crypto80

Good morning everyone,

I have joined this site as I am serious about quitting drinking alcohol. It has affected me, family, friends, and my job. Little background, I started drinking heavily hard liquor 35% alcohol content since about 2014/2015. And for months now I drink a whole bottle throughout the day and night. I know it's not a good idea to go cold turkey, I want to taper off. If I have been drinking an entire bottle for months everyday, how should I taper off?

Dee74

Hi Crypto

Alcohol Detox can be dangerous so we can't give you medical advice of that kind here.

In any case the best and safest way is to see a Dr - get yourself checked out and see what they think is a safe way to proceed.

D

Lightning Bug

Welcome!

D122y

Crypto,

Like Dee said....see a Dr....it is the safest...you could have a stroke etc. Detoxing. A dr. May offer/give you drugs to help detox, some of them...I hear...are worse than booze....some are addictive and mess w your brain in new and different ways....yay?

It may be a conspiracy...that is another post...anyway...

I couldn't see dr. W out risk of losing my job. We have to report dr. Visits. Then they start asking questions. While they ask questions, I would not be able to work. I could have ended up fired.

So i didnt see a dr........no medical advice...I quit w a modified taper...

I was more of a cycle....drink a little for a few days...drink a lot for a few days....don't drink for a few....etc. I was detoxing all the time. Heart pallipatations, night sweats, fevers...it was how I rolled for a while.

In the end..when I quit...I hadn't drank for about 9 days...then drank about 500ml or so of wisky in about 6 hours.

That was my last drinking session...last day ever to drink. I poured all the booze I had down the drain and stopped.

It was extremely hard all the time for about a weak.

Then it was really hard most of the time for about a month.

Then it was hard some of the time for about a year.

Now it is a little hard almost never.

Make sense? Read the sticky on...what we did....also...there are tapering articles out there....but...the SR in the door answer is...see a dr.

I started having moderate paranoia like anxiety attacks periodically and a few hypoglycemia attacks in the end. I went on faith that these incidents were alcohol related. I used the paranoia I had to motivate me to not drink.

I believed the booze caused it all.

I was right.

Today, at nearly 17 months clean, 95% of my physical issues seem gone. Now I am just a pretty strong 51 year old. I have mental issues, obsessive stuff mostly, but they were likely always there.

Physically, I am pretty much a beast.

I can be around booze now. I am lucky that it only bothers me a little. Some folks can't be around it.

I am very protective and proud of my sobriety. It is how we were designed to live. Humans were never intended to drink booze. It is a learned behavior.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks for the post.

entropy1964

Tapering may or may not be successful. As an alcoholic I, by nature, can't control my drinking. That being said I have done it in the past.

The best bet is to see a dr or go to medically supervised detox.

Mountainmanbob

It seems that most any ER would at least give you an idea of a safe taper.

In hospital (rehab) settings they usually have the drunk steady in 5 to 10 days with the use of drugs so as to ease the stress on mind and body.

Please -- Call any hospital or rehab center.

M-Bob

August252015

I would echo what MBob said, and add...when I finally quit going on 8mo ago, I did it cold turkey. And I had a handle of vodka/2 days habit by that point, up from 2-3 bottles of wine (at least), over too many years. I was very sick and went through PAWS quite significantly...but I was fine. It was do or die for me and I wasn't going to die by drinking, and I wasn't going to die getting through the immediate aftermath. Sidenote- I also didn't have to work for 5 weeks. I had done supervised detox before, very much like MBob described, but mentally I had no desire to be sober. That's the part about tapering that I personally find dangerous- you can play many (MANY) games with the actual quitting part.

Good luck to you- whatever you do, you know you have a problem having alcohol in your life and I hope you decide to stop drinking for good. It truly is better on this side.

PurpleKnight

Welcome to the Forum Crypto!!

Forward12

The hardest part of tapering is if you have the willpower to do it. In my experience I would go from a 24/7 binder, to just once a day, then half of that the next day, half of that the next, then stop, which left the withdraw symptoms minimal.

january161992