Tapering down ,with sucess
 

Got up to 10-12 a day .

so far done 10 -8-6 ,today will be 4 .

May just quit after today .

A taper is a little tough , but im disciplined ,so its no sweat.

Keeping count at the higher end is hard part ,after you get down to 6 ,its easier ,as you don't forget the amount :)

Tapering is really just moderating your drinking so as to be more social to yourself and others. Tapering isn't quitting. If your going thru DT's, then just a few mouthfuls can be helpful. I've been there myself. Its doubtful your experiencing DT's. And tapering down to four is fully being in your addiction. Quitting drinking is an event, not a process. Certainly recovery from that quit event is a process, a journey, a time of times. Quitting feeding an addiction to alcohol either is or it isn't. Putting your addiction on a diet is worse than useless, imo.

Still though, you have a mind to quit, and that is worth more then failing at tapering. I hope you eventually will become aware of how all the tools required for your success are within your grasp. There is nothing left to do but simply bite the bullet and move on into recovery. I wish you well, Karate.

This makes me sad. You were doing so well Karate. Alcohol is a sneaky little devil. It loves to hold us down. My prayers are with you.

Sorry to hear that Karate. HAMS will not work for you if you are an alcoholic. You already know that you don't have enough discipline to control or moderate your drinking, it's just your addiction lying to you again.

Took a look at the website:

"HAMS recognizes recreational intoxication as a reality and seeks to reduce harms associated with it."

Recreational intoxication? Really??

It's amazing what lengths we will go to to find ways to justify drinking. But I guess there is no point in being rude about it, since you are probably in a moment where you are convinced you have found an answer - been there, done that. However I, too, find this sad.

Well done Karate. Only You can decide IF and WHEN .......you will drink alcohol.
Keep up the tapering and I hope you come to a healthy solution for You.
Better is better :)

Good on you for doing the taper, better safe than sorry. Make it stick this time Karate. It's time to win more than just the small battles, it's time to win the war.

I take it you have done a little reading at a website as well ;)

I read that website thoroughly and tried it out, even prior to you posting it here. I also tried out moderation management. I truly believed both would work for me at the time, but of course neither did.

What is it about HAMS that you think will somehow allow you to drink in moderation Karate? I found that as an alcoholic, I cannot control or moderate my drinking in any fashion. Have you decided that you are not an alcoholic?

Sorry, sounds like an excuse to drink to me and tapering (unless it's supervised in some way and or you could experience seizures or DT's) is just another way to keep drinking. How much people taper is sooooo subjective. Tapering as a word reminds me of being
"just a little bit pregnant" if youre an alcoholic...

Good luck with HAMS. I tried some of the suggestions a while back and found them helpful in reducing the damage caused when I drank.

Then I thought that it was pretty stupid for me to repeat an action over and over that I knew would result in "damage" to begin with. Wasn't worth it to me....

Jess

a taper is a reduction over a long period of time, not per day.

Robby said it best: "And tapering down to four is fully being in your addiction."

Please get some medical help for your detoxing to be safe.

I thought I could moderate for five weeks. Never went over four, mostly kept it at two. When I stopped, holy crap, full detox symptoms. Didn't see that one coming even though people told me on this site this was probably not a viable solution. Not knocking your method, I suppose anything is better than nothing. I'm all in or all out. Right now, this day I'll be sober. Can't promise you a sober tomorrow. Good luck friend. Blessings.

Everybody is different, and maybe the plan you have will work for you. For me, your approach didn't work. I tried moderation, reducing my drinking over time, just about everything, no good. Right now, I'm on day 2 and feel terrible. I thought "a few beers", would help with the withdrawals, but I've tried that many times. Pick up a few beers, but the cravings (and a decent buzz), lead me back to the liquor store for more. For me, I have to deal with feeling like crap and having serious withdrawals cold turkey. Otherwise it will never end. I'm sure there must be people out there that have succeeded in cutting back than quitting altogether. I truly hope you are one of them. Good luck.

I don't need to Google it to see what you are doing. You're just not ready to quit and achieve long term complete abstinence. Your AV is running the show.
Take care.

Amen.

Tapering is like telling someone you're a little "pregnant." No matter how much you try to suppress that which is growing inside of you, constant feeding will eventually make it impossible to hide.

One of the problems I had with trying to taper or moderate is that every time I failed (which was every time I tried) I ended up drinking more than I did before I tried to taper/moderate. IMO tapering and/or moderating is harder than just quitting cold turkey. If you found out that you were ingesting poison, would you taper or quit taking it immediately? Alcohol isn't a far cry from poison for some of us.

I too attempted to taper or moderate. I even bought expensive supplements that were supposed to allows me to drink like a "normal" person.

It didn't work.

I wish you the best in whatever path you choose....

Yeah, I tried the same game. Games dont work for me, thats what I found out for myself. 10-12,8-6, now 4......what? gallons of beer, bottles of wine, shots of vodka? All I know when i start playing the count-it game, I am just playing games with my mind. My mind always wins and I give into the obsession, the thought that I am king of control. Controlled drinking never works, its been proven by hundreds and hundreds of people who tried the exact same game.

I'm new here, so I don't have the same level of experience as the other people responding. I can say that I spent 2+ years trying to moderate, and it wasn't a successful experiment. I even (truthfully) have tracked every drink I've had since back in 2012, so I can tell you EXACTLY what triggers I have and where my moderation would falter. Now I've gone 6 days without a drink and it frankly has been easier than moderating. It's only been 6 days, but I surmise that difference is the forced discipline. Instead of saying, "I'm only going to drink a glass of wine tonight instead of a whole bottle," I'm forced into doing something completely different. So, I go to the gym, read a book, go for a walk, sleep, binge on House of Cards. Anything. No happy hour, booze in the house or dinners out for now.

Now here's the rub. I have a couple of days on the calendar when I know I'll want to have a few beers with the boys. So for me, that's my moderation. I'm not trying to downgrade to "X drinks per day." Instead, I'm going back to what I did when I was happiest in my life. I limited myself to a few days per month when I enjoyed going out and having some drinks. Not total abstinence, but discipline. Breaking the bad habits and replacing them with good ones.

We'll see how many wheels are still on the wagon the week after that first date on the calendar comes around. But that's my "moderation" plan: Lots of days with no drinks. A couple of days with some drinks.