You should never put yourself in a position where you drive under the influence, as it can be dangerous, but making sure you stay sober can be hard for a person attempting to let go of this vice. You can avoid using your car or just use a taxi, yet these are not always available options. The following is a simple and helpful guide that may help keep you from drinking before getting behind the wheel.

Repel Triggers

The first thing you should do is recognize the triggers that may make you think of drinking, which can help you make sure you avoid that drink. The following are just a few things that may be considered a trigger:

• Drinking buddies
• Places where you drink
• Different stresses or mental thoughts that bring alcohol to mind

Remember that triggers are very personal, so make sure you take your time to make up your list, or have a professional counselor (like those at Counseling Center of Illinois) help you decipher some of the triggers pushing you towards drinking.

Deflect The Urge

The next thing you can try is deflecting the urge for alcohol by giving your body food that may help replace the need that alcohol would have otherwise satisfied. You can deflect the urge with the following:

• Try eating something sugary, like raw honey, or another type of sweet to satisfy your body's need for the carbohydrates alcohol provides
• Eat more (try to consume healthy foods) to help get your body satisfied and full, making your body unable to drink any longer.

Attack The Urge

The urge for alcohol--as you know--comes from your brain, so the next thing you can try is attacking the urge from its inception. You may need to work on self control. To control yourself successfully, this involves the perfect execution of brain functions, like memory.

A recent study took a closer look at memory in regards to self control and found that the two are related, successfully showing that improved memory can help individuals have more self control. So a drinker may be able to avoid his or her urge for alcohol by working on a few memory exercises, and the following are a few that you can try:

• Try to remember a sequence of letters or numbers after they disappear
• Find board games that rely on your memory skills, like chess or trivia games
• Make it a habit to learn and repeat quotes or song lyrics

As you can see, there are a few things that you can do to make sure you stay sober and protect yourself from the dangers of drunk driving.