How Long Did Your Taper Last?
 

Hey- I'm currently tapering (at the advice of my doctor).

I was wondering, for those of you who have successfully tapered, how long did you take?

I drink 4-5 times a week, anywhere from 10 shots of vodka to 22. I have been doing a slow taper but I'm thinking I need to speed it up as it is just too much temptation.

What worked for you, for those who have tapered successfully?

I know how hard it is to taper! I know a lot try and fail but I do know that it does work for some people so I was hoping there might be some of you on here :)

I know that wasn't an option for me. I might have made it a couple days but once I had a few I would keep putting it off. Good luck with that!

Usually about 4-5 days or so works for a taper. I went from a bender, to 10, 8, 6, 3, and then done.

i was drinking about 15-20 beers a night i tapered one beer less each night but by the time i hit about 5 or6 i got pissed off and just quit drinking so little just ticked me off.

I made it through ok i kept beer on hand too in case i had some kind of medical issue and needed to drink to ward off DT's or osmething.

but I also new i better call 911 if I had any issues etc..

I have never any success in tapering off.

Once I started drinking for the day I couldn't stop until I was satisfied.

Cold turkey worked for me.

Interesting question Vivien, I just don't see how it would be possible for an alcoholic to taper. It has to be a very small percentage of us. If I could taper I would still be drinking and just stop at 2 or 3 drinks. Not possible for me.

I've also tried to "taper" but the amount of alcohol my body needed to make the really bad withdrawals tolerable was counterintuitive to the whole idea. Basically I was just drinking a beer every hour, around the clock, and not sleeping at all. Going to the hospital for medical detox was way better.

I wish you the best!

Z

I didn't taper, I quit cold turkey.

I would drink 2-3 bottles of wine depending on how early I started. Occasionally I would change that up, but to give you an idea of what I quit.

I was never able to taper either. If the taper is per your doctors orders, I'd follow their recommedation on the schedule. If you think it should be quicker I'd check with your doctor first.

Best of luck to ya, I know if I were to taper, like some others, I'd just keep drinking.

2.9 years for me. If you want to call it a taper. I call it 3 more years of 'research' on why booze and me can't be friends.

I can't say tapering worked for me. It seems I always come back with a vengeance and drank even more after about a week of tapering. I kept trying tho and by happenstance was tapering the week before I finally "had the guts" to stop.

"Satisfied" for me was passed out cold. I had to go all or nothing too.

Maybe you should ask your doctor about that, how long you should take to taper off. Sounds like we don't have a large pool of experience as to tapering here. Hope that helps!

Unfortunately she did not give a schedule! I wish she had but she did not have much experience with this, didn't know what DTs were, etc.

Thanks for all the responses! I appreciate them all.

I'm going to quicken up my taper and just monitor my physical symptoms. I've DRASTICALLY cut back on how much I was drinking on a weekly basis so I think I've prepared my body well enough.

I was asked not to go cold turkey by my doctor so I'm trying to avoid that.

So proud of all of you who have been able to kick the habit.

Taper was not possible for me. I stopped cold and like the vast majority of alcoholics, suffered withdrawals that did not require medical intervention. Just a bad hangover really.

On occasion, I have sat with alcoholics who were unable to get into detox, administering a sip of wine to ease the withdrawal. We stay with the alcoholic round the clock and have a doctor just a phone call away. Each time the requirement for any alcohol has gone within the first 12 hours, so a long taper is likely to create more problems than it solves.

I did mine over about 5 days, ending on the weekend. A lot less stressful than cold turkey, that's for sure!

I think I'd be looking for a doctor who knew something about addiction.

I had some success in tapering. My experience was that the taper needed to be as quick as it could safely be. The problem for me and tapering is that I didn't really have any plan for what to do once I got to that magic number of zero. I could handle the physical part, but hadn't given myself for tools for dealing with the mental side of things.