hindemith

Hi, I'm new here, and I'm in the process of getting sober. I've read here that tapering tends not to work, but I am trying it as a first recourse for two reasons. First, I have an appointment with my doctor next week, and it was last night that I decided to take a break from Drinking. I've done that before, no withdrawal, but last night I could not sleep and was sweating profusely. Today, the same thing. And I thought about it and realized similar things have happened on days when I started Drinking later recently. So I'm trying to be honest with myself and admit it's probably withdrawal and I'm probably addicted. I haven't been Drinking heavily for that long. As recently as December I wasn't Drinking at all, but it has gradually increased, and once my vacation started 2 weeks ago, I found myself putting down about a fifth of rumor whiskey a day in some cases.

So yeah, I think I have a problem. But since I can't get in to my doctor for a week, and I don't want to risk the really dangerous stuff I've seen mentioned as possible side effects, I'm thinking, for the next week, switch back to beer, have 14 today, 12 tomorrow, etc., and be down to 0 the day before my doctor appointment. I believe I have enough willpower to do that, but if I do fail to get to 0, I still have the appointment and can talk about other options.

So I'm curious as to your thoughts. But that also brings up another concern. When it comes to records, how accessible is this? As a teacher, I don't want to do anything that could jeopardize my career. I'm tenured, sure, but that doesn't mean I'll never want to move to a different employer. How much of an impact could talking to my doctor have on employment prospects, and is there a way to minimize it?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

ScottFromWI

First off, welcome to SR and happy to hear you are trying to make a change for the better with your drinking habits. Detox can definitely be dangerous if unsupervised so it's a good thing you are going to see your doc. Make sure to be 100% upfront about your drinking and that you want to quit, they have seen it all and won't be surprised in the least bit.

Regarding your legal question, medical records are considered private in the US, and unless you signed some kind of binding agreement with your employer they ( and anyone else ) would need a court order to view them.

WhiteFeathers

I'm in the U.S., not sure where you are.

I don't think employers can access medical records. But insurance companies sure can. There are some people who don't want alcoholism on their medical records for various reasons like: not being able to get pain meds if you really need them, not being able to sign up for private insurance--I'm sure there are other reasons.

As for your other question about tapering. I'm not qualified to give medical advice, obviously, but I can tell you what I did.

I did end up tapering but not with the idea that I would eventually quit. My drinking was out of hand. So I started incorporating more healthy things into my life. I didn't stop drinking, but I started inching it out. At the end, I usually started drinking at about 9 am (beer or wine) and drank until I passed out at 10 pm or so. No bueno.

I joined a gym (was having withdrawals real bad!) and just sat on the exercise bike without really exercising, just kind of pedaling along while riding out my chest pains. Then I'd sit in the steam room. Then I'd get a veggie juice. And THEN I'd drink at 5pm.

After a while my anxiety started lifting a bit and I started feeling better. I started taking my dog for long walks.

And then I decided to totally quit. That's just what I did.

hindemith

Thanks for the info. I realized that I have been experiencing these ill effects for at least a couple of weeks. Had an appointment at a different doctor 2 weeks ago, and my blood pressure was through the roof, and I was sweating. Today, same thing, and it's interesting, I was sweating, and I checked my blood pressure --165 over 105. A few minutes after having the beer, after I stopped sweating, it was down to 135 over 94. Still not great, but a heck of a lot better. So yeah, with my already-borderline blood pressure, and the fact that, even on vacation, I'm still working 2 days a week part time (including this afternoon/evening), as much as I hate to admit defeat, I don't think cold turkey was a good idea. I've written out my plan for how many beers to have which days, and that should help. I'll post progress here too, if that's alright with you all, as it will give me some accountability. The goal is, by my doctor appointment next Tuesday, to be to zero, and just talk with him about recommended ways to stay at 0.

GracieLou

I posted this information in another thread so I am going to copy and paste it here. This is for the US.


The HIPAA law prevents anyone other than you from accessing your medical records. This includes all relatives including a spouse and any and all employers.

The only way someone can get his information is if you allow it which in most cases requires a written release.

Children and spouses may have regular access to this information if a power of attorney was set up at some point because the person receiving the medical care is unable to manage their own medical care such as with the elderly or a child, that is no longer a minor, with a physical or mental handicap. A nurse or caretaker can also have access to this information as they are considered a medical professional.

Mulitple medical professionals (nurses/doctors) can access your information in a hospital or a treatment center since they are all involved in your medical care.

Most doctors outside a hospital/clinic/treatment center do not transfer information. i.e if you see doctor A and then go to doctor B, doctor A does not send over your medical information to doctor B. The information can be requested but again something needs signed stating you allow the transfer of medical records.

At this point, unlike years ago, if someone goes to the hospital either willingly or in the case of an emergency the release of information that you are even in that hospital is not allowed by the HIPAA law.

So if someone goes to detox then there are medical records created. The only people that have access to this information other than you are the insurance company (they cannot release this information), the doctors or nurses (they cannot release this information), a pharmacy if medication is used (they cannot release this information). The doctor, nurse, pharmacy and insurance can talk to each other about your case but not to outside entities that are not involved in your medical care.

So even if you are in detox and your mother, father, sister, aunt, Joe Blow calls and asks if you are there, they are not allowed to confirm that unless you have signed a waiver that allows them to share that information and to whom you allow it to be shared with.

Dib42

Tapering is very difficult. Ultimately it goes from 10 to 8 to 6 to 10 to 15 . . . oops...

I have tapered and gone cold turkey, its really pretty much the same either way, you're going to feel like dookey for a few days no matter what.

If you're in the US, HIPA won't allow your employers access to your medical records, and if you're an alcoholic, you're disabled, and you have a bit of protection from the American's with Disabilities act.

Ultimately the most important thing is that you get better, its better to have an alcohol abuse problem on your medical record and to be sober, than to go through a short life drinking yourself to death.

hindemith

Thanks for all the legal privacy replies. That puts my mind at ease. I'll be able to approach it with my doctor much more bluntly.

In the meantime, I'm really hoping the tapering works, but I'm prepared for either outcome. I've stopped drinking for weeks, months, etc., in the past (as recently as last November when I had a recovering alcoholic renting a room in my house for a couple of months), and never had a problem. This is the first time I've felt any withdrawal symptoms, probably because, for the last two months (especially the last two weeks) I have been drinking a lot more than I had before. So I'm hopeful, as willpower has never been an issue in the past. In fact, when I opened that beer earlier today, I hated myself for it, but reading the stories of what can happen with cold turkey quitting, scared me into having another beer or several today. But there were two left in the house, so I hope it will be helpful if I only buy what I'm going to drink each day, as much as possible. 2 6 packs today, 2 tomorrow, to 4-packs of 16 oz cans Wednesday (equivalent to 10 beers, or at least close), a 6-pack plus a 24 ounce bottle Thursday, etc. I NEVER drive drunk, so if that's all I buy, that should help it to be all I drink.

I tell you, though, coming to the realization that I'm physically addicted has me kind of freaked out. As recently as December, I had some blood work done, and sugar, liver, etc., everything came back good, but borderline blood pressure. Here's hoping I didn't do TOO much damage in the last 6 months.


Forgive me if I keep posting here ..... it's giving me something to do to stay occupied until I leave for work, and get my mind off the sweating.

ScottFromWI

You are definitely not alone on that one Hindemith. But in reality it's a good thing that you realize it - and are taking active measures to quit. Listen to what your doc has to say, and please do seek immediate care if you think you need it prior to your appointment. By all means keep posting here, I stayed literally glued to SR for my first few weeks

Anna

Welcome Hindemith,

You will find lots of support here.

hindemith

Wow, now I'm really torn. I read several articles on tapering, and came up with a plan, as the horror stories about cold turkey quitting really concern me, and I don't want to go to the i.e. now, or wait a week for my doctor appointment, so I'm really determined to do whatever I can until I get into the doc.

That said, my plan involved lots of vitamin c, vitamin b, Gatorade, and a daily-shrinking amount of beer.

I do some private teaching/tutoring on Mondays, so I left early for that, stopped and picked up some cheap beer, 8 big bottles of Gatorade, and some b and c supplements. Got to where I teach, downed a bottle of Gatorade, too one of each of the vitamin pills, and, still sweating like a dog, went to start teaching. By the time I was on my second student of 5, I felt better. By the time I was done, I was completely better. No sweating, no rapid heart rate, nothing. I actually feel great, and I had two beers earlier today but nothing else (and I should point out, after the beers, I felt better, but then it got worse, and them better again without me Drinking any more.)

Now that I'm at home again, I'm starting to sweat. My plan was to taper over the next week until can get to the doctor. But I'd rather quit altogether. Point is, I'm starting to wonder whether the symptoms I had were not from alcohol at all, but from something to do with my house.

And here's where it matters. If it's not withdrawal, I don't want to even open the beer I bought tonight. But if it is, I don't want to start the whole miserable cold turkey process again either. Any thoughts? Do withdrawal symptoms just come and go? Is it possible the vitamins and Gatorade contributed to my feeling better? Or am I correct to think this was maybe not really withdrawal, but just getting sick at coincidental times?

Tyme2Change

Withdrawal symptoms can come & go, can be mild, moderate or intense. The sweating might be an indication of anxiety which often happens after quitting drinking and B vitamins can also cause the same thing. I had a major anxiety attack a few years ago after I had been drinking heavily for only a few months - thought I was having a heart attack.

I also did the same thing. I didn't want to quit cold turkey because of all of the "horror" stories about what can happen such as seizures, DT's, etc. So, I just kept drinking. It took medical intervention for me. Only on day 8 here, but the withdrawal symptoms are mild and I don't have that major anxiety about what MIGHT happen.

If you want to quit altogether, seek medical help. If you feel that tapering is something you can accomplish, then stick with it.

Either way, we are here to listen and support you. *hugs*

fantail

I'm pretty sure the vitamins and gatorade... and just time... are what made you feel better. Withdrawal, particularly if it's mild, isn't really all that different from a hangover... it can come and go, get worse and better.

Everyone's body is different and withdrawal can be very varied. But in my mind it would be almost an impossible coincidence that you happened to get some kind of weird on-and-off sickness just the same week you happened to be messing around with your booze intake, right?

hindemith

Yes, thank you. That's kind of how I was thinking. Like I said, I THINK I can do the tapering, because in the past I've quit for extended periods. I don't seem to have a psychological addiction. For me, it's just physical, because of mass amounts of stupidity over the last couple of months.

I had thought about the anxiety idea, especially since the sweating started last night only about 2 hours after my last drink. It's still a possibility that this was all anxiety-induced. I have gone through similar things before with anxiety.

But I'm thinking, as much as I hate to do it, that my best bet is probably to just control and taper over the next week, and talk to the doc next Tuesday at my appointment. If I'm down to 0 and no withdrawal then, I'll tell him that, but I'll mention it regardless to make sure I'm not missing anything. Every symptom I've had, I can think of an alternate explanation (difficulty sleeping --- I've been staying up late recently anyway, plus anxiety; sweating -- anxiety; blood pressure up --- haven't been getting much exercise these past few months). But as fantail said, it's quite a coincidence to see them all at the same time. I just try to be careful because I'm the type of person that, when I see a small symptom, assume something big. Can't tell you how many times I've feared skin cancer over something that was totally non-cancerous. Getting to the doc is the best solution regardless, and only 1 week to go.

Thanks again for all your supportive words. I guess I'm off to taper --- that's weird, I'm having a beer and totally not looking forward to it. But I guess, even on the off chance that other things are to blame here, tapering off isn't that terrible a thing to try.

Nighthawk8820

Yup, that is withdrawal. Pleasant, isnt it? It will only get worse with time too, if you continue to drink. You can change all of this though and free yourself from the prison that is alcoholism. Its worth it.

hindemith

Yes, very not-pleasant, but pretty mild compared to what some people experience. I'm told that a lot of it can be staved off by tapering, which is why I plan to do so. I survived today, and instead of having 14 beers, only had 6. I just couldn't bring myself to drink so much when I really didn't want to drink. I'm starting to sweat a bit now, so if that gets too bad, I may have one more to stave it off so I can sleep, but I'm going to try to get to sleep without it.

I've read a site that says starting at the level of alcohol you were at and dropping 2 beers a day is a good way to do it. I read another that says cutting total daily consumption in half, but staying at that level for a few days, is better (i.e. 8 for 3 days, 4 for 3 days, 2 for 3 days, etc.). Given how this much smaller amount has been for me today, it seems that may be a feasible way, which would result in far less consumed overall, as compared to my original plan.

Anyone here have any thoughts on that?

Thanks in advance.