for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

[socal4131]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

Trying to Taper

Well I guess the way to start off is by saying I went through an incredibly hard breakup with my girlfriend of 2.5 years last September. When It happened, I turned to the bottle to ease my pain. Eventually I was able to cut down on the everyday drinking and get back to my regular routine. Sometimes red wine at night but not everyday.

Lately I have turned to the bottle again to deal with my frustrations about work. I hate my job and do not believe in their mission statement. I have excelled at this job over the past year so no one really gives me shit when I am having an "off" day.

But lately it has gotten bad, I am experiencing pretty intense alcohol withdrawal symptoms daily and from everything i've read on the internet, I need to stop this behavior or else I going to seriously hurt myself. My drink of choice has been Smirnoff Vodka because it's cheap but have made the pledge today to start tapering off with beer as I read it is very helpful.

I guess I'm writing this as a way to get my thoughts down and to help with the process, I would sincerely appreciate any support from you guys as I know this road shall be tough, I just dont know how long it will be. My biggest issue that I have been facing is insomnia and anxiety. But last night I had a panic attack and my girlfriend is worried. Wake up call.

I know I need to cut back and stop using it as a vice to deal with my problems. Anyone have any insight?

Thanks guys.

-B

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

Hi socal. If you can make the switch to beer that will definitely help. I made a post earlier in this thread and you probably read it all over, but of course we cannot give advice and if at all possible please check into a detox facility.

That being said, I can say the taper can and does work for daily binge drinkers. It took me a few tries to get it done once so do not get discouraged on any set backs. It is hell, but definitely not like going cold turkey and after trying both and measuring my vitals all the time it is definitely safer! I had some scary readings on tapers before, so of course it is not fully safe. Just give it a shot for a better life. Try it slow, try it fast, try things that make you comfou and Google it as well. Just go at your pace knowing a better life is ahead!

I did go to 7.5 today, but everything is just so much tougher this time, I don't think I am as focused. But hey, I made positive steps! That is all as I am going to bed! Do well everyone!

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

And yes ihate, you definitely are not heading backwards! Lets both keep thinking of the good things!

[ihatebeer]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

Thanks woody! Quick update. Been out of town this weekend. Drank 5 Friday night. Saturday night I had planned on 5 but the environment I was in was a strickly non-drinking one. I managed to drink almost 3. This morning early I felt a little uneasy. A few heart palpitations and just a general feeling of "something isn't right". This went on for about 2 hours, but then subsided.

When I got home tonight I have drank 6. Not as good as 5, but was pleased that I made it a day only drinking 3. Tomorrow I am going to start only drinking 4 for a couple/3 days and then try to cut down again.

I think I am beginning to see a faint light ahead, but I'm not going to delude myself.

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

Thanks Ihate and great job!!!! My bad for not posting the last couple of days, but WOW do I have some posts to make about tapering! I probably won't write it all up tonight, but I will soon! In the meantime keep on cutting down!

[ihatebeer]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

Hi all. Been working late this week and have not had too much time to post. A recap of this past week would be that I'm bouncing around between 5 and 7 beers. I averaged it out to be 6 beers a night. I still can't seem to keep it at 5 but haven't given up. Going to be drinking only 5 tonight after dinner.

Hope everyone else is doing well on their tapers.

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

great job ihate! It seems like soon you will be used to the 5 every night.

I have been having some issues with this attempt, I think mostly not trying/concentrating hard enough. So I am restarting today with a much more rigorous approach like I did the two times I was successful. This includes using much more help from my spouse and getting them involved with encouragement. Of course monitoring my keys and money too so I can't run out and get more! LOL. But just being honest and getting them involved. I am going from 13 to 14 down to 7.9 today right away. That might sound like a big drop off to start, but I know from the past I get minimal withdrawal going to that amount. The only thing is the mental part when you start to run out and you realized you do not have a heavy drunk buzz and are not going to get one. It does go away quickly though and you actually start to feel happy that you made a start and I am looking forward to that. Tomorrow the goal is 7 even. And yes, for those that didn't read the previous pages I am using a calculator tool that will give precise drinks down to the tenth. The link is a page or two back I think. Plus the other good thing is I was drinking the 8% stuff again and today it is going to be a mix of 4.2 and 5.0%, nothing stronger at all.

And again, keep up the great work ihate! I hope to be joining you soon in the 5 range!

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

I will make it down to 7 even tonight. Ihate, hope you could make it 5 or close to it!

A couple things I wanted to do my famous long babbling about, lol. Last night after dropping to 7.9 after doing a binge for a while really was not too bad. I only woke up twice during the night, and yes I did feel my heart racing before bed and about an hour before I have to wake up in the morning. As of now I am refusing to check my vitals. This is not a suggestion for anyone and I have my reasoning behind it. I have been through a medical detox 4 times and have attempted tapers/cold turkey a few times and monitored my vitals at home like crazy. While I am not a doctor or an expert, I can give a great guesstimate as to what my readings were last night. On a side note, I did start 2 days earlier preloading with an extra half of dose of my blood pressure meds as I learned from the past it takes about 24 to 48 hours for those to kick in. I think that has a lot to do with my body not being freaked out, but yes, I will admit I can tell the pulse was way up there and I have full understanding it might peak out worse in the next couple of days. I just have not yet felt anything that "freaked me out", so I think my constant checking of my vitals on previous tapers actually freaked me out. If I get a "freak out moment" I will at the least start checking again or just go to an ER.

I've loaded up the vitamins, water, veggies, everything I could about a day or two before I started this last night as well.

Another thing I did different last night and tonight is I saved about 4 to 8 ounces of a light beer (4.2%) and about 20 to 30 minutes before bed slowly sip that. This is not extra of my quota, but part of my total daily limit. So far so good, but again I understand this can and most likely will get more uncomfortable sometime in the next day or so. But then again maybe my preloading idea of meds, vitamins and good food might be helping.

So far so good it seems on the physical health part, at least it seems. As for mentally...........wow! Last night was the first night pretty much cutting in half, but I did not notice much. Today, day 2, went well throughout the day until I started my sipping. It kept on going through my head that I was not going to have enough. I was getting very snappy with family members in person and over the phone. I don't know, I mean I should know that is expected, but it was weird because it was uncontrollable. I'm thinking the more I practice and the more I think about it, then hopefully the better I will get at controlling emotions.

The main good thing about today is once I started my sipping, I had several thoughts that I am just done with the taper and will stop. While that sounds all good, I also know I do have heart issues so I want to make sure I am physically over any possible major withdrawals before I attempt that, as I am in the middle of my work week and could feel anything nasty in the middle of the week!

Last words before I stop my usual ranting, so far physically it feels much better this time and I am taking note of things I did differently. Mainly the preloading of meds and vitamins plus saving the few ounces of light beer before going to bed.

We shall see, but if it keeps progressing well I will keep these posts much shorter, lol. It's just so far I seemed to have found a great combo from the physical standpoint, but a couple more days will show the truth. (now I must practice the toolboxes on here and other things to work on my mental standpoint!!!!)

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

I'll try to keep it short and sweet tonight

My plan today was to cut it down to 6, but I was having a little too many of those "odd" feelings at work today so it will end up being 6 1/2 just to be safe and not freak out tomorrow. I will see how it goes tomorrow, but so far nothing unmanageable. Probably the best news is I have only light beers today making my 6 1/2 standard drinks! All 4.2%. I have 6, 16 oz of light 4.2% beer. Each one equals 1.1 standard drink. More good news is this is the first time ever I felt if when I am down to zero drinks and ever have the urge again, I can FINALLY just have a few light beers and that will be my "binge". I will not go there yet though as we all know how things can go. For now my focus is to safely get down to nothing.

Still upped my BP meds, pulse is still high at times but I am still refusing to check vitals just yet, had a worse sleep last night, but going to bed an hour earlier than normal tonight so we shall see. My guess is even though I am going down more that tomorrow might be the hardest day at work. Whether it is difficult or not I plan on going down a big jump tomorrow to 4 1/2 or 5 standard drinks and go from there. As I mentioned in previous posts, and I see it more now, I can do this better, and possibly even safer when I make bigger jumps at a time. So far nothing major, other than I know for a fact my pulse is way up, but I feel good enough where I don't want to freak myself looking at it unless need be.

Do well all!

[ihatebeer]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

Hi everyone..

Woody, thanks for sharing all that you wrote in your post. Don't worry about rambling as it may help others like me. Hang in there! Its great that you're down to 6.5 drinks! Keep it going!!

I'm at 5 beers tonight. HOPEFULLY I can stick at 5 again tomorrow night. I went to an AA meeting today which helped me with some of the crazy thoughts about drinking I get.

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

That is very awesome ihate! Hope you kept it at 5 today as well! Also, I do know what you mean about the AA meetings. I cannot practice it long term, have given 150% about 8 to 10 different times, and always get the same result, but I do know what you mean. While currently I know I won't stick with AA, I can say if I am completely alcohol free and need to stay that way for a particular day it does work great for me for a day. Again, as of now mentally sticking with it for life is not my first agenda, but I do agree it can help at least for a day. And heck, I'm not against it at all so if you find yourself going every night I think that is great to. Just keep it up with the 5 for now, you are doing a great job!

I went down to 5.7 standard drinks tonight. Actually, I already ate dinner and took my dog for a walk and still have my 4 ounces I saved, so technically not quite at 5.7 yet, but just being cautious and will probably sip on these last few ounces and then go to sleep. Not too many side effects today at all. I felt the pulse a bit at times, but it did not seem as often. Also I resumed my normal BP meds today and did not take any extra. I have a feeling if not by tomorrow, then the next day or two my vitals should be returning to normal if I keep this up. My plan right now is to go to 4.6 tomorrow, and then after that I think mentally I will be spent and physically getting the vitals back in the safe range so I think I'm just going to stop completely and go for a total ab day or two or three I will see how my pulse feels and will most likely at that time start finally checking it officially to be sure.

Have a good night/day everyone!

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

Quick correction on the side effects/withdrawals, wow, can feel my pulse rate beating through my chest now for some reason. I'm guessing/hoping this is just the final "big one" before everything starts to settle, but either way I do not feel like I am having a stroke or anything, so I'm not checking the rate on the fear of freaking myself out. But just wow how this came out of nowhere. I can tell already it's going to be a "fun" night trying to sleep!

[Cinders]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

As an FYI,

I helped my son taper. He was in bad shape but could not go to the doctor due to lack of insurance. Common story around here.

He was drinking 24/7, i.e. when awake drinking. His intake was roughly a fifth a day plus a 12 pack of beer.

His first day, he started the shakes and felt really miserable. By evening, he was hallucinating, both visually and auditory. His legs were so weak he could not walk.

I purchased beer and kept it at my house. I walked two beers over to him and sat with him. He drank them slowly and within an hour, his shakes were better and he was not seeing things. (or talking to people who weren't there, etc.)

Over the course of the next five days, I would give him a beer when he deemed his withdrawals were more than he could tolerate. He would not allow me to take his bp and in a way, I am glad he did not, as ignorance is bliss in some ways.

His wife was also going cold turkey but did not suffer withdrawals in the same way. She simply could not sleep. She stayed awake for three days straight.

After day five, my son decided he would drink two to three beers a night, and his wife the same. No hard liquor whatsoever. He has followed that regimen faithfully for over a week now. I explained to him that if he felt his intake starting to increase, he would need to reevaluate and consider total abstinence. But I am not going to push him, he has to learn his own way.

It is incredible to look into his eyes today and see clear whites. He has not had that for over a year. It is wonderful to be able to talk to him again. I am enjoying my sober son. I am also enjoying my sober daughter-in-law.

I pray he can stay on this path and not fall back into the abyss.

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

Thank you for sharing Cinders. I know my first successful taper I was using that much and the withdrawals sound similar.

A quick update this morning, my pulse feels much better after some sleep, although I did wake up few times of course. Have a great day!

[woody13]

for home-detoxers: How to Taper off Alcohol

I just wanted to post I am still here, um an hour earlier than normal, but that is because I had a normal happening that was a MEGA SURPRISE to drink more. The good news is, it is not going to be that bad and I am still making progress! Full details coming tomorrow, but overall today was a good day considering the circumstances!