dthalez

Hey, I am a 23 year female who has been drinking almost daily since the age of 17. I am already getting the shakes, anxiety ect when I don't drink. So I was curious to know what do you guys think about tapering off of alcohol? I started off by drinking about 5 16 oz beers from day to night, tried to get sober for almost 48 hours, withdrawals got too much, took 2 shots of whiskey to take the edge off, and then I was able to drink almost 20 oz of beer and be okay. Anyways, is there any hope in tapering? btw, I tried to go to the hospital for detox, and they said they didn't have any detox beds available, asked the doc what was my alternative, and he said to keep drinking until a bed became available.. smh.

I'm trying guys...

doggonecarl

Welcome to SR.

I quit cold turkey, ignorant about the dangers of withdrawals. Lucky for me, nothing happened. I doubt if tapering would have worked for me. If I could have tapered, I could have moderated my drinking, which meant I could have kept drinking.

How about checking with another hospital?

Grymt

If you're going to go cold turkey, check your heart first. The suggestion by the doc to not stop drinking is in some cases a good one if you have the shakes bad. Keep up nutrition.

Been there, so, I did: Put my life before anything. relocated and did a rapid* detox.This is with valium. As many as I needed day one, five day two, one day three then none. Ate more, walked. Then when things started to stabilise, 3 meetings a day for 30 days, no excuses, sat and the back and fumed if I had to. Somehow the bits I didn't get got me.
If I was near Blue Ridge, I'd set August aside time for the 10 day Vipassana Meditation course. Sit it.

Boogirl

I have read on several sites that tapering off can work if done right. But it's best to only taper off with beer. Just drink it like a medicine to take the edge off, and then consume less everyday. But it's not good to drink hard alcohol, because you may wind up drunk again and it won't work.

zjw

I tried to taper off for safetys sake a few days in of cutting back I had enough and never picked up again. Tapering off wasnt fast enough for me!! But I'm not about to say its a bad approach. You probably just cant loose eye of the ultimate goal is all.