Still drinking wine but I am slowly getting there
 

Hi all,

Addicted for years, I finally asked for help for the first time. I've met with a psychiatrist yesterday. She wants me to taper down gradually in order to deal with the withdrawals symptoms. She gave a med to sleep and will add meds for anxiety next week.

With all you experiences, is this a good idea?

I tried tapering many times without success. Tapering is trying to control something you can't control. If they're giving you meds for anxiety, why can't you just stop drinking and not bother trying to taper?

Thanks, I will start the med for anxiety next week only. She wants to see how I react to the first med, helping me to sleep.

Tapering option sucked for me. I started to use the meds given to me to take care of withdrawal symptoms. So I got to keep drinking, and also get some relief when the hangovers were uncomfortable. Same as you, I was prescribed a sleeping pill and some drugs to help with withdrawal symptoms, like anxiety. Personally I think tapering is tiptoeing around the issue and often is unsuccessful.
If it works for you that would be great though!

Well, I tapered before quitting.

I think give it one try - if you can't adhere to the prescribed schedule (I presume your doctor gave you a timeline and daily drink schedule?) then call the doctor immediately and tell her.

It's not good to combine drugs and alcohol, especially the kind they give you to help with withdrawal symptoms. Please be careful.

When tapering you eventuality have to quit. That is the key. If you find yourself going back to the old ways you have to do something else.

No ! This is not a good idea. It is obvious to me and probably everyone else responding to the post that your psych. knows little to nothing about dealing with and treating addiction.

He/she should have refered you to a Medical Doctor first off. Please be very, very careful about mixing sleeping pills with alcohol. It can be very dangerous !

I tried to "taper down gradually" for 3 years! It didnt work. Never has. Anytime I tried to taper, I wound up drinking MORE than my norm ! Everytime!

I know why it never worked too. I never REALLY wanted to stop drinking !

Until YOU want to stop...YOU will keep drinking. That is a fact.

I'am sorry if I sound a little harsh but you are asking this question to those of us that have been there. We know what works and what doesnt.

Please. Set a stop date within the next 1 week. Call you MD and come "Clean" with him/her and let him follow you for the next few weeks at least.

Total abstenance is the only true answer...with your doctors supervision .

Put your fears behind you, tell your AV to SHUT UP !!!...and GO SOBER !

You'll find that it's not really as scary or as difficult as you are building it up to be in your mind ! Thats what I found out.

Get a few days behind you...post here often and the momentum will build on it's self to push you even further into sobriety!

You CAN do this !

DD

A Psychiatrist is a medical doctor.

Please remember we cannot offer any kind of medical advice.

In my experience tapering never worked and I always ended up worse off than when I began. If you have concerns about your drs advice, please make an appointment with another dr for a second opinion.

I stand corrected.

Thank You Anna.

DD

I had an annual checkup with my regular doctor last week and I will see him again in 10 days for a follow-up. I will work with both, my family doctor and the psychiatrist to finally make it happen.

Thank you so much for all your encouragements and your advice. I really need this. You all know probably more about sobriety than all the doctors who never experienced this nightmare themselves. Thanks!

Did the PDoc give you a taper schedule? Will you get the anxiety meds when you've quit for good? That's what helped me get thru the withdrawal anxiety, a few days of meds to keep me from going back to drinking to ease the w/d anxiety.

There's lots of support here so post if you feel the urge to drink and we'll try to talk you out of it. :)

Yes, I took my first pill to sleep yesterday. I limited myself at three glasses of wine with my meal, then I had sparkling water. Tonight, no more than two glasses with my meal. I will see the psy again tomorrow at the end of the day for the anxiety pills. Tomorrow, one glass of wine with my dinner and it will be it. I will start the anxiety pills on Sunday. I will surely need you all. A lot!

So Sunday, 14 June 2015 will be the first day in about 20 years without wine. Day 1, I hate you but I need you.

Welcome to SR! You can do it! You'll find a whole new world out there and a healthier you. Personally I found so much more I was missing when I stopped using. <3 You got this!

Tapering was not an option for me.

If I could control how much I drank then I wouldn't have needed to quit.

Hi Golden. I can't wait to follow your progress. Is the psychiatrist an addiction psychiatrist? Even then I'm not so sure about those doctors. I was going to go this route also. I talked to a counselor years ago and it was a waste of time. I sat through and listened to an addiction psychiatrist with my son. Ummm, mixed feelings on that. I always found that moderating usually threw me into an all out drunk! I'll never forget someone in AA saying "Do you want to quit or not?". I always feel like I'm teeter tottering with sobriety. It's very frustrating. Is Xanax the anti-anxiety med? Reading through a lot of posts every night. It seems that dam wine is a really popular, highly abused alcohol. I'm a huge Chardonnay fan trying to get sober. As I said, I look forward to following your thread. Good luck to you.

Tho I would not go and recommend tapering as a quit option, it worked for me.

It takes self discipline and an iron will. Quantity must decrease, and should not take too long. By this I mean not months, not weeks, but days.

But, I was desperate and decided that I had enough. My will to stop was stronger than my will to drink. That, in the end, no matter what you do, is what will make you stop.

Act like your life depends on it, because it does.

Tapering??? :gaah
I listened to an exceptionally good AA Speaker Message I found on an Internet Search. The guy had told his wife he would quit drinking (for the umpteenth time). The next day he was drinking again, and he told his wife, " Yeah, I quit yesterday, today I'm just tapering off... it didn't work.

If you are truly an 'alcoholic' ... Try AA ...If you just have a 'drinking problem' ...I hope you can get a handle on it ... For me, Life is SO MUCH BETTER now that I am not CONTROLLED by the cycle of Obsession & Craving.

RDBplus3 ... Happy, Joyous, and FREE ... and if you are ALCOHOLIC, I KNOW you can be 2.

Thanks all!

I hope everything is going okay, how do you feel now that your almost done drinking?