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Am I improving or not yet ?

Old 12-23-2010, 01:18 AM
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Am I improving or not yet ?

Dear All,

I started drinking alocohole around 7 yeras ago, gradually increasing from 3 small pegs to half a bottle of Whisky. Last 2 months I have started multivitamines,Amio Acids, Milk Thsitle and Mineral supplement. I still need to drink a close to bottle of wine ( Leaving 100 ml ) and I feel much better in the morning compare to when I was drinking half a bottle of whisky. I did not remeber much details before passing out with Whisky but now I remeber everything till going to bed with Wine. Is it improvement ? How can I make it better . I find it very hard to sleep if I do not take at least 3 glass of wine.
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Old 12-23-2010, 01:55 AM
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Hi bingen

I think if you're really using alcohol to sleep there are better and more effective ways to get sleep help - see your doctor for example.

A bottle of wine a night would be doing you some level of harm- alcohol is alcohol - it makes no difference if it's wine beer or whisky.

from
CDC - Frequently Asked Questions - Alcohol
Is beer or wine safer to drink than liquor?
No. One 12-ounce beer has about the same amount of alcohol as one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5-ounce shot of liquor. It is the amount of alcohol consumed that affects a person most, not the type of alcoholic drink.

If you want support to quit altogether, you've come to the right place

Welcome
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Old 12-23-2010, 06:05 AM
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Hi Bingen and welcome!

Well, you've lowered your consumption which is good but how long will it last? There is always the exception that proves the rule but the reality is that most of us cannot turn back the clock and moderate.

I hear you on the sleep thing...I can't recall ever hearing of someone going through withdrawal without sleep issues....which is what is happening every night when you need 3 glasses of wine to sleep. I used to tell myself I needed the wine to sleep too. When I finally quit I had sleep problems for about a week....now I sleep very well indeed and don't have the nightmares that plagued me when I drank. Plus real sleep is 100 times better than passing out from a wine induced stupor.

Take some time...read what's on this forum and keep an open mind. I used to think life without wine would be a death sentence...I now realized that when I drank I was dead inside and with sobriety life is, well, full of life again
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Old 12-23-2010, 06:45 AM
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Hi and Welcome,

Cutting back can be helpful, but I think it would be impossible to maintain that level, if you are an alcoholic.

As others have said, the sleeping problems are very common when withdrawing from alcohol.
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Old 12-23-2010, 06:47 AM
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please read this link for tips on sleeping

Insomnia? 42 Simple Tips to Help You Get to Sleep - Insomnia treatment, cures

hope you will consider quitting drinking soonn
It does a lot of harm.
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Old 12-26-2010, 10:26 PM
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Thank you all for your support and help. Yesterday night, I did sleep well with only 2 glass of wine . I will keep trying to stop completely and keep sahring my progress with all of you.

A specials thank to Carol for the link on tips for Insomnia . I will try these tips.

Bingen
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Old 12-27-2010, 02:41 AM
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I used to think I couldn't sleep without wine. I quit drinking a year ago and my sleep has never been better. It took a few months to get back to a normal sleeping schedule but now I sleep like a baby without anything at all (except the dogs' company on my bed).
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Old 12-27-2010, 03:21 AM
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Hello Bingen,
Welcome, and glad that you are here! It takes some courage to acknowledge that alcohol has become a problem and to join a forum.

I think lowering your consumption is a start, especially if you want to quit completely at some point.

I also think if you have been drinking alcoholically for a while, cutting back will probably not work on the long run. Like many said, disturbed sleep patterns is a common symptom, and if you quit drinking it will take some time to go back to normal.

Nobody will force you to do anything, or expect you to do this in a certain way. But there are also some other options in real life you can think about and that can help you to quit completely whe you are ready:

Have you considered seeing your dr. and tell him about your problem? He can help you to find a way to stop completely and give you medication that help with withdrawal. Or can you maybe imagine meeting an alchol counseller?

As laFemme said, take some time...read some posts and keep an open mind.

Good luck to you, and a good and happy life is possible without alcohol
LS
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Old 12-27-2010, 08:53 AM
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Bingen, it sounds like what is improving is that you don't feel as rotten as before, and what is helping with that is a healthy enough attitude to include these vitamins and to try to make changes.

But that reminds me of when I would manage to drink 4 beers instead of 8 and would accomplish a lot of things in a week instead of just living life like I might as well get in a coffin when I get home. Along the same lines: when 4 beers would be a sufficient buzz; when I managed to get full from food and get the buzz and they were timed nicely...etc.

Those would always bound back up to 8 beers and living a pretty incomplete life (go home from work and might as well get into a coffin and come out after the self-induced mini-coma). And that progressed over the years to the point where I rarely ate when I got home.

I don't know what it's like for you, but if you're like me, then the switcheroonie to wine from whiskey isn't going to last long as an improvement. My version of that effort to drink differently was to try to drink only on weekends or to only drink with others, only when going out; those all became every day anyway, with others and by myself anyway, and both outside and inside the house anyway. One time I thought I could change by having wine, since that is something that is supposed to go with food (I could be normal and still get a buzz). That didn't last either. It all reverted back to having beer every day at home, no matter how well I was doing at work, on the outside of the coffin. Alcohol from the beer was the great regulator of my life. The problem falling asleep was rarely there, it made me more driven, it made me less likely to worry, and I could always count on it to keep my digestive mechanisms in operation (ahem).

But other people didn't need to do it to feel normal, and I was in the middle of a sea of bottles I couldn't keep on top of. I decided I wanted the absence of alcohol to be normal. I also wanted to move on in my career and remembered reading in an old book that if you drink about 5 beers every day for 10 years, you approach the end stage. I had already done that, and figured I was probably lucky to be alive by a few years. Then I stopped and several of the things that the great regulator of my life controlled, like difficulty falling asleep, like poor self-confidence, like being "too sensitive," returned to taunt me. "Ah, THAT's why I drank," crystallized for me and I still have lightbulb moments like that. It was for the buzz but always for so much more.

And if you're like me, then there's more to do besides switching what to drink and how much and when and what nutritional aids to use; you would need to stop altogether and face the things underneath and get into the world of having a choice not to drink. A lot of what is unpleasant will still be there, but you would be out of the drinking mode and in a position to look at what you can change for the better. It doesn't start without quitting drinking for a day and then repeating it until it's a habit though.
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Old 12-27-2010, 09:09 AM
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I believe in my case using alcohol to help me sleep just set me into a horrible circle. I have always had some problems with getting to sleep. However, once I started using alcohol in high doses daily it did often get me to sleep, but it also made it completely impossible for me to fall asleep without it. I went from having occasional sleep problems to constant sleep problems unless I was putting down close to $200 a month for a drug with long-term health consequences.

Stepping down might work, but I think it depends on what is causing your sleep problems in the first place. For me, I had insomnia since I was a young teenager so quitting alcohol helped but wasn't a perfect solution.
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Old 12-29-2010, 11:38 PM
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Dear Al,

Tried without wine yesterday night. Had very inturrputed sleep , waking after 2 hours and raminng awake for another 2 hours. Had to go to work but eyes are burning like hell .Any suggestion or help will be appriciated.
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