A woman who has been sober for five years has shared a simple trick we should do before having ‘just one’ drink to stop our alcohol consumption spiralling out of control.

For many of us, there’s been plenty of times we’ve gone out with our pals with no intention to drink and yet somehow find ourselves on the booze.

We’ve promised to stick to our Diet Coke for the night and yet one glance at your mates’ crisp lager and you’re craving ‘just one’.

Except, realistically, it’s rarely ‘just the one drink’ in the end as it can be easy to quickly slip into an overwhelming urge to keep knocking them back without even realising.

So, a woman who went sober has shared a one-minute trick to stop those ‘alcohol cravings’. Danielle (@thedanielledigrandi) has been sober for over five years and shared on TikTok how ‘alcohol cravings can legit hijack your brain and overtake your mind’.

One drink often leads to many. (Getty Stock)

Often giving advice and tips to her followers, she outlined an exercise called ‘playing the tape forward’.

She described an all-too familiar scenario where you might head out with the intention not to drink, prioritising staying fresh for your plans the next day and so you can drive yourself home afterwards.

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However, you end up in a situation where ‘the thought crosses your mind’ to maybe have one drink and the ‘mental gymnastics’ begin.

And this is where the one-minute trick comes in hand. “It is such an amazing exercise is because your mind is the most powerful tool you have when it comes to not drinking alcohol.”

So, Danielle says you should look at the night ahead like ‘a movie unfolding in front of you’.

She says to ‘play the tape’ in your mind. (Getty Stock)

In this film, drinking is ‘the star of the show’ and you’re supposed to think of how the night could go into ‘complete debauchery’ if you give into those initial cravings.

She says to keep thinking of each stage of caving to the drink: “You end up spending more than you wanted, you end up driving drunk and then you end up getting home at 2am. You’re super intoxicated, maybe you’ve blacked out.

“And then you wake up the next morning and you are riddled with anxiety, maybe the lights are still on because you passed out in all of your clothes and you have a pounding headache.

“Then any plan you had went out the window and you’re just beating yourself up because you promised yourself you weren’t gonna have that initial drink.”

While this might all sound a little dramatic, by ‘playing the tape through’ in a minute, you’ll realise having a drink ‘isn’t worth it if that’s the end result’.

Danielle says every time she’s done this it’s reminded her that it’s just ‘never one drink’ and users commented to say how helpful it is and pointed out it also works for other ‘bad behaviours and negative choices’.