Kierk76

Hi Everyone,

I've been a member of this forum for just a few days, registering after my counselor suggested I visit an outpatient chemical dependency facility. I've been drinking alcohol (mainly beer) for a very long time and on a daily (evenings) basis. I've progressed to the point that I drink on average 8 to 10 beers nightly, sometimes more. This pattern of drinking has lasted and increased for nearly three to four years.

I have come to realize that I have a drinking problem and I am determined to quit. In fact, today is my stop date. With all of the emotional issues I experience with drinking, and potential familial problems associated with it, I WANT to stop.

Now, to my point: On those evenings when I don't drink as much as I normally do, I get the sweats while in bed. I generally sleep OK, but I do wake up soaked a couple times during the night. Clearly, my body is undergoing chemical changes when that happens. I've read a number of just mind-staggering stories on this forum about detoxing, and I'm very worried about experiencing anything in the ballpark of moderate to severe withdrawal symptoms tonight. I've gone back and forth about checking myself in to an inpatient facility to undergo my detox, but I just don't know if it's medically necessary. My hunch is that it isn't, given that my alcohol intake and cravings are relegated to evenings only, and any withdrawal symptoms I've experienced before (which have been very mild) are when I just don't have my usual 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 beers at night.

I'm not looking for medical advice, but I am interested in placing my case in some kind of perspective. I'm so new to this sort of thing, that I feel lost about what to expect.

Also, for me, the main reason I've thought about checking myself into a detox facility is that it would just be a change of routine. It would get me out the house, etc. I have a toddler, and for the past two years, my and my wife's evenings have been nearly exclusively spent at home. Tonight, I'm going to get out of the house: I'm going to go to the gym, and then after that go see a movie (which I haven't done since my son was born).

That said, in the event that I do begin to experience moderate to severe symptoms, I will check into a hospital.

Anyways, thanks for reading.

oinobares

Hi Kierk,

I've been following your posts and kudos on facing your problem squarely.

I'm an academic and a binge drinker, so I while I was never consistently a daily drinker, over the course of roughly 25 years I would drink hard, morning till night over 2, 3, or even 10 day stretches. Toward the end, that is, the last two years, my binges lasted typically 5-10 days. Then I would go through withdrawal, and get up to 90 day stretches of sobriety, during which I got my work done. It was a brutal cycle, because after my dry stretches (sometimes with half-baked AA attendance) I would convince myself I was cool with "a coupla drinks." Every blasted time I tried that I was bingeing again. Saying I would go to bed after a bottle of wine at 10 PM and staying up through a couple more bottles watching art cinema or being an "intellectual" then crashing out around 4 or 5 AM. Awful.

So congrats on taking the step to avoid an inevitable nightmare.

As for withdrawal. This is *not* medical advice, just my experience. I walked into local ERs twice when it got really bad to have some professional care-taking and benzos. Both of those times I am fairly certain I would have been risking my life to go it alone. Some warning system in my subconscious impelled me to go seek help. The times I went it alone I always eased off or tapered, but I still had symptoms. I certainly had night sweats, minor auditory disturbances/hallucinations (hearing distant music, once someone calling my name), extreme anxiety, restlessness and panics, nightmares straight out of HP Lovecraft or worse, elevated body temperature. All of this generally lasted 3 days.

I didn't have a GP (hadn't seen an internist in 15 years, just specialists like dermatologists and orthos), so if you do have a doc, I'd say go and lay the cards on the table with him or her. Besides the medical help, it would seem a great way of facing honestly the issue of alcoholism. Not going to see a doctor was all part of the fear-based denial I was in thrall to for so long.

Best wishes to you!

Kierk76

oinobares,

Thanks for your response. Your story is helpful. I know there are different kinds of alcoholics, with different kinds of habits and emotional states, and that depending on the kind of alcoholic you are, one's withdrawal symptoms may be different than another.

I've never gone on any kind of binge drinking escapade. From what I can tell, coming off a of a two, three, four day binge can be very dangerous and even life threatening.

In my case, I've always been a 4:30/5:00pm drinker. In fact, I gave myself that rule from the very beginning, and when, in those rare occasions I've broken it, I always tried to relegate my drinking so that, by bedtime, I'd had about the same amount of alcohol as when I start at 4:30/5:00.

I think, more than anything, the effects of stopping the drink, will be more psychological than physical, since it will require changing my daily routine, which can be very taxing. I struggle with anxiety and mild depression, and I expect that those will increase in the coming weeks. I definitely plan to attend an outpatient program for that.

Thanks again for your response!

KDL

When I stopped drinking, the only physical symptoms that I experienced were sleep difficulties and night sweats.

Eventually, the night sweats faded away, and sleep improved.

Maybe it will be the same for you?

Kierk76

Thanks, KDL!

We'll see. Figuring that I don't appear to have any withdrawal symptoms 12 hours after drinking alcohol, I'm optimistic my symptoms will be mild. However, two, four, six days into sobriety may prove different.

KDL

Kierk- I would say google the "kindling" effect. I had never heard of that. I have not been one to quit and relapse repeatedly. Basically drank forever with increasing tolerance, then stopped.

I saw this discussed on here and wondered if that had anything to do with my lack of physical withdrawal symptoms. I don't know whether or not it did, but it's helping me avoid finding out by experimenting with the binge/relapse cycle.

Kierk76

KDL,

I just looked it up. I had never heard of it either. It makes sense, though, and I can understand why you'd want to avoid it.

Keep up the hard work!

Justfor1

Drinking 8-10 beers a night is enough to have some withdrawals. Seeing a doctor is best because there are a lot of variables. How you eat, your age, physical shape ect...

CarolD

Perhaps this link will interest you....

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...at-we-did.html

Glad to know you will be getting professional help
Hope your de tox will run smoothly...