My story...advice?...support

[acrufox]

I have come to the realization I am an alcoholic....

That being said let me give you my story.

Back in 1998 I was put under undue stress, every morning I would be woken up by fighting in my family usually caused by my sister. In the end I could not stop her from having hissyfits every morning really early. I ended up being tired for days and weeks on end and ultimately ended up having anxiety attacks before bed and my sleeping worsened. I resorted to over the counter sleeping pills to get to bed every night. First it was 25mg then 50mg and sometimes 75mg to get to bed. This went on for almost three years, then one day taking benadryl stopped working, it had no affect on me. I had anxiety attacks again and couldn't sleep, I was eventually put on a presciption of ativan for a year.

Eventually I moved away from my family and I tapered off of Ativan and just had a rum and coke before bed. First it was only a fifth of a cup of rum, and I'd go to bed, if I woke up in the middle of the night I fell back asleep on my own. It was this way for 6 months, then after awhile I started taking a 2nd cup whenever I did wake up to get back to sleep, then after awhile I took benadryl with alcohol before bed, this continued for another 6 months. Then I would wake up every 3 hours or so and take a swig to feel buzzed and get back to sleep. Then recently alcohol just didn't seem to work anymore, and I tried all sorts of useless natural remedys like saint john's wort and 5htp which just seemed to screw up my personality.

That being said, I have been abusing alcohol for 1 1/2 years. Does anyone have any advice?

Should I go cold turkey and simply let my body reset for sleeping? Anything natural I could take to ease withdrawl symptoms? How should I detox? OR should I taper off...if that's even possible. I've only been an alcoholic for 1 1/2 years...is there any hope for me?

Thanks

[bruno123]

Hi Fox-I'm no doctor-tho over the course of many years, I administered enough dope to myself, you'd think someone would give me an honorary title, at least..so..I'm no doctor, but my advice to you would be to see one.
I doubt any withdrawal you may incure at this stage of your drinking would be life threatening. I would also suggest counseling. I would imagine most of the people that visit this site have been thru some form of it, there is no shame in it.
The Dr and the Counselor might well suggest you attend AA. Never a bad idea.

There is always hope..don't be discouraged.
The thing I find myself pointing out to people who think they may have a problem, is that it can get much worse. Best to get help now, and the best way to get help is to ask for it.
See? You have already started.
Love-B