meadow04

I have been weening myself off alcohol the last couple of days. The first night I went through terrible shaking, weakness, dryheaves, thought I was going too die in my sleep from a seizure, (pretty scary!!) So last night I decided to have a couple (2) beers so I was not going cold turkey. I didn't get the shakes but I kept getting woken by like a sudden shock or jerk of my body. I then again was scared I was about to have a seizure. I can't go to detox because I am a stay at home mom with no daycare options. I have terrible burning in my chest and really scared something might happen to me when I am home alone with my daughter.
Any suggestions to how I can get through this HELL and get my life back? I am desperate!

Horselover

Meadow04 - I would DEFINITELY consult a doctor. You may not have to go into detox, but if you can consult a doctor and be totally honest and upfront with him/her it would help. You can die from detoxing without help. If you want to be there for your daughter be safe and do it carefully hon. Glad you here. :ghug3

Stubborn1

I have to agree. They are not going to take your children away because you want to get sober. Do you have anyone you can trust? That would watch your children for a week?
This is VERY serious and a doctor needs to have his eye on you. They have things to calm you and make you sleep so it's easier.
You are very brave to do it but please do not do it by yourself. Yes you could die. Don't do that to your daughter.
Please keep us posted. I am worried for you.

Tazman53

meadow4 as others have said, please see a doctor ASAP.

Be totally honest with the doctor, detoxing can and does kill, this is the last thing you want your daughter to have happen to her in her life.

Please seek medical assistance.

I am not sure where you live, but you may want to consider calling your local AA hotline, you may be suprised to find a group of women more then happy to help you through this.

nandm

You might try calling a treatment center. I know that there are inpatient and outpatient centers that allow mothers with children. We have one here in Portland. Entering treatment will not cause your children to be taken from you. You are getting help for a problem to make your life and your childrens lives better. You do not have to do this alone.

tennis71

As everyone else said, go see a Dr. Be honest with them and they can give you a good idea of your physical health.

You can do this, and it will get better each day that you don't drink.

You do have some things that you need to think about however. How are you going to maintain your sobriety? The desire to quit is a great start and you have that, but you might consider some sort of treatment, outpatient maybe, or try a program like AA and work the 12 steps.

Just food for thought. Welcome to SR and I hope you are able to get past the withdrawals soon and get on to your recovery.

CarolD

It's really dangerous for you to do de tox
without at least consulting with your doctor honestly.

There are meds to combat seizures
to stop the most severe symptoms on withdrawal.

I'm not talking about long term solutions

Is your child old enough to call 911 if you
convulse or faint or ???

Your problem is not about sleeping
your problem is all about de toxing...IMO

Please please don't risk your life.

bostonluv

Hi Meadow...it's been awhile. I'm sorry you're going through this.

Wade72

Hello Meadow,

First I will say I work for a rehab and detox so I am not just jumping to conclusions.

you posted this "The first night I went through terrible shaking, weakness, dryheaves, thought I was going too die in my sleep from a seizure"

If you are showing thoughts symptoms get in and see your doctor ASAP

you also posted "So last night I decided to have a couple (2) beers so I was not going cold turkey. I didn't get the shakes but I kept getting woken by like a sudden shock or jerk of my body."

You self medicated which kept the worst of it away, your doctor can help by giving you medications so you don't have to do that and he/she will direct you to do your detox safely. Just get in and see one, if nothing else and you can't get a timely appointment go to your local emergency ward and tell the doctor there what’s happening.

meadow04

Thank you all for your replies. I started exercising and I am not experiencing withdrawls at all during the day. I am scared about the middle of the night so I had 2 glasses of wine last night. I slept great and feel fine right now. Is it ok to go on like this just as long as I don't binge drink? I am not drinking during the day anymore so maybe I was just in a bad place and I finally have it under control. Is that possible? I always thought it was ok to have up to 3 drinks per day. Any thoughts? I appreciate it in advance.

Stubborn1

I believe when you think you have it under control then it has you beat.
The problem is you can not go without it.
If you think your sleeping is better because you have alcohol in you then you are mistaken. You actually sleep worse with alcohol in your system. You need to give your body time to work like it's supposed to. Putting alcohol in your system is just confusing it.

Eclipse

I always used to say I could do just a couple of glasses of wine and did for awhile, but eventually you add the 3rd for awhile then its the bottle, then there is any excuse why you need to get more cuz you are in a bad mood or deserve it cuz you had a bad day at work or the kids are making you crazy, then you buy the big bottle saying I will only drink 2 or 3 drinks, but you know you bought the big bottle cuz you didn't want to run out and you knew you were going to drink it even though you told yourself you weren't. Next thing you know you are drinking a big bottle every night and blah, blah, blah the story goes on. At least that has been my experience. I just have to stay completely away from it. Life is much better without arguing with myself all the time....I do enough of that with my teenagers!

nandm

The saying "once a cucumber has been turned into a pickle it can never be a cucumber again" would be something I find applicable to your situation. You state that you feel you have been drinking enough to cause withdrawl symptoms. Then you state that you feel you can control your drinking and keep it at 2 drinks a night. Can you picture a time when you were able to keep it at 2 drinks or less a night for any length of time? How long do you think you will be able to "control" it this time? Eventually, if you do have an alcohol problem then you will find that when you "control" your drinking you do not enjoy it and when you enjoy your drinking you have no control over it. I would suggest you re-read your first post here. Remember how afraid and desperate you were? Do you really want to go through that again? Why put yourself through it when stopping drinking is a viable option? Why put your family through it? I know, 101 questions, for that I appologize. I do hope that you take a look at your past drinking patterns. Have they started with "controlled" drinking and progressed into uncontrolled drinking? An alcoholic is not necessarily the person in the gutter. There are many "functioning" alcoholics in this world. I was one. I still had the job, the car, the kids, the clothes, the "look good" going on. But the inside of me was a total mess. I had no clue how to live life without drinking. I couldn't stand being in my own skin. It finally got to the point that I could no longer stand to continue to drink but did not feel I could continue to live without drinking. That is a frightening place. I did reach out and find a recovery program and with that and a lot of hard work I has helped me stay sober and give me a life now for over 7 years. I have no desire to take my chances with a drink or two a night because I know that eventually it will progress right back into the unmanageability. I hope this makes some sense to you.