Abstinence is a self-enforced restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving
pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to
sexual abstinence, or abstinence from
alcohol or
food. The practice can arise from religious prohibitions and practical considerations. Abstinence may also refer to drugs. For example, you can abstain from smoking. Abstinence has diverse forms. Commonly it refers to a temporary or partial abstinence from food, as in
fasting. In the
twelve-step program of
Overeaters Anonymous abstinence is the term for refraining from compulsive eating, akin in meaning to sobriety for alcoholics. Because the regimen is intended to be a conscious act, freely chosen to enhance life, abstinence is sometimes distinguished from the psychological mechanism of
repression. The latter is an unconscious state, having unhealthy consequences.
Freud termed the channeling of sexual energies into other more culturally or socially acceptable activities, "
sublimation".