Doubter

Until you try stopping and find out for yourself.

My second detox is only a couple weeks away.

ScottFromWI

Yes, it can be very difficult. Are you going to a supervised detox?

Doubter

Yes, thanks to SAMHSA. Inpatient treatment for two weeks.

ALinNS

It is a tough one to beat for most of us, keep at it. In my case it took several detox stays before I finally found a program that stuck, it's modeled after SMART and for me highly effective.

All the best
Andrew

zjw

yeah its no joke ! when i quit i ifugred it'd be a lot like quiting cigarettes a coupel tough days and in 2 weeks i'd be ok with cravings here and there no biggie.

Boy was I DEAD WRONG!!! it was the hardest thing i've done in my life i swear. what a hellacious battle and basicly fought for my mental sanity fight of my life i swear.

BUT i'm still here now 5+ years later still sober and i can say it was worth ever bit of it.

SnazzyDresser

It sure ain't easy! It is doable though. You can do it, Doubter.

Doubter

Thanks. I think I might have asked this before but has anyone done this without anti relapse prevention meds? its just that ive read up some of the side effects of naltrexone and one is insomnia which i suffer from badly when quitting. thanks

zjw

i somehow did it with 0 meds. no aa till a year later. no therapy etc...

yeah i did it the hard way point is it can be done however.

biminiblue

When I quit drinking I was on no meds, and I did not take any to get through withdrawal, and I'm still med-free 29 months later.

I already did the therapy/meds thing many years ago. It made things worse, so I decided to allow God in my heart and SoberRecovery on my laptop, and it has been working great.

We each have a path to follow and I think you will find yours. Listen to your inner voice, listen to your gut. It won't steer you wrong if you truly become quiet and consult it.

Gottalife

I took antabuse for the first three months, part of going to any lengths, but by three months my life had changed and antabuse was no longer required. No other meds this time around.

My stay in the nut farm a year or so earlier, they put me on ativan but when I realised what it was doing to me I refused to take any more. That was on day 3. How anyone could like that stuff is beyond me.

Incidentally, there is still no medical solution to alcoholism. In fact many medical solutions tried in the past, lsd, librium, valium, benzos, etc now are doc material for other 12 step fellowships.

August252015

It's possible to become and stay sober without medicine. My view on the subject, as it is with mental health (and physical health, of course) is that meds are there to help us and it is a-ok to take ones you need to, when you need them, with the supervision of your dr. As my psych says, meds related to my drinking are just more tools in my arsenal for sobriety.

I too took antabuse for the first 90 days I got sober this year. It became 100% habit; I signed a paper every day, that a witness also signed, and that paper was always with me in my planner. Just another tool in my arsenal.

I still take campral and probably will indefinitely- I have had almost zero cravings in nearly 6 mos (the couple of times I have, they were mental not physical) and if it's due to this anti-craving med, super fine by me.

I also take seroquel for sleep, nightly. I had HORRIFIC nightmares the last six months of my drinking, which turned into vivid dreams as I got sober, and now I just have your run of the mill kind of dreams and almost always solid sleep. I will also stay on this indefinitely.

As I said at first, a good dr and honesty are key. Getting and staying sober is hard enough. If it makes sense for you to take any med, it can make it easier- why not? That's your decision, and one final note- you can't rely on meds to keep you sober, nor can you justify not taking meds if you keep drinking. They are indeed just tools. YOU make the choice as to what you do.

Good luck.

Soberwolf

best wishes x

tomsteve

my anti relapse meds were the willingness to do whatever was necessary to get and stay sober and the program of AA.

JeffreyAK

You'll probably suffer badly without Naltrexone or any meds, it's a common side effect of alcohol withdrawal, and lots of folks including me have stories of not sleeping at all for days after quitting.

My final detox was at home, no meds at all except Trazodone to help me sleep after a couple days. Meds can help with some of the symptoms, but in my experience they aren't a huge help, and we still have to go through the process that invariably sucks if we've been drinking heavily prior to quitting. Detox meds like Librium are really to help prevent seizures, not to make quitting easy.

I quit taking Trazodone after a few weeks and quickly got into a nice normal sleep pattern that I've been in ever since.