Gradual scaling down option
 

Curious if anyone has tried it and how well it worked. I am thinking of starting with a six pack on the first night and eliminating one per night as a way to reduce/avoid cravings.

Great site by the way. I really enjoy the restorative benefits to one health and appearance. Really cool.

Hi Hanker and welcome back to SR. You can see by my start date (2006),
I've been around for a long time too. Sad to say I'm on my longest amount of time sober in all that time, 5 1/2 weeks.

For me tapering off any type of alcohol didn't work, ever. I was miserable.
One drink would set off my craving for alcohol and I always gave in usually within a week at the most. During the times I did try and control my drinking,
(another sad state of affairs) I was miserable too. I never liked the effect of a couple of glasses of wine because right out of the gate at the beginning of my drinking I always drank to oblivion.

The only thing for me is not to pick up at all. This is not to say you can't do it. Some here (very few) do. I think the key is being totally honest with yourself and examining your own past history.

Anyway...I want to encourage you to post here and use SR as much as you can. Doesn't matter how you choose to get sober if it works. Glad to meet'cha again.

that doesn't work for me. I've tired that a thousand times. Even if I do drink just one or two one night I'll either drink more & more at the same sitting or crave it the next day. All alcoholics are different though. Just my opinion from one member who's alcohol of choice was beer to another.

"The man take a drink
the drink takes a drink
The drink then takes the man"

Welcome Hanker.

Tapering never worked for me.

I had a control issue - if I had six beers I drank them....if I did manage not to one night I'd always be back to full throttle soon enough...

If you're worried about withdrawal, in my opinion you're much better to see your Doctor about detoxing safely :)

D

You first came here in 03...have you been tapering all that time?
:)
Anyway....just how long to you think de toxing and cravings go on?
My de tox was over in 3 days...and I took quick action about cravings.
They were not a big deal for me.

Please do see your doctor for how best to move into sobriety
Be both safe and sober....and honest with him/her.
k?

Welcome Hank and glad you are with us.

Unfortunately my experience was that tapering or cutting down didn't work. It was a mental thing for me and I had to change my life and I needed support in order to do that.

Alcohol was something that I tried for years to manage, cut down - you know the story - but there was no way for me to be finally be done and to move on until I completely quit and got into recovery.

Speaking to your Dr. would be a good thing and look into support options.

You can move beyond this as so many of us have and are doing :)

Well don't just stop suddenly for a start because it's extremely dangerous to do that because you can get alcohol withdrawal seizures which, to put it bluntly, can kill you.

I know, I had 3 seizures in one day doing that and was in hospital for 2 weeks. My body was so used to having alcohol in it's system, that when I suddenly stopped for a couple of days it just went haywire.

As said above, if you're serious about quitting you need to do it properly and see your doctor.
If you're not serious about quitting, then don't just stop drinking suddenly.

Heh. I was just remembering my last day. The friend who saved my life bought me one last half pint and doled out half-shots through the next 24 hours so I wouldn't shock out. She also made me eat real food, take a shower, get some sleep and dragged my behind to like 4 or 5 meetings in a row. God love her, she never once said a cross word to me or judged me in any way. She just asked me if I was sick and tired of being sick and tired yet.

BTW that's the only time "tapering off" ever worked for me :D

Re: Gradual scaling down option.
 

Hi Hanker...Welcome To Sober Recovery.

I crossed the line into active alcoholism early on, leaving very few options open to me -like scaling down my drinking. I was confronted rather quickly by a sickening dilemma that plagued every facet of my life -even my soul. My disease -called alcoholism- provided no other alternatives to my dilemma other than drinking -excessively that is. So the prospect of having one or two drinks never crossed my mind.

I recommend you seek help from a qualified professional who deals with cases like yours before you explore any alternatives like controlled drinking. They can provide you with some useful information like alternatives to drinking and offer up some suggestions to put your mind at ease. They have recovery tools at their disposal that can help you make informed decisions and get you started on the road to recover -one day at a time.

Whatever you choose can be beneficial long term, provided you take the necessary steps to alleviate the suffering instead of prolonging it –like I did. The solution can be found only in recovery networks like outpatient services, addiction counselors, AA and forums like this one. I suggest you connect with a sober network -within your local area- and find a solution that works for you other than drinking.

~God Bless~

:ring

I would suggest that you try it once and if it doesn't work have another plan in place and learn from the lesson that you will not be able to do this without face to face help...

Good luck:-)

I tried tapering down many times but was only successful once. Sorry to say I went back to drinking soon after.:( I'd suggest seeing your doctor for medical help in getting safely thru the w/d.

I drank to get drunk, so tapering off never even entered my mind. For me and most alcoholics, it's all or nothing. If do decide to stop cold turkey, please seek medical supervision. Quitting drinking was the best decision I've ever made.

Hanker, go ahead and try it but my prediction is it won't work.

However, the most successful quit smoking attempt I ever made (almost thee years) was by following an American Lung Association program which involved, among other things, switching bands and cutting down gradually. Nicotine is an extremely addictive substance - not sure how the addiction dynamic compares to alcohol though.

Still, tapering down doesn't seem to work with alcohol. I've tried it too, like most here - any attempt at "moderating" has never, ever worked for me in the long run. And come to that, I guess you could say the tapering off of nicotine didn't either. I'm a serial quitter; currently smoker.

The only time I "tapered" successfully was when I detoxed at home. I had one drink per four hours for three days only and poured out every drop of booze the day before my last drink, saving only the four ounces or so for the last day.

That isn't recommended, BTW. But I had already made a firm decision at that point and it was a VERY short "taper".

I managed to do like a one day taper. I drank enough to take the edge off my hangover (3 glasses of wine) and then nothing the next day. However the last time I quit was like the 10th time I quit. I almost always did some kind of taper. The other 9 times it didn't last :)

I was drinking all through the work week after work was over. But for a few reasons I stopped during the week. And then I drank only on friday night and all day saturday. I found that led to stopping on the weekends and eventually for 7 months now.

If you want to quit you can do it many ways UNLESS you are severely intoxicated all the time for a long periond then you better be careful about cold turkey quitting.

if you are willing to quit and won't have any deathly withdraws you can do it many ways as long as you have the will to do so.

I'd much rather you did a medical detox.. But obviously it can be done.. Before the invention of benzo's and blood pressure medicine (the 2 keys in a medical detox), people were literally on alcohol drips for detoxing.. This was the way people have kicked booze for thousands of years.. Although I'm quite certain to try to do it on your own would be extremely hard.. If I were you, I'd take advantage of modern medicine.

Modern medicine is great but I don't want a record unless necessary. I have been hitting it pretty hard the last few years, drinking two bottles of wine per night. I am 6'5", 260 so I am hoping my large frame has helped to minimize the damage. I am going to cut my alcohol consumption in half tonight and see how it goes. I will drink Perrier in between glasses of wine.
Anyway, probably too much information. Thanks for the replies.

I tried tapering and it didn't work out as well as I thought it would. I always lost my resolve during the taper.

I talked to a doctor and they gave me klonipin for the anxiety. So I quit cold turkey and took klonipin to take the edge off the withdrawals. It is also an anticonvulsant. I really don't recommend going this route, because klonipin is highly addictive and if you traded addictions then the klonipin withdrawal is just as bad as the alcohol withdrawal.

If I ever have to do it again. And I earnestly hope I don't. I would go to a hospital or some alcohol treatment center. The first 15 hours after my last drink I was in a panic and hallucinating. It really, really sucked.

If I keep going one day at a time the in 45 days or so I will have two years sober. And that feels great.

What I have learned in this last go around is that you really have to work for your sobriety. Be proactive for it. A little bit of work daily goes a long way sometimes.

To the chronic relapsers, I feel for you. I quit so many times and the last time I quit something clicked. So I keep doing everything that I was doing when I quit. This includes going to a psychiatrist, attending meetings, reading books about alcoholism, watching shows like Intervention on A&E or Addiction on HBO.

I know a lot of people here don't like AA but if you become desperate enough it might work well for you. But, each person is different.

Keep on keeping on folks. One day at a time the days do add up....

Hmmm...

A member here often suggested useing one of those "sidewalk" medical
clinics. You call ahead to make sure they do de toxing
pay cash...around $50 .thus keeping your privacy..

The Salvation Army has short term free de tox centers in many areas.
Many people use them to quit....includeing my adult son.

These may not be options for you ....depends on where
you live....and I have no experience with either.

Please read the first sticky post at the top of our Forum.
all my best ....:yup:

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