How we write

Editorial policy

Last updated: October 22, 2026

The short version. The guides combine two things: what it was like to stop drinking and stay stopped, and what published research and public-health bodies say. We keep the two apart so you can tell which is which.

Who writes it

The First Hour is written under the name Auven, a gentle “we”. The blog entries and the personal parts of the guides are written in the first person by someone who got sober after years of heavy drinking. Everything that is not personal experience is a statement of fact, and we source it.

We are not doctors, and no clinician reviews these pages. We say that plainly because it matters. It is the reason the guides stick to well-established facts, name their sources, and send you to a doctor for the one part that can be physically dangerous: stopping suddenly after heavy, long-term drinking.

Where the facts come from

• First choice: public-health and clinical bodies such as the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the UK’s NHS, the World Health Organization, MedlinePlus and SAMHSA.
• Second choice: peer-reviewed studies and systematic reviews. When a claim rests on one small study, we say so.
• Never: forums, product pages or claims we can’t trace. We don’t cite a number we haven’t seen in the source.

Each guide ends with the sources we used, with links. Where sources disagree or the evidence is thin, we say that instead of picking the tidier answer.

What we won’t do

• Give you a medication dose, a tapering schedule or a diagnosis.
• Tell you that you can safely stop alone if you drink heavily every day. We tell you to talk to a doctor about the physical part, and we link to helplines.
• Promise a result, a timeline or a “cure”.
• Use shame, fear or false urgency to keep you reading.
• Track you. See the privacy policy.

Keeping pages current

Each guide shows a Last reviewed date. We re-open the sources when we update a page, and we change the date only when we have actually checked it. If a source changes or we find a mistake, we fix the page and update the date.

Money and independence

The First Hour has no advertising and no sponsors today, and the tool is free. If that ever changes, it will be labeled clearly and kept separate from what the guides say.

Corrections

If something is wrong, unclear or out of date, write to Auven at thefirsthourblog@gmail.com. We’ll look at it and fix it.

See also: About · Terms & disclaimer · All guides