Backtogood

I'm am quitting, i was drinking 1/2 a 5th to a 5th of vodka. I've cut cut out all hard alcohol and am now drinking a couple of glasses of wine (a bottle) a night. Sad, i never even get a buzz. Or not. Anyway, does anyone think this is a better way to tapper off?

BeABetterMan

1/2 to a fifth should only take 2-3 days to taper off of.

Dee74

I guess you drank again after those few days sober you had?

I could never taper. If I could control my drinking I wouldn't need to taper.

A bottle is still a lot of alcohol & much more than recommended 'moderate' use/.

If you're committed to this way, make sure you're hitting a lesser target everyday.
Keep your Doctor or hospitals phone number handy if you feel unwell.

Hope it works for you BtoG

D

anxiousrock

I've never done it since I'm not a daily drinker...but I could never taper. Once I have one drink I have to have them all.

least

I could never taper off, I always ended up drinking more. I wish you the best in tapering off the wine. Don't drag it out too long, the whole idea is to reduce your consumption more each day ending at zero.

Hodd

It’s good you’re cutting down, BTG, but wine was my drink of choice, and it does plenty of damage. More worryingly, though, you say it doesn’t give you the buzz. Your body is still expecting its X units of alcohol before it’s satisfied. Drinking any alcohol only serves to fuel those cravings, and it’s likely you’ll just drink more wine in the future to get that buzz. By all means cut down first (it worked for me), but aim to quit forever in the very near future, i.e. a few months.

Steely

I could never taper, either. I'd have 1, and have to kiss myself goodbye.

If you can do it, and I hope you can, I wouldn't be tapering over months. I'd be looking at 2 weeks. Max.

Wishing you every success. Sobriety really is so much better.

Philemon

The trouble hits with withdrawals when there is very little alcohol in a system which is used to it ..very suddenly. It takes 1 hour for 1 unit of alcohol to be processed out of the system. If you drank a fifth of spirits, that would take 28 hours to process out. After that if you drink 1 bottle of wine in a night (strongest I've seen is 10 units a bottle) that means the alcohol is gone in 10 hours. If you drink the same time every night, that means you have gone 24 hours since starting to drink the night before. The last of the alcohol from the wine would have been processed out of your system 14 hours before that.
Maybe you can work out from that if you even have any alcohol left in your system before you start drinking on an evening?

Hodd

It’s a lot of analysing, Phil 😀 I know where you’re coming from.

Withdrawals will always be unpleasant, but your body gets used to the reduced amount of alcohol fairly quickly (weeks). I just get a little concerned when people start planning a quitting date, a taper strategy or discussing why they drink whilst still continuing to do so. It’s all prevaricating.

I had a fatty liver and a fibroscan score of 7 (borderline normal/fibrosis). I could’ve planned to quit at a future date, but I really believe I was one or two years away from developing fibrosis or even cirrhosis, which is irreversible. Planning, tapering, etc, are fine, but they need to be done in weeks or maybe months, not years.

Philemon

At least someone does Hodd
What I'm trying to get at is, a bottle of wine a night is not tapering. A taper is a gradual intake of alcohol throughout the day (not even enough to make you feel comfortable, just enough to stop the shakes etc). If you get to the point where you are walking around for 14 hours of the day with no ill effects, then drink on a night, it's not tapering, just drinking less. A half bottle of spirits is only 5 more units than a bottle of wine. A doctor told me you should be halving your intake for every day of a taper when I was drinking a bottle of spirits in a day

Gabe1980

I wouldn't think of wine as a soft substitute tbh. I have had some appalling withdrawals from wine and it can also affect you really strongly with lack of food, sleep etc.

I could never taper either, though I get the fear of withdrawals too. I hope you manage. Let us know how you are getting on

biminiblue

Yeah, that sounds like drinking.

I did a taper but I only let it go on for three days, and I only drank to stop the racing heartbeat.

12 units to two on Day One of the taper. Two down to one unit on Day Two of the taper.

I had about a half-shot of rum on Day Three of the taper and that was the last drink I had.

Was it easy peasy after that? Of course not. But dragging it out over weeks or months isn't a walk in the park either, and probably not going to end in a quit.

vkf

Tampering with wine is how I became a wino!! Went from hard stuff to wine because I hated the taste. Then spent the last 3 years draining bottles of wine a day so tampering didn't work for me.
Whatever works for you but just be cautious.

Anna

I could never taper, and most alcoholics cannot taper, simply because we're addicted to alcohol and want to keep on drinking.

Substituting a bottle of wine a night for hard liquor is not tapering. Alcohol is alcohol and as long as you're drinking, you'll want to keep drinking.

I hope you decide to stop.

LumenandNyx

This is such an opinionated topic.

I drank hard alcohol before I became a wino. Alcohol is alcohol. And this is what makes the whole thing cunning and baffling. Only the drinker can define him/herself. To me - tapering is for heavy drinkers who want to cut back until their conscience gets out of their head about their drinking.

Tapering doesn't work for a sincere or acute alcoholic...the idea of that is a joke. A bad one.

If you're going to quit - stop talking about it and do it already.

Delilah1

Wine was my drink of choice, and I can tell you it causes just as many problems as any other alcohol. Sobriety is definitely worth it, and so much easier than trying to taper or moderate. You can do this!

Verdantia

I was absolutely unable to taper. Once I have that first drink, there is no stopping me. I never drank hard liquor, always beer, and that was plenty enough to nearly kill me.

Cascabel

Tapering never worked for me. I always seemed to give in to the “ well, just one more” mode. For me, just stopping, with a doctor overseeing the project, was a lot less fuss and bother than a white knuckle taper. But that’s just me😀.

Noam19

Personally I'm against tapering. It works for some, but my opinion is that it just leaves the door open. I was not a daily drinker, but when I did drink I could just have a couple. I didn't see the point in that...if I was going to drink I was going to get drunk. So popping a bottle of wine to have a glass or two was not an option. Vodka was also my drink of choice mainly because it was so easy to hide. But it's your journey and if you think tapering will help you then give it a go...worst that happens is it doesn't do the trick and you try something else. Just keep trying.

AlbaSober

Tapering couldn't work for me as for me 1 is too many and 10 is not enough. I'd get really anxious if I wasn't certain my alcohol stock would "see me through the night".

I could count on one hand the amount of times I've only had 1 or 2 drinks per night.