Eleni58

I am 55 years old, and have been drinking daily for 13 years. I go between 18-21 hours from my last drink to my first drink. In other words, if I start drinking at 5 pm, I am done drinking by 8 or 9 p.m. and don't start drinking again until 5 pm the next day. I drink about five 12-16 ounces of glass of wine per 24 hour period. I have NEVER drank in the morning, nor have I ever thrown up from drinking or wake up with severe shaking. I want to quit drinking because it is affecting my health and making me a prisoner. I can't do anything at night time if there is not alcohol involved (i.e. go to a movie, etc).

My question to the forum is this: will I need to detox in a medical facility? I have not tried quitting on my own for fear of severe withdrawal symptoms. I have called dozens of facilities and they cannot answer my question. I don't have health insurance and I am unemployed. I have been told the cost to detox in a medical facility can run up to $1,500 per day.

Nonsensical

Welcome to SR. Congrats on your decision to quit.

I don't think it would be responsible of me to offer medical advice. I'm not qualified, and I don't know anything about your physical condition. You should see a doctor. I know that's tough with no insurance, but it's the safest thing to do.

Best of Luck!

DrunkenBob

Hi Eleni - good for you wanting to kick this nasty habit. A week ago I was in a similar position as you. For me it was 10+ years 8-10+ drinks per night. Nothing in the day time. I was worried about needing to detox.

I took two days and drastically cut down - two drinks each night. Not good nights at all - lots of sweating, not much sleep - but no signs of shakes etc. After that I felt pretty comfortable just going cold turkey. On night 4 of total sobriety now.

Besides terrible insomnia and really long tired days - I have had no signs of DTs etc.

That being said - it's always best to seek the advice of a physician but just wanted to give you my experience. I'm stubborn and didn't want to wait for an appointment.

I hope you stick around. SR has been a great place for support.

doggonecarl

If you should or should not medically detox is medical advice that we can't give. Against forum rules. If you can't afford in-house, can you see your family doctor and tell him or her your desire to quit. At least you can quit with medical supervision.

Oh yeah, and welcome to SR. I was a daily drinker for over 35 years and got sober at age 54. Will be three years in September.

Dee74

Hi Eleni

we can't offer medical advice here - quite apart from the reason Nons offered, it's against our rules I'm afraid

Some people report they do ok - others like me have life threatening complications - there's simply no way to tell

I always recommend people at least see a Dr though - it covers all bases, and is the safest option


There are a lot of free or low cost clinics around - if there's one in your local area you might get some medical advice there?

Free/Low-Cost/Sliding-Scale Clinics
2-1-1 Call Center Search

D

suki44883

I suggest you see your doctor and tell him what you have told us. Not everyone needs in-patient medical detox, but at the very least, you should visit with your doctor and be honest with him about your drinking history and what you want to do. There are meds they can give you to help you along.

I'm glad you are considering giving up alcohol. I made the decision a bit over five years ago and I have never once regretted it. I did go to a medical detox facility for six days, but then, I had insurance that paid for most of it.

Welcome to SR! You will find a lot of people here who understand what you are going through and the questions you might have. Hope you'll stick around and read the posts of others who have been where you are. We do recover.

hope22

Welcome to SR! I was a daily, after work wine drinker myself. I never thought I would be able to quit. But I did, you can too!

Eleni58

Thanks everyone for the quick responses! As a matter of fact, I was just in the hospital last week because I thought I was having a heart attack. (Fortunately, it was heartburn). My doctor has been telling me for the last several years that I need to quit drinking, however, my most recent visit--the doctor could not tell me whether I needed detox or not. I was thinking maybe I could try tapering like drunken Bob posted and see how it goes. For the last few days, I have tried drinking at a later time than usual and it works if I eat something at the normal time I drink instead of just diving into drinking. Tonight I am going to try to drink 3 drinks instead of the normal 5 and try to eat and see what happens. If worse comes to worse, I guess I can always call a friend and go to the hospital. But like I said the cost to detox in a hospital is more than I can afford. Then again, I can't afford to continue drinking either.

least

I hope you can see your doctor for help in getting safely thru the w/d. Best to be safe as it can be dangerous.

Dee74

No offense to Bob but I think he was lucky....I think he'd admit that too

tapering never worked for me - how do you control the intake of something you've proven you can't control the intake of?

The other thing to consider is, unless someone knows what they're doing, tapering may be really no safer than cold turkey.

D

Eleni58

Wow! Thanks for inspiration! You sound exactly like the kind of drinker I am. I am going to try to taper and see what happens although I heard that tapering doesn't always work because even though I might taper down one night, I might relapse and increase the next night.

Lightning Bug

Maybe there are low-cost or subsidized detox programs in your community?

Eleni58

I am now on day 3 of tapering. On Monday night I had 4 drinks and was up all night. No shakes or sweating. Last night I had 2.75 drinks and slept through the night with the aid of a sleeping pill and no shakes or sweating. Tonight my goal is 2 drinks. I am tapering faster than I thought I would as I was going to do 4 drinks a night for a week, then cut to 3 drinks a night for a week and so on and so forth. I am hoping to be tapered to one drink by the weekend and then completely done by next week. It's taking a lot of self discipline and prayers and eating foods that aid in alcohol withdrawal, but I think I can do this without having to be admitted for medical detox.

pinkgate

I'm glad to hear you made the decision to stop. Watch out for the weekend. Plan for what you are going to do besides drinking.

From what I've read here withdrawal is unpredictable in terms of time and symptoms. Just be prepared in case it gets harder and seek medical attention if anything worrisome starts to happen.