When it doesn't go to plan

Suppose it's day eleven, the week has been dreadful, and you have a glass of wine. Or suppose the month went well, you wrote your rules, and six weeks later you notice that two glasses on Saturday has become two glasses most nights.

The first thing to deal with is a thought, because the thought does more harm than the drink. It goes "well, that's that ruined, I may as well finish the bottle." On day eleven you've had one glass of wine after ten days without. Those ten days happened. What you learned in them still holds. One glass cancels none of it, and the experiment has twenty days left to run.

So stop at the one if you can, and at tonight if you can't. Then, the next day, get curious about it, because a slip is the most informative thing that will happen all month. Work out which situation it was and which need. See whether you had a plan for it, or whether it was one you hadn't thought of. Ask yourself whether the drink delivered what you expected. People often find it was flatter than the wanting had promised. Write a new when-then plan for that situation, and carry on the same day.

I'd avoid counting streaks. A streak turns one drink into the loss of everything before it, which is the ruined thought again, with numbers attached. Count drink-free days in the last thirty. Twenty-seven out of thirty is a very different month from your usual one, and it gives you almost the same information as thirty.

The second case is different. If your own limits keep slipping, I want to be clear about what that does and doesn't mean. It doesn't mean you misread this book, or that you didn't want it enough, or that your character is weak. "Regularly drinking more than you mean to" and "difficulty stopping or reducing, even if you want to" are the first two signs on the NHS list for alcohol-use disorder. They describe a condition, and the condition is common and has treatments.

It means the problem is bigger than a book, and that's useful to know. The NHS says treatment can include talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy, medical help with withdrawal, and medicines such as acamprosate and naltrexone that reduce cravings once you've stopped. Support groups, including AA and SMART Recovery, run in most areas. None of that is reserved for people whose lives have fallen apart. Going early is the sensible time to go.

Talk to your GP or an alcohol service if any of these apply.

• You get sweats, shaking, a racing heart, nausea or morning anxiety when you cut down. Get medical advice before you reduce any further. For hallucinations, confusion, severe shaking or a seizure, call 999.
• You need a drink in the morning, or to steady yourself.
• You regularly drink more than you meant to, in spite of serious attempts to change it.
• Low mood or anxiety continues, or gets worse, after several weeks without alcohol.
• Someone close to you is worried about your drinking.
• You're pregnant, or trying to be, and finding it hard to stop.
• You have thoughts of harming yourself. That needs help the same day, from your GP or NHS 111, or from 999 if you're in immediate danger.