Chakaido

Thanks everyone! It's day one and I'm on track tonight-- 3 drinks so far and have had dinner. Four is the goal tonight. I don't have anything else in the place so feeling confident about it :-).

I went for a run this morning which was great as well. A healthier direction already. Key for me is to keep focused on taking care.

The purpose of tapering is to reduce dependency so I can get my head clear and stronger. And while getting help it'll have more impact vs. continuing to daily drink. My goal is not to daily drink...one day at a time :-)

I trust God will keep me well and her blessings are always there.

Chakaido

Seizures aren't about how much you drink? So there is no correlation? That doesn't make alot of sense. But if that's the case, I'll just taper off alot slower. I know its doable as I've had people PMing me saying it is and read many stories online.

Let's keep the gift of miracles alive...with God, support and focus heh?

BillyPilgrim

If you are going to taper, make sure you have weaker drinks as well (ie beers instead of wines etc)
Perhaps replace the 4th drink with a soft drink
Have an end date too for total giving up
You will feel much better once you have cleared the alcohol from your system. I was lucky enough to be able to stop, and just do the cold turkey. It was hard, and apart from the chocolate crave, I had no side effects.
Just be aware of the danger, and if you are worried about how you are feeling see a doctor

Chakaido

Thanks Billy --
Yes, end date good idea. I'm drinking 5% beer/cider right now so fairly low. I could switch to lite beer instead (so 3 and 1 lite beer). I do plan to switch all to beer though as it is less sweet than cider and more filling I find.

But I'm a bit confused as some sites say 1/day less at the level I am should be ok. But then someone here says getting seizures can happen at any level! So because of that advice I will stretch out the quitting plan. I hope people realise cold turkey isn't an option as I'm not in a detox facility so this just makes sense.

So instead of 1 less/day, I'll do one less/2 days. So Mon-Tues (4), Wed-Thurs (3), Fri-Sat (2), Sun-Mon (1), and that takes me to Tuesday next week as my end date. We'll see how it goes in terms of withdrawal symptoms. I may stay at 1 for 3 days and then down to a 1/2 even. So much of it is psychological for me. I need to switch out my drink after work from alcohol to something else as well.

Dee74

For any newcomers who may be reading this, and for you Chakaido...this is the other side to tapering:

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ry-so-far.html

If you're that worried about seizures that you're extending your taper to over a week, it makes much more sense to me to simply see a Dr.

D

Chakaido

I am happy to see a Dr. to let them know what I'm doing. The link you provide is an extreme example (100proof is not the same as drinking 4 drinks at 5%). Also I don't go on "benders".

I have no problem saying I'm an alcoholic because I know it's a problem for me because how it impacts my motivation, and is a depressant. The amount I drink in other cultures, is probably even "normal"! But it's not fine for me. Not the daily drinking. That is what I want to change the most.

I believe my drinking is a choice, and could have stopped at any point but I didn't for many reasons. And now the reasons to shift this lifestyle are greater than keeping it as is. This isn't going to all resolve itself in a week and feel I will get more support when I return home.

And of course everyone's experience is different!

Day 2 and all is well!