Quitting drinking...what was your experience like
Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 249
Originally Posted by timeforchange78 
Hi everyone...I'm quitting drinking today. It has started to interfere with my work, relationships, and finances. I've quit before for 10 days which was probably the most positive days I've had in a long time.
What was your experience with quitting, was your withdrawal as bad as you thought it would be? What would you do in place of drinking? I know it's important to replace drinking with other positive activities, so I'm wanting to get a few tips.
Thanks in advance
What was your experience with quitting, was your withdrawal as bad as you thought it would be? What would you do in place of drinking? I know it's important to replace drinking with other positive activities, so I'm wanting to get a few tips.
Thanks in advance
2 years ago at this exact time of this month, I was drinking 4 24oz cans of Steel Reserve beers every night or half of a 1.75 ml jug of rum. Like you, it was seriously affecting my ability to work and was already completely isolated from friends, family, or really anyone and drinking alone in my apartment.
When I quit this time around, I started going to AA meetings again. I couldn't sleep for 5 days when I initially got sober. I didn't deal with any real withdrawal symptoms other than that. Within day 10 I got a sponsor who was extremely in my face and tough on me about recovery. Also became involved with a group of guys in AA that I became accountable to every week. Since then I've been sober.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 1
I have lurked on this site a while so I thought I'd join and tell you about my experience...
I had went through rehab (4 week residential) about 11 years ago...didn't have the right attitude and hated AA so went back to drinking...
Went back into rehab last September and after 30 years of hard hard drinking I was ready...The program is an NHS funded program where we gained structure in our day, were forced to look at ourselves and the consequences of our drinking on ourselves and our loved ones...We were sent to AA meetings every night...
On discharge I asked to be put on Antabuse...I forced myself to go to meetings, changed the people I was hanging about with, filled my day with working on my fathers farm...
I am a year since my last drink on 12th Sept...
I am grateful to rehab as I needed to be physically removed from drink...I am off the antabus now , but don't knock it as it was one of the tools available in my recovery...I have got out of the habit of drinking and although it's not a life beyond my wildest dreams, I manage to get through what life throws at me without the bottle..
I go to about 3 meetings a week and although I'm not doing the steps yet, the meetings work..
My advice?...don't plan too far ahead...use every tool available...write down how you felt after your last drink, as this memory is soon replaced with "fond memories" of the "good times"
Good luck everyone
I had went through rehab (4 week residential) about 11 years ago...didn't have the right attitude and hated AA so went back to drinking...
Went back into rehab last September and after 30 years of hard hard drinking I was ready...The program is an NHS funded program where we gained structure in our day, were forced to look at ourselves and the consequences of our drinking on ourselves and our loved ones...We were sent to AA meetings every night...
On discharge I asked to be put on Antabuse...I forced myself to go to meetings, changed the people I was hanging about with, filled my day with working on my fathers farm...
I am a year since my last drink on 12th Sept...
I am grateful to rehab as I needed to be physically removed from drink...I am off the antabus now , but don't knock it as it was one of the tools available in my recovery...I have got out of the habit of drinking and although it's not a life beyond my wildest dreams, I manage to get through what life throws at me without the bottle..
I go to about 3 meetings a week and although I'm not doing the steps yet, the meetings work..
My advice?...don't plan too far ahead...use every tool available...write down how you felt after your last drink, as this memory is soon replaced with "fond memories" of the "good times"
Good luck everyone
Member
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: McCall, ID
Posts: 2
Your experience quitting depends completely on how long you have been drinking regularly, and the relative amount you normally drink daily and how often you are drinking.
Like many alcoholics, I've quit several times (didn't last every time, obviously). It's never a fun process, but when I was drinking extremely heavily (morning noon and night), I had to go inpatient and take Lorazepam. I feel if you are drinking, say, more than a 5th of liquor or several high-alcohol content beers or a bottle of wine or more a day, inpatient is the way to go. There are usually free detox centers in many locations. The one that I went to is extremely helpful, and you attend groups several times daily during your stay (usually about a week). It helps to be involved in social activities while you're coming off of alcohol, and the benzos take the edge off of the withdrawals. Also the staff can monitor your general health, and you typically get fed well - all important to going through withdrawal.
When my alcohol problem has been less severe, I've managed to quit on my own. It's very hard. I usually attempted to limit and reduce my drinking over a couple of weeks rather than just quit cold turkey, because it helped reduce the symptoms for me. It requires immense self-control, and I've failed at it some times as well. Difficult to ween yourself off, but it does reduce the severity of acute withdrawal (shakes, etc.) and lessened the depression that comes in post-acute withdrawal.
Whenever a doctor pulls you off of a medication, they usually try to taper you off instead of simply dropping the med to help keep you stabilized. Reduction in drinking (& or switching to lower ABV step by step) can smooth out your quitting experience, but you almost need someone to babysit you so you don't just go right back to consuming the same or more.
Like many alcoholics, I've quit several times (didn't last every time, obviously). It's never a fun process, but when I was drinking extremely heavily (morning noon and night), I had to go inpatient and take Lorazepam. I feel if you are drinking, say, more than a 5th of liquor or several high-alcohol content beers or a bottle of wine or more a day, inpatient is the way to go. There are usually free detox centers in many locations. The one that I went to is extremely helpful, and you attend groups several times daily during your stay (usually about a week). It helps to be involved in social activities while you're coming off of alcohol, and the benzos take the edge off of the withdrawals. Also the staff can monitor your general health, and you typically get fed well - all important to going through withdrawal.
When my alcohol problem has been less severe, I've managed to quit on my own. It's very hard. I usually attempted to limit and reduce my drinking over a couple of weeks rather than just quit cold turkey, because it helped reduce the symptoms for me. It requires immense self-control, and I've failed at it some times as well. Difficult to ween yourself off, but it does reduce the severity of acute withdrawal (shakes, etc.) and lessened the depression that comes in post-acute withdrawal.
Whenever a doctor pulls you off of a medication, they usually try to taper you off instead of simply dropping the med to help keep you stabilized. Reduction in drinking (& or switching to lower ABV step by step) can smooth out your quitting experience, but you almost need someone to babysit you so you don't just go right back to consuming the same or more.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,126
I think the danger in posting withdrawal experiences is that others who are a few weeks in a will read the horror stories and think they weren't as bad as the other alcoholic's and go back out.
My alcohol withdrawal was rocky: Shakes, sweats, anxiety, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate.
I quit benzos and booze at the same time. A week sober, I thought I was OK, but then the benzo withdrawals kicked in. I quit both Sept. 15, 2010. Began going seriously downhill on Sept. 20 after being awake for five days once the benzo withdrawal meltdown began, and was hospitalized from Sept. 28 to October 8, 2010, three of those days in ICU after benzo withdrawal seizures and psychosis.
Sober since.
My alcohol withdrawal was rocky: Shakes, sweats, anxiety, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate.
I quit benzos and booze at the same time. A week sober, I thought I was OK, but then the benzo withdrawals kicked in. I quit both Sept. 15, 2010. Began going seriously downhill on Sept. 20 after being awake for five days once the benzo withdrawal meltdown began, and was hospitalized from Sept. 28 to October 8, 2010, three of those days in ICU after benzo withdrawal seizures and psychosis.
Sober since.
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