Ready for change

[paulywogg]

Ready for change

hd,im in your shoes too,its too hard for me to just up and quit,so tapering way down is good.stick with the kudzu,ive only been on it a week,everytime i say heck with it im gonna drink,the kudzu kicks in so i cant drink much at all,ive drank maybe 5 beers all week,i used to drink that in an hour,stick with it,good luck to us both!

[HabitualDefender]

Ready for change

Thanks for the additional detail, Slay. Makes sense, I'm planning to get my first voluntary AF day this month and depending on how that goes, possibly plan for a couple of days, not necessarily consecutive until next month. Also this month, is to cork it more on the weekends and smooth out the higher qty spikes. Time to get writing some of this down...

-HD

[HabitualDefender]

Ready for change

HabitualDefender;1372974 wrote: Thanks Ann and kdog.

Friday I had 6, Saturday 7, and 8 on Sunday. Today, is Labor Day so I will work at reversing that momentum for the up coming week. So many triggers at times like this, I will spend some time in the Tool Box. I'm not discouraged though, this will not weaken my resolve.

-HD

Dialed back to 6 yesterday, which was not that hard, especially with beloved teatotalers visiting from out of town. I could have been feeling miserable this morning, but instead, feeling fairly decent.

I need to address sleep issues, I know the quality of sleep is affected by AL, but it feels worse on the middle ground than drinking heavily. I'm hoping to learn to relax more before bed and go to sleep earlier.

-HD

[Prairie Fairy]

Ready for change

Hi HD -

You might find some relief on the sleep issue as you cut back on drinking - I was finding the more I drank - I woke up between 2 - 3:30 am every morning and slept like crap.

I have an iPhone - so eventually - out of sleep deprivation - got the MotionX app on the App Store - it turns the iPhone into a sleep monitor. Drinking? My sleep cycles sucked. I got very little deep sleep, mostly light sleep broken by wakefulness.

I introduced melatonin - even while drinking -and that increased my deep sleep by about 30%. It doesn't sound like much - but that made a huge difference on the nights I remember. Realize that I was drinking enough I didn't always.

Since I stopped drinking - the first 4 - 5 nights were sleepless and horrible. After that - it got better - and the melatonin every night around the same time ensures I'm retraining a very screwed up pineal gland.

If you can find melatonin in softgels - they work fastest but they won't be time released. They are cheap though so you may just want to pick up both. If you find you wake up at 2 am anyway - switch to time released.

Some brands now offer melatonin with Theanine in them - saw it for the first time yesterday at a regular store - not a Vitamin Shoppe or GNC so it's becoming more common. Why is this good? Theanine is the ingrediant in green tea that is actually shown on brain scans to put some people's brains into a peaceful brain wave activity...so that combined with the melatonin - means not just sleep - but a calmer brain while you sleep.

Also - magnesium will calm you if taken before bed. You can get this really nasty tasting sour fizzy powder or simply take a magnesium pill or soft gel.

Good luck -

[HabitualDefender]

Ready for change

Hi PF, thanks for the info and tips on sleep and melatonin. I'm going to get some and give it a whirl.

-HD