please dont go cold turkey
 

hey everyone

i have poked around here for awhile now but now is time to get more involved.

i have only been a drinker for about three years but the last year progressed to everyday. I have had a few attempts at quitting, one time making it almost a month with hep of diazapam.

I am one of those guys that doesnt need a reason to drink, good day, bad day, children bugging me, gotta grocery shop, gotta work, suns out, bed time, stubbed my toe, etc.

i have a great ex wife and a partner and two great kids.
but the booze caught up with me and quickly.

i decided on July 10th enuf is enuf and waanted to be clean for them (and me). so instead of going to the dr and telling him tht i fell off the wagon again i decided i can do this, i can live thru the shakes and sweats.

the main problem i had was telling everyone a different sobriety date. It got to the point where i couldnt rememeber who i told what to and that just led to more booze as the anxiety was overwhelming.

i stopped drinking July 10th and made it three days, yes with shakes and sweats but the was about it until the fourth nite went i woke up in te middle of the night with terrible chest pains and huge electric jolts that would wake me everytime i would try and fall asleep so much so i thought they werer going to be seizures. i woke my partner at 5 am and told him i think we should go to the dr or the hospital. he asked why and i told him that i had been drinking, he actually thought i was clean for almost a month but far from it. alcoholics are the master liars.

we went to the dr for diazepam and my heart was racing so fast he thought i should go to the ER. while there they fast tracked me as i was having my shocks. they gave me some intravenous valium and made me stay overnight. no seizures thank HP but could have been close.

i beg everyone who even considers going cold turkey to fess up to someone and let them know you need help. i thought if i made it past day three i was almost in the clear. NOPE.

Please do not risk it. and if you truly want your desire for alcohol to be gone go thru something like this and see all the support that comes your way, you will not feel alone anymore.

i came clean to my x, my partner, my neighbour, my best friend, all who i had lied to in the past week just to hide the fact that i told them all different dates. my head was swimming with lies. i finally get the one principle that AA is based n complete honest. i turned out to be someone i was not.

i always resisted a treatment centre suggestion thinking i could do it myself, but have now learned i cannot and need help to figure out how to live differently.

But my biggest warning to everyone is to please dont go cold turkey. it is true that they say you can DIE. and i didnt want to die and i dont want you too either. get some help no matter how hard it is to tell some.

I'm so glad you did get medical help...de toxing is a serious issue for most everyone

Congratulations on your new sobriety....:yup:

Alcohol detox can be dangerous.. Those zaps you were getting were most likely the diazapam. Benzo withdrawal is even more dangerous than alcohol detox.. Trading an alchohol addiction for a benzo one is the worst thing anyone could do. Glad you made it through! And my prayers are with you!

I don't know what I'd do if I had to detox from alcohol again. Benzos are another drug I have a problem with so it's just swopping crap for different crap...

I may be misunderstanding what whiskeyman wrote, but I think that the doctors gave him diazepam after he started going through alcohol withdrawal. As far as I understand, benzodazepines are the first-line treatment for alcohol withdrawal.

Whiskeyman I thank you very much for posting this.

I sometimes feel that hearing it from someone who is fairly new goes a lot further than hearing it from an old timer like me.

I too detoxed cold turkey. Well I started to, on June 7, 1981 at 4:30pm. By the next morning I was at the ER of Olive View Hospital in Van Nuys. I found out later, that I went into seizures and my heart would stop. They would get my heart started and the seizures would start again. This went on all day. Back then there was no Ativan or the like. At 4:28pm that afternoon almost 24 hours exactly when I put the cap on the bottle, the ER Doctor after trying all day to keep me going, was writing the T.O.D. on my chart after 28 minutes of my heart being stopped. While he was writing, my heart started on its own. I was given a 2nd chance.

BTW when my seizures started I was at .38 blood alcohol and my body was badly needing MORE.

Since then I have told anyone that I come in contact with who wants to stop, be it in person or on a recovery site like here DO NOT DO COLD TURKEY ALONE. YOU NEVER KNOW and you may not get a second chance.

That 'whole' detox is in 'my story' in the 'Recovery Stories' forum.

There are medications, today, that can be given to prevent some of what I went through.

Again I thank you. Please, those of you that are still in early stages of trying to quit, talk with your Doctor first. If you have no doctor, please make sure you have someone with you that knows what you are attempting and is more than willing to call 911 or transport you to an ER 'just in case.' Detoxing from Alcohol can be DEADLY!

Love and hugs,

I hear you. I finally asked a doctor for help in detoxing a couple of weeks ago and even apart from the dangers of going cold turkey it just makes the detox experience a LOT easier.

Detoxing is dangerous business. Always best to get doctors advice.

Wow! I was never a heavy drinker so I always thought those stories about the dangers of cold turkey were just excuses not to stop. I never knew there was any real danger other than discomfort.

i always used the thought that i havent been drinking very long (3 years) and have been able to stop for three days at a time, albiet with the shakes but when the Zaps started happening in my sleep and they progressively got worse thru the night i wasnt sure i would make it to the morning. I weighed the options, dont tell my partner and die in my sleep or wake them up and ask to go to the dr or hospital.
it was an all night desicion as i had told everyone i had stopped.
the problem was i had told everyone i had stopped at different days and couldnt keep them all stright anymore. i got tired of all the lies. and i didnt want to die. I have two of the most amazing children in thee world and i put my booze before them and my partner.

day 14, still have th shakes bit but getting better, finally able to sleep okay

I don't how how the yank doctors work, but I am totally shocked that you went into hospital while going through Alcohol withdrawal and they stuck you on IV with Valium, for me british doctors are the best in the world by far and they would not of stuck you on Valium while going through withdrawal I know that!
I suggest anyone planning on visiting the UK, when going into hospital over here the doctors don't actually let you out of hospital until you have done a full detox and your shakes and withdrawal symptoms are completely gone.

Diazepam administration (or other benzodiazepnes) is standard treatment for alcohol withdrawal around the world. What would the British doctors do?

Yeah they would use a different diazepam, it may be an american thing with the valium.
My point is that they let her out of hospital after one day, they should of detoxed her then let her out when completely gone of her withdrawal symptoms.

thank gawd they did valium me or i truly believe i wouldnt have made it. the brain shocks were getting worse and while i was sitting int he waiting room thought for a moment this could be it. Valium (diazapam) is what they use here for withdawl symptoms.

again i tried to go cold turkey, dont do it, suck it up and go telll someone, a friend, family but mostly a dr or ER