Has anyone gone Cold turkey?
Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Oregon
Posts: 1,536
I would like to add that feeding my body extremely healthy stuff helped me thru withdrawal. You can google recipes that help with anxiety and sleep. Make healthy smoothies or juices. I still do that and love feeding my body what it needs to be healthy.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Middle of Nowhere, Canada
Posts: 144
Jacqui, this post is partly for you, and also partly for anyone else considering cold turkey:
There are a lot of factors that come into play regarding who will have severe withdrawals. How much you drink, for how long, if you binge vs buzz all the time, gender, physiology, etc. One of the most important factor is "kindling", which is a cumulative negative effect from previous attempts to quit. Someone posted an excellent post on kindling recently.
It's always safest to visit your doctor or a detox center to have a medical professional assess your risk and prescribe meds to help you through or recommend inpatient detox.
At the very very least, make sure that someone you know well and trust knows you're quitting. If they can come stay with you a few days that's ideal, but at the very least, check in with them every few hours.
After 4 days, you are likely past the immediate danger and crisis stage, but there is no fast and hard timeline.
Make sure you are hydrating properly, eating a good diet, and resting as much as practically possible. Lay on the couch all day if you feel the need to. Drink enough water that your urine is mostly clear. Eat highly nutritious, easy to digest foods. Take vitamin supplements to replace what you've lost through years. Alcohol drains the B series terribly. Some herbal supplements have shown that they may assist in healing.
Most importantly, remember how you feel right now to remind yourself why returning to drinking just isn't worth it.
There are a lot of factors that come into play regarding who will have severe withdrawals. How much you drink, for how long, if you binge vs buzz all the time, gender, physiology, etc. One of the most important factor is "kindling", which is a cumulative negative effect from previous attempts to quit. Someone posted an excellent post on kindling recently.
It's always safest to visit your doctor or a detox center to have a medical professional assess your risk and prescribe meds to help you through or recommend inpatient detox.
At the very very least, make sure that someone you know well and trust knows you're quitting. If they can come stay with you a few days that's ideal, but at the very least, check in with them every few hours.
After 4 days, you are likely past the immediate danger and crisis stage, but there is no fast and hard timeline.
Make sure you are hydrating properly, eating a good diet, and resting as much as practically possible. Lay on the couch all day if you feel the need to. Drink enough water that your urine is mostly clear. Eat highly nutritious, easy to digest foods. Take vitamin supplements to replace what you've lost through years. Alcohol drains the B series terribly. Some herbal supplements have shown that they may assist in healing.
Most importantly, remember how you feel right now to remind yourself why returning to drinking just isn't worth it.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: in the city by the bay
Posts: 605
If you are 4 days and haven't gotten withdrawal, not sure if you will at this point. I went cold turkey. I drank about 1 bottle of wine a day for a year and for the 3.5 years before that, much more but I wasn't keeping track. Then some days I would go over the one bottle rule but I have quite a dependency, it was very hard to not drink every day. I had night sweats for the first 3 nights and elevated heart rate and blood pressure the 3rd day which sent me to the ER to be checked.
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