Your "hobby" isn't good for you...

Have you established a hobby out of your drinking habits? Do you treat drinking alcohol like you going to the gym or playing tennis? Do you deliberately not do things regularly because it requires you to drive and you can't drink then. This doesn't apply to you who live in countries where you can have 2-3 drinks and still be below the legal limit. In countries like Sweden and Israel, you can't even drink a bottle of beer and drive legally.  
If you drink more than three times a week, I would say you have established a habit I would call a "bad hobby." I am not talking about having a glass of wine for dinner or a beer. What you need to pay attention to is if you like to drink two glasses or more of wine every evening, if yes, you established a bad habit. Ask yourself, why do I want to drink alcohol? It's tasty, it makes you relaxed, or do you want to feel the buzz? A study in the reputable medical journal The Lancet last year looked at alcohol, and the effect is having on humans. They concluded that there is no safe level of drinking because we are all different, and there are many variables that interact if alcohol is damaging to your body or not. Furthermore, the study showed that alcohol has no positive effects on the body, quite the opposite. 
From personal experiences, I know how easy it is to establish this new hobby I call drinking. I like the buzz and alcohol makes me cheerful so for a period I had a couple of drinks 4-5 times/ week, and until I realize how it affected my life, I was looking forward to those drinks before supper and apart of me wanted 1-2 more. I was on my way to establish a hobby that wasn't good for me. Nowadays I drink maybe 4-5 times each month and pay attention to the frequency and amount. The drinking hobby doesn't happen overnight. It takes time to develop. If you take a hard look at your drinking life, you know if you drink a little bit too much, way too much or not too much. It will be much harder to cut back if you have a drinking buddy, for many, that's a spouse. This takes everything to a different level and makes it much harder to cut back or stop drinking altogether because you do share the hobby. You have something in common. And as the saying goes: Misery likes company.
How to change, cut back on your drinking. It's hard to tell if you have become an alcoholic or not. If you are aware of that you drink way too much I suggest that you get professional help. For some it's not be easy to know if one drink too much or not. You might live in denial and do not think you drink too much. Please, ask someone close to you who knows how much you drink. Be brutally honest towards yourself. You might have to stop drinking altogether, or you be able to cut back considerably. If you can lower consumption yourself, I suggest you get busy with something that makes drinking impossible. It could be going somewhere that requires driving 2-3 evenings a week, and activity that would suffer if you drank. Replace the drinking hobby with another hobby. Again, any doubts, please consider professional help. Drinking alcohol is complex issue, and for many it causes misery. This post is very generalized and only cover the topic briefly.            Good Luck!
                                            -Chris (IronCouch.com)