Hint: It’s not a lack of willpower that makes it so hard to quit drinking.
A common resolution made as the New Year rolls in, is to quit drinking. But like many resolutions made with the best intent, the end of January often finds people struggling to reach their goal of sobriety. Why is this? Why is it so hard to quit drinking? 
It’s important to stress that being unable to stop drug or alcohol use on one’s own is not because of a lack of willpower or moral failing (Psychology Today, 2012). To understand what you’re up against, you have to realize what alcohol does to your brain. It hijacks the reward center of your brain, the part that controls motivation, desire, pleasure, memory, impulse. All of the things you need working for you, are working against you because of an imbalance in your brain chemistry caused by chronic use of alcohol.
