Whole moderating thing sounds like a very slow prolonged mind obsessing torture.

Liberate yourself and stop this facade right this second. Goid luck.

Yes!

Be careful with your experiment. Most of us cannot moderate, or if we can it isn't fun. I found it easier to just stop. Taper down if you are concerned about withdrawl. There are lots of websites that will tell you how to do it. But you are much safer going to a Dr. If you get a DUI or have some altercation while drunk there will be a record too.

It's awesome that you are giving this some serious consideration. Whether you are in your 20's or in your 80's, alcoholism does not discriminate. At 10+ drinks every day, you admit you are an alcoholic. It sounds like you can probably detox at home if you're already able to go a day or so without drinking. I saw some people in hospital detox who were in pretty bad shape but never had seizures. You can do this! That being said, I have never met an alcoholic who could live a normal life and then just drink on weekends. Maybe that could work for a short time but it inevitably progresses back to the daily hell you are in now. You will spare yourself a lot of health/legal disasters if you get this under control in your 20's. Once drinking ceases to be a luxury and becomes a physical necessity, there's no way to ever make it fun again. I wish you luck, whatever you decide to do.

You aren't sure if drinking fifteen beers a day, and worrying if you quit, you might have seizures means you are an alcoholic.

Ask yourself, what would alcoholic look like to you?

Twenty beers a day? Thirty?

You are young, you can still get there. Most of us have.

What is drinking doing positive for you? Negative? You need to be honest with yourself.

Have you ever quit? I bet if you took a couple months off you'd learn a lot about yourself.

There is only one way and one way only to find out if you will have withdrawal symptoms or not and that is to stop drinking.
Nobody can tell you whether you will or won't.
If you stop and you feel well ..... great.
If you do have withdrawal symptoms, and you still want to cut down then you have no choice but to see a doctor.

You say you're "still young and want to have fun"
Why do you have to drink to have fun?

I did too. It's why I drank. It's why I couldn't moderate or taper off. I just wanted to be drunk.

I will never be a "normal" drinker.

I think I understand now. You don't want to moderate your drinking. You want to moderate your drunk.

Well I got it down to about 9 a day solid (past 3 days haven't gone over 9). Today I tried to just stop and my God I have a pounding headache! So I'm going to take it to 7 or 8 today I guess. Headache is starting to go away (I'm at 4 now).

Just my observation after reading the various posts that you have placed in this thread. If you believe that this tortured effort to drink is the pathway to fun, quit worrying about it and have the fun. All this worrying doesn't sound like any fun. When you decide you are no longer having ANY fun then it will be time to address your alcohol problem.

Please don't drive after one of your experiments on how many drinks you can have. Other people deserve the right to not participate with their lives in your inability to control your drinking.

Cheers,
Jon

Hi SeeMeDrink,

I detoxed cold turkey and other than night sweats did not have many effects. I was drinking about a bottle and a half of wine every night when I quit. In retrospect, I wish I would have seen a doctor before quitting.

Like you I drank every night. Like you I drank to black out. Like you I wanted to quit after 2-3 drinks. Like you I wished so much that I could only drink on the weekends! But unfortunately I can't. And I have finally accepted the fact that I am an alcoholic and cannot drink at all.

One final note, I was just reading up on Audrey Kishline who founded Moderation Management which is an organization that helps drinkers practice moderation instead of abstinence. Unfortunately she killed 2 people in a head on crash when she was drunk and had to serve jail time. If you google it a lot of information on Moderation Management will come up.

Best to you, PG