not be held liable for any damages, claims, or losses arising from your use of or reliance on this content.
The craving will pass. Stay with us.
