ok truth time... i have been drinking every night for about a year now.. usually 9-12 beers/drinks.. on the weekdays and depending on the weekend i may drink till i just pass out... it all started when i lost someone close to me.. but that is neither here nor there at this point.. my problem is now i want to quit and don't know how to go about even doing it.. nightlife seems boring to me now without booze so i know there is a problem.. i feel no urge to drink during the day..

i have heard from ppl that i can't just quit cold turkey or i run the risk of bad effects.. ( don't know how true it is ) i tried to not start drinking tonight but mentally i could not do it.. pretty much 50/50 id say because of the fear of having issues from alcohol withdraw.. and a mental addiction to it.

i really want to quit badly.. and i think i would like to try it on my own before i go to an AA meeting..

any tips,websites, on quitting would help me tons..

Hy punk I don't have any tips or anything but just wanted to give you a and say I support you and admire you for your courage.

I'm a bit like Shelley I'm afraid... no advice but as much support as you could possibly want.

Hopefully one of our regulars here on this forum will be along shortly to provide the information that I can't give.

Keep talking to us while you do the "give up thing" .....'cos we'll be here to support you all the way through!

Well.... there have been many members that had to go off their pain medications cold turkey due to various reasons.
They felt like they had a really bad case of the flu for a week or 2, but they survived it.

So if you want to try it you could just stop and see how it goes..
Can you have "it" in the house without the urge to just drink it, just because it is there? Then if you do start feeling bad from withdrawal then you drink a little bit and slowly wean your self off???

I guess it really depends on how much you want to stop, and if you can wean your self down slowly? on your own?

PS-
are you taking vitamins? a good multi vitamin at the very least.
booze flushes out many of the water soluble ones -usually less attention is given to nutritious meals when someone is drunk.

Just my thoughts on it.. but I'm no detox pro by any means

First, good show on admitting to yourself that it's time to make a change.

I see you have MS in the mix so you might consider a chat with your doctor. Sure, lots of folks go cold turkey and get through with no bad effects. Then there are those whose BP shoots sky-high, or get seizures. So the prudent move here may well be to do this with medical supervision.

As to doing it alone before going to an AA meeting, your call. Your chances of making a lasting change go up with some kind of recovery plan and support base. Hey, I did the same thing when I sobered up. I wanted to try it on my own (didn't know the medical dangers) and I lasted a day before I hauled ***** to a meeting. Heck, I checked into treatment when I'd been sober for ten weeks.

Start with your doc? Why take a chance...you already have the MS to contend with and some medical input could smooth the way and prevent a flare, or worse.

Keep us posted. We care. I care.

Jeff

Congratulations on coming clean, admission and the want to quit, great first steps. One thing you really should do is contact your doctor and let him know what is going on and what you plan to do. Alcoholism is a bit of a different ball game when it is quitting time especially if you have other health issues. In your case you say it has only been a year so going off may not be "as bad" but you still have the other issues that this may aggravate. Another thing, the keeping in the house and titrating down, never works, one sip leads to another and another, I know I have been there too many times to count. A big thing is your evenings, you are bored, you have developed a habit, now without your drinking to fill it you have no plan to fill that time. My mother use to be the same only now she is retired and drinks whenever the mood hits. That is why meetings would be so useful for you. Trying on your own, very noble idea. Is that because you are too embarrassed to go in front of others and admit, too ill to get around, just don't like the idea? You can find a meeting almost all times of the day and evening. That's what I did, go to evening meetings and by the time I got home it was time to get ready for bed. I was filled with the feelings left over from being at the meeting and they kept me sustained for what was left of the evening. You have got to find a way to fill that time. Not many make it without the program though some do.

I hope you find a way to make things work for you and congratulations.

well done I think your so brave to come out & share your problem with drink,am new on here & the drink caught my eye being a x drinker myself.
I remember waking every morn wanting to give up,it was awlful till it gave me up with Liver failure & all the other things thay go with it,I was lucky to survive,i crawled from hosp when i tell you it was hell belive me it was I was killing myself day by day over 20yrs
I lost all family & respect etc 12yrs on still hav'nt had a drop since.its a life time change for me its a case of all or nothing.so the doc is the 1st one to talk to,belive tablet is given daily for home detox with all the advice & support of this forum

Have your wife check out Al-Anon. She'll learn the ways she can help herself and that will help you, too. Alcoholism is a sickness that likes to infect others around the alcoholic, too, in emotional and spiritual ways that they need help for in order to heal themselves and understand what's happening to you, too, and what ways they might have fed into it. I have a 24th birthday coming up on May 5th and I owe my life to AA. I strongly recommend it. I'm a widow now, but I was an Al-Anon member when my husband was alive, too.

I'm proud of you for having the courage to come out and admit publickly that you've got a problem. That's a great big step in overcoming your problem.

You definitely need to talk this over with your neurologist, though, because drinking affects your central nervous system and you'll need his help keeping a balance while you sober up.

How you doing, Drew? Were you able to curb your alcohol consumption on your own?

Sorry for your loss. I hope you will take good care of yourself.

What I meant to say wasn't that I'm going to be 24 years old, but that I'm going to have my 24th anniversary of sobriety May 5th. I WISH I was 24 again! I'm actually 63.