final

This is my first post on this forum.

I am physically addicted to alcohol, but I do not yet consider myself an alcoholic. I do get withdrawals and a desire to drink more, but they are relatively easy to manage.

I am going to try to wean myself off, as I'm sure almost everyone here has tried at one point. I feel on the border of problem drinker and alcoholic, and this will show me where I really stand.

I know that many here do consider themselves alcoholics and cannot control their drinking, but my question is this: Has anyone successfully weaned themselves off rather than abruptly detoxing? What was this experience like and did you feel it is was an easier method as someone who was able to do it?

Happier

I tried weaning and/or "cutting back" several times. Always unsuccessful in my case though. There was always some special occassion or circumstance that jump-started me back to drinking too much too often.
Just my experience though.
Wishing you all the best.

Dee74

Hi final

I never managed it - the whole issue of 'problem drinking' is we can't control ourselves....I was always playing against a marked deck.

I don't recommend it, and it's not our position here on this site to recommend it.
Detox can be dangerous - life threatening even.

If you're worried about the dangers of detox, please be responsible and see a Dr.

D

laurie6781

Nope, never worked for me and many others I know. 'Cold turkey' is the only way I know that may work, as long as it is NOT done alone as many things can happen during a detox and they are not good.

J M H O

Love and hugs,

Anna

No, and while I was trying to wean off, my drinking progressed.

Boleo

I tried it many times. I did get some short-term results with it. In the long run, I just ended up drinking more than ever afterwards. It was as if I were making up for lost time.

dbskid

I've tried it a bunch.....it definitely did NOT work for me.....1 is too many for me...and a 12 pack isn't enough.....

joebbb

Well I know what you mean. I don't know if I necessarily fit all the criteria for being an alcoholic. I do know that during a time of incredible stress I really over did it. First ever 3 day bender , first ever experiance with withdrawell symptoms. I freaked out and quit. I should have gone back to my regular level of drinking and eating, then tried. Instead I quit with my body not being in nutritional shape to do so. I ended up in the er. But I have to say its been 11 days and I feel really different. My sleep and my entire state of mind is better. I'm not waking up like i got jolted by electricity. Actually had trouble getting up this morning. The things I was using alcohol for were better without it.
The only advice I can give is to make sure that your in the best shape that you can be before you put your body threw the withdrawell process. I wish I saw a doctor before I quit not during.

Zebra1275

I am physically addicted to alcohol, but I do not yet consider myself an alcoholic.

I do get withdrawals and a desire to drink more, but they are relatively easy to manage.

Those are two pretty powerful statements you made. It really doesn't matter what you call yourself. You can call yourself an alcoholic, a problem drinker or whatever other adjective you want. What you consider yourself doesn't matter, you body has it's own opinion of what stage of alcoholism it's in.

Google the "stages of alcoholism". There are 4 stages of alcoholism, the symptoms you describe sound somewhere between stages 2 and 3. The good news is if you stop drinking you will stop the progression. The bad news is if you continue to drink the progressive nature of alcoholism will continue and you will end up at stage 4.

final

Zebra,

You are correct, I believe I am on the brink of Stage 3. I am coming off a large bender, 2 years of daily drinking, but a lot more than usual in the last month. My mind is not nearly as addicted as my body, which is why I intend to quit gradually. Joebbb seems to have been in the exact same situation I am in now.

EmeraldRose

Sounds to me like you know there's a problem but not quite ready to give it up yet. If you feel you want to try and moderate then try it. No ones recovery program is exactly the same. I think most of the 'symptoms' are the same but generally everyone feels differently due to different circumstances. There have been a few here as of lately that I remember were thinking about moderating. Seems they have fallen off the forum...hopefully, they return in due time.
I was never successful in moderation although I didn't try very hard either. I didn't quit until I had to. Not only do I consider myself an aolcoholic I know I am and was "classified" as such in rehab. When my life was unmanagable and I couldn't control my life or drinking I ran to rehab and AA. Hopefully, you don't get to that point and can quit while you're ahead.
Good luck and Welcome.

joebbb

Final,
Yea it does seem like a similar experiance. I never had to take a drink in the morning and wasn't a daily drinker untill a few months ago. In fact the first time I went threw withdrawell ,I thought I had a really bad hangover. Thanks to google I figured out what was going on . In hindsight my sleep problems and really deep depression was probably due to the alcohol. Luckily other than the nasty withdrawell I went threw .I haven't had any psysicall cravings for booze. I work at a bar too and I'm around it 6 nights a week. So far so good and I'm glad I quit. If I just chalked it up to a bad night I could have easily fell further down the hole. I've gone to a few AA meetings also. It really helps me put into perspective the danger that I put myself in.

Zebra1275

The physical withdrawal gets more difficult every year you get older. Obviously everyone ages and there is a subtle, gradual physical decline in all of us every year. For example, lung capacity decreases by 1% every year after age 20. Alcohol abuse speeds up the rate that our bodies decline.

instant

Final . You won't know how addicted your mind is until you try to stop.

I have tried everything, my efforts at weaning off, switching to beer, light beer etc don't work for me- the weekend always came around and I was rested, ready to go.

I have seriously tried moderation a few times- I am convinced that in the longer term abstinence is the best option now alcohol became a major focus of my life. Depending on my level of commitment periods of weaning, cutting back and moderation got very blurry.

All the best with whatever you decide.

LaFemme

Hi final and welcome to SR!

I never really tried weaning off alcohol...by the time I realized it was problematic I pretty much knew quitting cold Turkey was my only option...I'm an all or nothing type of gal. Thing is...it took me 5 years to succeed...ugh!

P.s. - unless you find it helpful I wouldn't worry too much about labeling yourself

leo21

Sounds to me like you've come to a fork in the road and haven't gripped the finality of your situation yet. I can relate because I had that struggle within myself, trying to figure out if I was 'this or that'. I did manage to wean myself some before total abstinence. I can't really say whether or not it helped or made things worse for me. I just simply stopped at some point when I came to grips with that 'finality' I mentioned before. I truly realized and embraced that when I drank my life became unmanageable.

saphira

I've tried to wean myself off many times and thought I was successful in the moment but I was just white knuckling it. I could never have kept that up, and didn't as I went right back to black-out drinking. I finally realized that I just can't put alcohol in my body anymore.
Everybody's journey is different... Even though I read about people on here who couldn't moderate, I still thought that as long as I kept it to the weekends I would be ok. I ended up just drinking more on the weekends and it caused even more problems. It wasn't until a week and a half ago that it really sunk in for me. I CAN'T DRINK ALCOHOL. There are no if ands or buts about it. Your situation could be different; that's not for me to say. I would encourage you to try to be as honest with yourself as you can be.
Good luck to you!!

newby1961

I to have tried to wean myself off in the past and at times felt like I had been pretty successful but you see it was a game I was playing. As long as I could stick to lets say 3 drinks in a night than I defiantly wasn't an alcoholic and how dare anyone say any different.

One of the nights I went out to only drink 3 I went into a blackout drove my car into a pole caused I missed my turn and got my ST DUI.

I believe most people who don't have a problem with alcohol don't spend their time trying so hard to prove it? They don't even ponder the idea.

To me alcohol is poison I am allergic to it, so it will never, ever, get better. Its like if I was allergic to beans, I wouldn't try to eat less beans I would quit eating them. There really is no difference.

There is a pamphlet in AA and it asks the questions to see if one is an alcoholic or not? I am not sure the name other than it might be, Am I an Alcoholic 20 question? Maybe someone on here can give you the link, or you could Google it?

I will end with this, in AA meetings I have heard that self knowledge is not enough to quit, or stay stopped, there is so much more a person has to do.

kbeen

Just a note about weening, and a warning.

I have weened twice successfully, with a plan that I only drink if I start to feel some sort of elevated symptom . (by successfully, I mean that I successfully managed the process without significant withdrawal, but obviously I didn't successfully stay sober for more than a year at a time)

Right now I am in the process of third weening. I keep track of what time it was in the day when I finished a certain amount, and push it a bit further the next day. It was going so well for the past four days, that today I started to push it further. I had quit drinking earlier last night, and went to bed early because I know that if I am sleeping I am not drinking, so I stayed in bed. Obviously waking up several times in the night, but I listened to "lucent dreaming" youtube videos and boring documentaries on youtube that keep me from thinking about other things. I pushed it way passed the previous "time without a drink".

This morning I woke up and actually was not feeling anything. I set an acceptable time for the first drink that would keep me on schedule to considerably reduce my daily intake for the fourth day in a row.

Just about the time I was scheduled to potentially have my first drink, my wife confronted me (she did not know that I had been drinking) and told me I looked like the last time I had a seizure (from trying to go cold turkey)

I excused my way out of it and by the time (within ten minutes) I could get to my "medicine" (drink) my hands were shaking so hard I was spilling it all over myself. I do have an anxiety medicine (I forget the english name) that is used to prevent seizures in rehab and epileptics, and also for anxiety issues, but I hear terrible things about taking it with alcohol, and I do not trust that the drug alone will be enough to prevent seizure at this stage, so I take it only in the later stage of weening, when I am comfortably on one or two drink / day.

I had my drink (or rather drinks, I was scared so I took two instead of one), and it was about five-ten minutes before the symptoms subsided) and I am still on schedule to drink less than yesterday (maybe halfway through the weening process) but given the progression of the shakes, if I had not had that drink at that exact time, I would probably be in the hospital an hour later after a seizure.

I have had seizures twice. Both times cold turkey. First time I went cold turkey I got through a few days of vomiting and the shakes and the sweats and felt really good, then BAM! the seizure.

The second time, within one day, my body skipped the vomiting and sweats and went right to the shakes and one hour later, BAM the seizure.

The next two times when I weened, I did it when I was alone, so I could feel free to just lay in bed, and not have to face anyone. It went smoothly. (one of them only took three days)

This time, I can not be alone and have to act normal all day, even though I am trying to push the limit on the shakes/daily intake.

I guess what I want to say is, be careful how you push the limits. Make a plan and stick to it. In my case the shakes progressed so quickly and would have been followed by seizure.

While it goes contradictory to some advice, which says that if the drink is there you will drink it, I always keep extra on hand for the reason mentioned above. I also keep a bottle with me when I go someplace because I would hate to be stuck someplace without access when the symptoms strike. Of course, you have to remember that it is medicine, in this case, and not for fun.

Dee74

Hi Kbeen

Experiences like yours are why I always recommend people seek professional medical advice.

It's the safest option when it comes to withdrawing from alcohol.

D