Quit drinking apps are designed to help you reduce your alcohol intake, stop drinking altogether, or stay sober for good.
Around 86.4 percent of adults in the United States have drunk alcohol at some point in their lifetime, according to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Consuming a moderate amount of alcohol – that is, up to one alcoholic drink per day for women and two for men – may have health benefits, such as a reduced risk for heart disease and ischemic stroke.
However, binge drinking and heavy alcohol use are linked with car crashes, burns, falls, alcohol poisoning, violence, sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancy, chronic diseases, cancers, memory and learning problems, and alcohol dependence.
An estimated 88,000 individuals die annually from alcohol-related causes, which makes alcohol the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the U.S.
Moderating or quitting drinking alcohol involves limiting your alcohol intake as well as changing your habits and lifestyle choices, and apps can help you to achieve these goals. Here are Medical News Today‘s top 10 stop drinking apps to help you take charge of your drinking habits.
Sober Grid
Android: Free
iPhone: Free
Sober Grid is designed to connect those who want to get sober or are in recovery from alcoholism with thousands of other people who are focused on sobriety. Some individuals join the app to receive support, while others join to give support. No matter the motive, Sober Grid serves as an opportunity to stay dry while helping others on the network to do the same.
If you need help and need to speak to someone right away, you can reach out to Sober Grid’s virtual sober community for support by selecting the “Burning Desire” button. Users of Sober Grid can also find sober friends while traveling away from home, be it in an airport or a new city. The network connects people both locally or from anywhere in the world.
The Sober Grid newsfeed allows you to share your thoughts, experiences, struggles, and triumphs related to addiction recovery and sobriety. Tracking your progress and having access to peer-support is the first step on your road to recovery.
Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Android: $5.99
iPhone: $5.99
Twenty-Four Hours a Day is an app based on a book of the same name written by Richard Walker. Walker has helped many alcoholics with his words of wisdom in their daily recovery program.
The app gives you access to the 366 daily meditations from the best-selling book at your fingertips, making it easy to focus on your sobriety and the Twelve Steps for recovery.
Swiping back and forth brings up daily messages, which can also be shared with friends and family. You can also bookmark your favorite meditations for easy access. Twenty-Four Hours a Day is a roadmap that keeps you pointing in the right direction in your recovery from addiction.
Sobriety Counter
Android: Free
Sobriety Counter is a fun app full of vibrant colors and bold icons that gamify your stop drinking journey. The bright dashboard shows you how much money you have saved by not drinking. You can also set up a treat as a goal with a personal image, and the app will show you the duration until you reach your target.
Scientific statistics show aspects of your health improvement, such as blood circulation, cell regeneration, gray matter, and mental health, as well as your risk of heart disease and cancer decrease.
If you have an urge to drink, play a game on the app called Memory. It helps to pass the scientifically proven 3-minute mark to beat your desire and stay sober. You can earn 57 badges with the sobriety counter as rewards for not drinking alcohol and share your current badge with your friends in one click.
Nomo
Android: Free
iPhone: Free
Two Dads – Parker and Michael – created Nomo to help keep them on track and motivated in their recovery from alcohol. The pair wanted to design an app “that looked great, could keep track of multiple clocks, and kept us connected with the other people in our support group.”
Nomo accurately breaks down the time you are sober to the minute, which means that it can show you your sobriety time in terms of years, months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes. Every time you reach a recovery milestone, Nomo issues a chip to celebrate your achievement and keep you motivated.
You can track time and money saved on the app, as well as share your successes and new chips on social media. Your sobriety clock can also be shared with your accountability partner, so they can check in on you and see how long you have been clean.
AlcoDroid Alcohol Tracker
Android: Free
AlcoDroid is an app that tracks alcohol consumption and can be used as a drinks diary and a calculator to determine blood alcohol content. AlcoDroid enables you to take charge of your alcohol intake and alter your drinking habits.
Based on the drinks you have logged, AlcoDroid estimates your blood alcohol content and plots your levels in an ongoing chart that indicates when you fall below the legal limit or get back to sobriety.
AlcoDroid charts your drinking habits daily, weekly, or monthly, and it displays your consumption statistics. You can set up targets to see how your alcohol intake matches those goals over a set timeframe.
I Am Sober
iPhone: Free
I Am Sober is a motivational companion app that tracks your sobriety. It lets you track the hours, minutes, and seconds that you have been sober and also the total number of days that you have been without alcohol.
Daily notifications keep you focused on the path to recovery and special notifications alert you when you have reached a key milestone. For each milestone, you can add a memorable photo and save or share your achievements.
Your experience can be customized by manually configuring your sober start date, habit, and notification times. The motivation dashboard provides inspirational snippets to encourage you and cheer you on.
Stop Drinking with Andrew Johnson
Android: $2.99
iPhone: $2.99
Stop Drinking with Andrew Johnson is a positive, relaxing, and motivational app that helps you to overcome the physical and emotional cravings for alcohol. The app aims to give you the tools to change your thinking, break unwanted habits, and regain control of your thoughts, money, health, and well-being.
Whether you are trying to cut down on alcohol or stop drinking completely, this app can help to break the negative habits that result in you reaching for a drink, instead providing the resources to achieve your goals and lead a more healthful life.
Stop Drinking with Andrew Johnson uses hypnotherapy, relaxation, visualization, and positive suggestion to enable you to make positive decisions and accomplishments.
Happify
iPhone: Free
While not strictly an app for alcoholism, Happify helps you to overcome the negative moods that lead to unhealthful behaviors. Anxiety and depression raise the risk of becoming a heavy drinker, and Happify provides the tools you need to take control of your emotional well-being, which may, in turn, help you to stay sober.
Developed by scientists and experts in the fields of mindfulness, positive psychology, and cognitive behavioral therapy, Happify’s techniques and programs reduce stress and build greater resilience. In fact, after using Happify for 2 months, 86 percent of users report feeling better about their lives.
By completing a few activities each week, Happify aims to improve your life satisfaction and empower you to fight back against negativity. The app’s games and activities can be used anywhere – on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Coach.me
Android: Free
iPhone: Free
Although not specifically designed for addiction, Coach.me allows you to set a goal and helps you to work toward achieving your objective. After choosing your goal, the Coach.me community can help to keep you motivated – you can even hire one of their world-class coaches.
The app tracks your progress and provides rewards when you hit your milestones. There is always someone available from the community to answer your questions and to give feedback on your achievements and pitfalls.
Coach.me say that if you join their community, you will grow in mindset, experience the benefits of positive reinforcement and external accountability, and learn to reach your goals more effectively.
12 Steps AA Companion
Android: $2.99
iPhone: $2.99
The 12 Steps AA Companion is based on the Twelve Steps that feature in the Alcoholics Anonymous personal recovery program. The app provides the Big Book of AA in the palm of your hand, and it includes more than 60 stories.
Morning and night prayers, promises on experience, hope, and strength, and notes that can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, and email are all included in the app.
The dashboard clearly shows how many years, months, days, and hours that you have been sober every time the app is opened. You can also calculate the sobriety time of all your friends.