I Drank Too Much on Holiday. What Should I Do When I Get Home?
Holiday drinking often drops naturally once work and ordinary routines return. But drinking less than you did while you were away does not tell you whether your normal drinking pattern is one you genuinely want to return to.
Holiday mode is different.
People often have more time to drink when they are away. They may begin earlier, sit around the pool longer, eat later and have fewer of the responsibilities that usually put limits around the day.
Then they return home.
Work starts again. The alarm is set. Meals happen at normal times. The afternoon drinking disappears. The all-inclusive bar is no longer outside the hotel room.
So I am not going to pretend that everybody comes home and continues drinking exactly as they did on holiday.
Usually, they do not.
Most people naturally rein it in.
The more useful question is this:
Does drinking less than you did on holiday mean you have made a genuine change—or have you simply returned to the home routine you were already questioning?
Because those are not the same thing.
“Less than I drank on holiday” is a very low bar
Imagine you have spent a week drinking from lunchtime.
You return home and go back to drinking wine while cooking three or four evenings a week.
That is a large reduction compared with the holiday.
It may even feel responsible.
But what was happening before you went away?
Were you already promising yourself you would cut down?
Were you waking up tired?
Were Sundays being shortened?
Were you becoming less patient with people?
Were you making rules about when you could drink and how much you were allowed?
Were you privately wondering why alcohol had become such a predictable part of the evening?
Coming home may reduce the amount.
It does not automatically answer those questions.
The danger is that the extreme holiday drinking becomes the new comparison.
You tell yourself:
“I’m fine now. I’m not drinking anything like I was away.”
But perhaps your normal drinking was already taking more than you wanted it to.
My post-holiday experiences could be brutal
By the end of some holidays, I was not merely ready to come home.
I felt completely emptied out.
I could feel rough, hungover, drained and unable to eat properly for days. My stomach felt raw because I had effectively replaced food with alcohol.
On my stepbrother’s stag do, I was so unwell on the day of the flight that I could not even keep water down.
I was bringing up yellow bile.
I am not sharing that because everybody who drinks too much on holiday will experience what I did.
Most people will not.
I am sharing it because I repeatedly treated those episodes as separate events.
It was the holiday.
It was the stag do.
It was the lads.
It was the all-inclusive package.
It was the amount of free time.
Once I was home, I would naturally slow down.
And I did.
But slowing down did not mean I had changed the wider relationship I had with alcohol.
The location changed.
The amount changed.
The pattern remained.
Holiday drinking and home drinking can do different jobs
On holiday, alcohol may appear to be part of the freedom.
There is nowhere to drive. No work tomorrow. No school run. No reason to watch the clock.
At home, the same drink may be expected to do a different job.
It may become:
the reward after work;
the sign that the day is over;
the way you switch off;
company while you cook;
the thing that changes an ordinary evening;
the only bit of the day that feels as though it belongs to you.
That matters.
A holiday ending removes the hotel, the pool and the free afternoon.
It does not necessarily remove the job alcohol has taken over at home.
That is why merely waiting for the holiday drinking to settle may not be enough.
Natural reduction is not the same as a deliberate reset
A natural reduction happens because your environment has changed.
You have less time. More responsibility. No pool bar. Work in the morning.
A deliberate reset is different.
You decide that you do not want alcohol automatically returning to its old place in your evenings, weekends and headspace.
You decide to find out what ordinary life feels like without it.
That does not require a forever promise.
It does not require you to call yourself anything.
It does not require a dramatic announcement.
It means drawing a line and saying:
“I do not want to drift straight back into the same home routine. I am going to give myself 90 days and see what happens.”
Five questions to ask during your first week home
Before you decide that everything is back under control, ask yourself these questions honestly.
1. Was I already questioning my drinking before the holiday?
Do not use the holiday as the only comparison.
Think about the weeks before you travelled.
Were you already making promises, losing mornings or feeling disappointed in yourself?
2. What drinking routine am I expecting to return to?
Picture the first ordinary week.
What time will the thought of a drink begin?
Where will you be?
What will you be doing?
Who will be there?
3. What am I expecting the first drink to do?
Is it a reward?
An off switch?
A release?
A way to avoid boredom?
A marker between work and the evening?
Understanding the expected job is more useful than simply arguing about the number of drinks.
4. What do I genuinely want back?
Not what do you want to remove.
What do you want to get back?
Your mornings?
Your energy?
Your patience?
Your interest in exercise?
Your self-respect?
Your ability to keep your own word?
A clearer answer gives you something stronger to move towards.
5. How would I feel if nothing changed before my next holiday?
This is the uncomfortable one.
Imagine returning to the same home routine for another year.
Then taking it away with you again next summer.
Would that be acceptable?
Coming home can become a line in the sand
You do not have to turn the final day of a holiday into another dramatic promise.
You have probably made enough promises already.
But the return home gives you a useful moment to decide deliberately rather than drift.
The fridge is being restocked.
The cases are being unpacked.
The alarm is being reset.
The working week is starting again.
Your routine is being rebuilt anyway.
That gives you an opportunity to decide whether alcohol automatically gets its old place back.
Why consider 90 days?
A quiet week may show you that you can rein things in.
A month may show you that you can stop for a while.
A full 90 days gives you more ordinary life to experience.
Weeknights.
Paydays.
Fridays.
Sundays.
Stressful days.
Social events.
Boring evenings.
Good news.
Bad news.
The first few weeks may be mainly about removing the drink and getting through the times when it would normally appear.
Later, you have more opportunity to build something else into the space.
That is where the useful evidence begins.
Not somebody else’s evidence.
Yours.
What could you begin getting back?
During my own first 90 days, I started learning how to cook healthier meals.
I joined The Body Coach and began cooking after I came home from the gym.
I started running on weeknights.
I entered 10Ks.
I watched my weight begin to drop.
More importantly, I started seeing a different version of myself.
Someone who was less selfish.
Someone who felt grateful for what he had.
Someone who could see that he might be capable of a great deal more.
The 90-day pause did not hand me a completely different life.
It created room for me to begin building one.
Your result will not have to look like mine.
The question is what might become possible for you if you stopped returning alcohol to the centre of every ordinary week.
The Press Pause 90 perspective
Press Pause 90 is not about using a rough holiday to frighten yourself into a forever decision.
It is about paying attention.
Perhaps you will naturally drink less when you get home.
The question is whether less is enough—or whether you are ready to find out what ordinary life could feel like without alcohol running the evenings, mornings and weekends.
No label.
No lecture.
No forever promise.
Just a structured 90-day break to see what comes back.
An important safety note
This article describes my own past experience. Being unable to keep fluids down can lead to serious dehydration. The NHS advises contacting NHS 111 when somebody keeps being sick and cannot keep fluids down.
It can also be dangerous to stop drinking suddenly if you are dependent on alcohol or experience withdrawal symptoms. Get medical help before trying to stop suddenly.
Your next step
You do not need to decide what you will do for the rest of your life.
You can decide what you want the next 90 days to show you.
FAQs
Does holiday drinking normally reduce when I get home?
Often, yes. Work, responsibilities and normal routines naturally reduce the time available for drinking. But a lower amount does not necessarily mean you are happy with your usual home pattern.
Should I wait and see whether my drinking settles down?
You can observe what happens, but do not compare everything only with the holiday. Compare your home routine with the mornings, energy, patience and control you genuinely want.
Do I have to stop drinking forever?
No. Press Pause 90 begins with one defined 90-day commitment. At Day 90, you review your own experience and decide what happens next.
