Originally Posted by Bamboozle

We can't give medical advice. Good thing, too, because a lot of people around here would be dead or in worse shape then they already are.

Unfortunately, as you have discovered, not all doctors are going to give you proper medical advice...and addiction counselors who are not medical doctors shouldn't be giving you any medical advice at all. It's hard to know what to ask and it can be really hard to be your own advocate for your health, especially when doctors are given the status of 'expert'. They're humans, too, and they do make mistakes.

The most important thing is for you to detox safely. If your doctor doesn't or refuses to understand this, find another one. There are so many things that can go wrong with alcohol detox. No one here is qualified to tell you what your risk is for serious medical complications from detox.

I can say that tapering is a load of BS. Anyone who tells an alcoholic to taper obviously doesn't understand addiction. Tappering isn't safe for two reasons that I can think of: 1) someone who's addicted and tries to taper likely won't quit. 2) someone who's health is already poor may need to quit IMMEDIATELY and tapering isn't going to help with that --see point one--