CarolD

Hi again kpnewlife...
glad to see you moving forward!

Pawprints

Thank you very much for those extracts came2believe.

I was at home this weekend (rather than uni house) and so I couldn't do my usual thing of pouring a drink within an hour of waking up. I twiddled my thumbs until about 4pm came around so it didn't look so "bad"... And even though I still did drink this weekend I started having some symptoms of withdrawal again. At least, I think they are?

It happened before when I tried to give up, but I still drank a fair bit this weekend. And my heart occasionally 'flutters', as if it suddenly skips a few beats or something. I feel ill and get headaches. And, of course, anxiety. And that is just from *slightly* cutting down or waiting a little longer than usual to drink. Sleeplessness.

I don't mind the discomfort if I decide to actually quit the drink. Having relatively minor illness for a month or so isn't that bad, if you are making a life long commitment. But I'm assuming it isn't actually dangerous to just quit, unless you are seriously drinking VAST quantities every day??? Is that right?

I need to go and see my doctor sometime this week anyway, to check up about medication and also to check if this quitting alcohol is compulsory, or just advice. Because as sensible and MATURE quitting would be, I panic at the thought of it and I know that I'm unlikely to stop at the moment. One day, yes. I know I'm just digging myself deeper into the trap but I really, really cannot imagine my whole LIFE without alcohol. Not even a day or two. For some reason, my brain does not understand how that would ever work lol.

GlassPrisoner

See a Dr pawprints before you decide to go cold turkey. Withdraw can be serious business. IIRC, alcohol withdraw is physically more dangerous than heroine withdraw. There's a thread around here called "What to expect" (It's a sticky at the top of a page) Read that for what you might be up against.

Tazman53

PP the pain, the fear, the utter hopelessness you are feeling now I have felt, the vast majority if not all alcoholics have felt it as we neared our own personal bottoms. I was close to my bottom for 10 years..... slowly getting closer and closer to the edge of that cliff that would have been my ultimate bottom, I had given up the fight to stop drinking and there I stood at the very edge, my toes were over the edge, if I had kept drinking I was going over the edge and I was going to die a slow alcoholic death.

I put myself into de-tox and into AA, 126 days since I quit, not a single relapse. I am happier then I have been in 30+ years. Please do not be as pig headed as I was, I wish I had gotten to where you are at when I was your age, instead alcohol screwed up my youth and most of my adult life, I was 52 when I quit.

You are not alone, AA is there for you and will if you simply follow directions give you everything you want in life and more.

zoomer

I hope today finds you well.