Wean off or cold turkey?
 

Hello all. Alot of you have been helping me already, but I have a health question. Just looking for feedback from others who have drank like me consistently. No medical advice as I plan to see a Dr. if I keep failing at recovery. Just some insight as to how you stopped your drinking.

I have drank 2-6 beers and .375 to .750 of rum daily for 6 years. 24 and 48 hours of sobriety every once in awhile, but mostly daily drinking. Within 24 hours sober I feel terrible. All the standard withdrawal symptoms. I wonder if there is a way to wean off? It just feels like a trap because that means keeping rum in the house. I always say just 4 shots to catch a buzz. Well we all know how that goes.

Is there any way to wean off? Or must I just go cold turkey? I just want to hear how you all did it without rehab. Rehab is unfortunately out of the question as I have a child and child support dues and single man living alone bills and cannot afford to lose my job or take time off as I work solo for small business. I function well enough through the day without alcohol, but it is on my mind all day at work.

Has weaning off worked at all for you? Like 6 shots today, 4 shots tomorrow, 2 shots the next? Just writing this out almost answers my question. It seems silly. It seems like it won't work, but I need to ease the withdrawal. Insight?:gaah

I don't know anyone that it's worked for (weaning off).

The closest I hear is a pseudo-wean:
I quit...relapse --
I QUIT.........relapse --
I QUIT FOR SURE.....................relapse --
OK, I'm SERIOUS THIS TIME......................................relapse

Sooner or later.......it's cold turkey so man up and quit (if you can - a lot of us find we simply can't even once we FIRMLY decide to. Check out AA if you find yourself in that group).

best of luck!

hey, I'm on day one, and I favor weaning off!!!!! Totally!

EXCEPT- I will end up drunk, FOR SURE, just like very other time, then tinight I will wake up out of my blackout, and the tape will run..... wtf did I do, is she next to me, car out there, oh my gawd I'm thirsty, drink a half gallon of water, say it was just a last hoorah, and decide tomorrow will be my first day. run thru a few prayers, fall back to sleep, and make a committment in the shower the following morning to not drink that day, and then at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, like right now, say to myself, let's taper off. One beer and a whiskey won't kill me. Especially after the way I've been drinking. and besides, I don't want to risk a seizure from a rapid detox!
Then, wake up at 2:30 am, coming out of a blackout........you get the picture..........

NOT ME! Not today! I am just coming off of 4 years of that.

and I hope not you either.

FF

Cold turkey.

Go to AA meetings .. they will be good for you.

All the best.

Bob R

:)

I've heard of guidelines for weening off but also know that you have to be VERY strong and able to regulate yourself. Sure, it sounds easy enough when you're sober but after those first few drinks or shots, forget it. Suddenly your mind is telling you that you NEED one more, that what you already drank isn't enough to keep withdrawals away. Then bang, you're right where you started.

i weened off for 20 years.
cold turkey worked better for me.

Weaning off never worked for me.

It was asking me to control my intake of alcohol - which is kinda the problem I had in the first place.

cold turkey? let me be clear on this...cos we've had a few threads on this recently....

Stopping cold turkey is dangerous.

OK, you may be fine - but you may also have things like seizures or strokes (like I did) - some people even die.

I'm not trying to scare you - but noone here is a doctor and noone here can tell you what might happen to you.

The very best thing to do, George, is to get yourself some medical supervision - at the very least, go see a Dr, preferably one with some idea of alcoholism and addiction.

D

If I could have controlled my alcohol intake I wouldn't have needed to get sober. I quit under the guidance of my doc.

Cold turkey
Only works for me, if I could wean off alcohol gradually then perhaps I would not have a problem with alcohol. impossible
Cold turkey with both cigarettes and sugar.

I wasn't aware that going cold turkey could be dangerous until I joined this site and after reading a few horror stories I would add caution to the mix.

Good luck with this.
CaiHong

I'm one of them that did DIE. Yep the TOD was put on my ER medical chart, and my heart started on it's own. I was given a second chance. Others have not been given that 'second chance.'

Stopping COLD TURKEY can be DEADLY.

So please discuss this first with your Dr or a preferably with a Dr that is knowledgeable about alcoholism.

BTW in all my years of 'working with others' in recovery, I have NEVER known or heard of anyone that has successfully stopped by 'weaning.'

J M H O

We are here for you.

Love and hugs,

Yikes! Peeps have had death experiences and all. I feel sorta bad about putting all that into cold turkey.
It was only my first day though! Now I am on Day two so much smarter - hahhaha

see your doctor or soemthing, don;t listen to me :)

FF