Moderation Management

Moderation Management™ (MM) is a behavioral change program and national support group network for people concerned about their drinking who desire to make positive lifestyle changes. MM empowers individuals to accept personal responsibility for choosing and maintaining their own path, whether moderation or abstinence. MM promotes early self-recognition of risky drinking behavior, when moderate drinking may be an achievable goal.

MM is a Member Volunteer Run Organization with Advisory Oversight.  MM volunteers are engaged in all aspects of the organization from hosting meetings, to running our forums and communities, to managing the web and social media presence. MM relies on the skills, patience, and generosity of these volunteers to serve the thousands of people who rely on MM for guidance and support.

History of Moderation Management

Moderation Management™ (MM) was founded by Audrey Kishline in 1994, as an organization for non-dependent problem drinkers to help maintain moderate alcohol use. As Kishline developed the MM program and membership grew, she struggled with her own drinking, ultimately seeking abstinence via Alcoholics Anonymous, SMART Recovery and Women for Sobriety meetings while continuing to support MM for others. In March 2000, while drunk, she drove her truck the wrong way down a highway, and hit another vehicle head-on killing its two passengers (a father and his twelve-year-old daughter). She served 3.5 years of her 4.5 year sentence and was released in August 2003. Kishline died at the age of 59 on December 19th, 2014.

As a member-based organization, MM continued to grow during Kishline’s time in prison. It was during this time that the methodology of MM was solidified. MM allows members to set their own drinking goals as they feel appropriate. MM encourages members to follow particular drinking guidelines, limits, goal setting techniques, and a nine-step cognitive-behavioral change program.

The MM limits and guidelines were derived from the work of Dr. Martha Sanchez-Craig.

How Moderation Management Works

Outcome studies indicate that brief intervention programs are successful and cost effective. MM offers a supportive mutual-help environment that encourages people who are concerned about their drinking to take action to cut back or quit drinking before drinking problems become severe.

Attempting to reduce our drinking is the first step every problem drinker takes, but most of us try to do it alone. Success can be hard to achieve on our own, oftentimes we remember only our failures and forget our successes, we emphasize our weaknesses while diminishing our strengths.

MM recognizes that moderation is not the right choice for every problem drinker and fully support those members who choose abstinence. In fact, many of the abstinent members believe it would have taken them much longer to accept abstinence as the right path for them, if they hadn’t attempted moderation with the support of the MM community first. Abstinence periods are an integral part of a moderate lifestyle and because of these abstinent periods, MM members learn to value alcohol-free periods in their life and some members, about 30%, end up choosing abstinence as their chosen lifestyle.

Moderate Drinking Guidelines and Limits:

• For Men: No more than 14 drinks per week, and not more than 4 per occasion.
• For Women: No more than 9 drinks per week, and not more than 3 per occasion.
• For Both Men & Women: Do not drink on more than 3-4 days per week.
• When Do These Limits Work? Research has shown that these moderate drinking guidelines and limits are generally workable for persons who have learned to moderate after experiencing drinking problems.

These limits are mostly the same as those set forth by the US government’s National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. However, NIAAA gives a similar but slightly lower weekly limit for women of 7 drinks per week (with the same 3 per occasion), so women might consider adopting that lower weekly limit.

Assumptions of MM:

• Problem drinkers should be offered a choice of behavioral change goals.
• Harmful drinking habits should be addressed at a very early stage, before problems become severe.
• Problem drinkers can make informed choices about moderation or abstinence goals based upon educational information and the experiences shared at self-help groups.
• Harm reduction is a worthwhile goal, especially when the total elimination of harm or risk is not a realistic option.
• People should not be forced to change in ways they do not choose willingly.
• Moderation is a natural part of the process from harmful drinking, whether moderation or abstinence becomes the final goal. Most individuals who are able to maintain total abstinence first attempted to reduce their drinking, unsuccessfully. Moderation programs shorten the process of "discovering" if moderation is a workable solution by providing concrete guidelines about the limits of moderate alcohol consumption.

The MM Step-by-Step Approach:

• Start keeping a diary of your drinking, to help learn how your problems with drinking occur.
• Look at the limits of drinking for moderate drinkers, and some of the practices and attitudes that go with moderate drinking, to get a clear picture of the moderation objective.
• With that clear picture of what moderation looks like, consider whether moderation or abstinence seems the better objective for you. Also score your problem severity with a self-test, and consider other factors, to see whether moderation would be workable for you.
• Make an extensive list of the problems drinking has caused you, and the benefits you expect from moderation, to strengthen your resolve.
• Start on a period of abstinence of 30 days or more, to experience the positives of non-drinking. During this period away from alcohol you can work through some steps to help you achieve moderation.
• Learn skills for avoiding drinking on occasions when you choose not to drink.
• Learn skills to control drinking on occasions when you do drink.
• Identify the key triggers that lead you to over-drink, and develop means to neutralize those triggers.
• Develop your own personal rules that will keep your drinking moderate.
• Identify and start new spare-time activities that will displace drinking in your life.
• At the end of your period of abstinence, you can start drinking again cautiously, being mindful of your limits and personal rules for drinking. Maintain a high degree of attention to your drinking during this period, including keeping a diary.
• If, and when, you have slips, do a post-mortem to see what went wrong, and change your personal drinking guidelines if necessary.