Can I just Quit Drinking And Be Ok?
 

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 :hug: and say I support you and admire you for your courage. :hug:

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

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:cool:

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.:D 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.

Hi PunkDizzle .First admitting you're problems is a great step ahead .As per the withdrawal symptoms some get them some don't feel them to much
Mild to moderate psychological symptoms:

* Feeling of jumpiness or nervousness
* Feeling of shakiness
* Anxiety
* Irritability or easily excited
* Emotional volatility, rapid emotional changes
* Depression
* Fatigue
* Difficulty with thinking clearly
* Bad dreams

Mild to moderate physical symptoms:

* Headache - general, pulsating
* Sweating, especially the palms of the hands or the face
* Nausea
* Vomiting
* Loss of appetite
* Insomnia, sleeping difficulty
* Paleness
* Rapid heart rate (palpitations)
* Eyes, pupils different size (enlarged, dilated pupils)
* Skin, clammy
* Abnormal movements
* Tremor of the hands
* Involuntary, abnormal movements of the eyelids

Severe symptoms:

* A state of confusion and hallucinations (visual) -- known as delirium tremens
* Agitation
* Fever
* Convulsions
* "Black outs" -- when the person forgets what happened during the drinking episode

Source: National Institutes of Health

for me i wen't for a 28days therapy paid by the employer .Had drinkink + drugs problems.So I can't not tell you about the symptoms because for the first week They put me on trankalizer .You should try the AA better with someone else than alone.I've been sober for 24 years and still sometimes its hard like they say :''One day at the time'' Good luck and as other mentionned see your doctor .bye Richard

Just popping in to offer support for you, PunkD! I think your post was very brave and I hope you keep coming here to post your efforts. We are all in your corner.

Take care.

thanks all.. :grouphug:

oh i am not at all ashamed to go to an AA meeting.. i guess i just want to try and beat it on my own.. but from the sound of it ... it is a pretty rough thing to try and do..

my real issue is that the AA meetings in my neck of the woods are in a not so nice part of town.. but meh ill get over it...

i have lots of support from my wife and i wonder if they would allow her to come with me? even though she doesn't have a problem...


honestly talking to my DR. is a little bit of a problem for me because i am on xanax daily for anxiety/OCD and i have this fear they will take it away from me if i let them know i have a drinking problem.. ugghhh... why did i ever do this to myself.. :(:confused:

yeah i really should talk to my Neuro though about the drinking and MS.. i really do not want to throw myself into a flare or worse..

ill keep everyone updated on my walk through getting sober.. i really have a good feeling about it.. and i know with support i can beat this..

Any meeting listed as an "open" meeting is ok. "Closed" meetings are for AA's only (or those who know or think they have a problem with booze).

You can check out http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org and find meetings most anywhere you go. Online meetings too.:D Check with your central office or intergroup.

Hey PunkD....just wanted to offer you my support, too. I think it's a wonderful thing you're doing and I wish you the best of luck in beating this. You know your NT buddies will be behind you 100%! :hug:

Hi Punk D!! Congratulations on having the courage to admit you have a problem and reaching out for help...this is wonderful and this is the start.
I did not go to my doctor for his help when I quit drinking. I wish I had of. He wished I had of. I went thru weeks of withdrawl and should have been medically supervised as I drank daily..40 oz tequila..my kids thought I was dead a few times and I did not know if I would survive at times as I was so ill. Ended up my liver was so swollen still after 6 months of sobriety!!
I think you should definitely see a doc....lay it all our for him...even your fears about your meds.....doctors can help. You have other serious health issues and that makes a docs help even more important.
There are lots of AA meetings and other support groups to attend....the sooner the better. I find that the support of others who really do understand me is a tremendous help!
You are about to do something that will be one of the biggest things you ever do....get support for yourself...including coming here. The journey is so worth it Punk D!!! My life is wonderful....I still have problems but I am able to deal with them. My drinking went out of control and I crossed a line when I found out my daughter had been sexually abused by her step dad...over a period of 2 years. She was only 5 at the time. The impact it had on me was undescribable...unbeleivably painful and I drank my way through it or rather around it! I pretty much forgot about what my daughter was going thru and focused on myself.....I had to deal with it all later anyway and I did. Enough rambling from me.....I am sincerely glad that you are here and that you are ready to change your life. I promise you, you will not regret it!!! Remember....1 day at a time...it makes it easier. :hug:Special hugs for you! Take Care:hug:

I guess to answer your question, can you stop drinking and be fine physically? Sure absolutely, it's possible!

However, how are you going to deal with the underlying reasons that drive you to drink?

You are so Right GladysD .Like they say when you go in a Therapy 20% is the drinkink problem and 80 % are the reasons why you drink .It won't be easy but you have to share with anybody that will listen to you.
Bye richard

:grouphug: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:eek: 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:winky:

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. :hug:

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! :rolleyes: I'm actually 63.

help
 

Hi There,
I recently helped a friend who had a drink problem. He has always been a heavy drinker but when his girlfriend left him he became really bad. He was drinking day and night not sleeping properly and always drunk.
He phoned me one day and said he wanted to disappear and not come back. This alarmed me because he had people that still cared about him and he could have a good life if it wasn't for the drink.
I persuaded him to go to the doctor and I went with him.
He was told it was dangerous just to stop drinking just like that, and was persuaded to go into a place where they could monitor him for a week. He had vitamin injection to help his liver and reqular monitoring.
He came out a new person and is doing so,so, very, very well and I am so proud of him.
He is enjoying life now and feels like he has never felt before.
What I am trying to say is there is so much more to life my friend and it is all yours for the taking.
You can do it you just need to be determined and you will get there and I have seen first hand the change it can make.
Get help, be strong and do it for you.
Best and fond wishes to you.

OUTSTANDING! :)

Always glad to hear success stories so thanks for sharing that.

Thank you. :) I treasure every day of my life now and am so glad I quit.

If you quit cold turkey you will start having detoxic symptoms such as cold sweats, tremors, insomnia. How do i know, cuz i have been there. You may want to see a Medical Doctor and ask to be given a prescription for Librium. Librium helps with the Detox Symptoms. I strongly suggest you to go to AA. It has helped me stay sober 14 months, you might not like having to go, but just keep going. Don't quit 5 minuets before the miracle happens...We all have to hit our own rock bottoms..

mental AND physical addiction
 

I don't know if your drinking is this advanced, but seizures and death can result from alcohol withdrawal [whereas with narcotics withdrawal, you just wish that you were dead]. This forum could offer you much support. But examine yourself - why do you want to quit on your own before going to AA. AA is not what people may think, and you can find lots of support there. If neither works, I would seek a detox center. :hug: and lots of luck - signed: been there done that billie

I just noticed the date that the OP posted this so for them my reply is probably too late. But for anyone in a similar situation, that has been a continual heavy drinker for an extended period of time - going cold turkey can be way more than just feeling really ill and having a monster hangover.

(I have under 10 post so have had to remove the hyperlinks - but I am sure you can find them with google. :) )

This is what happened to me after taking (I would guess) at least 60-70 units a day for a month.

Day 1 (day time) - Felt extremely ill with constant vomiting.
Day 1 (night time) - Started hallucinating faint sounds of music and voices.
Day 2 (day time) - Slight visual hallucinations, audio hallucinations remain.
Day 2 (night time) - Extreme cold sweats, shaking and what I called 'the fear'
- 'the fear' is when you are constantly on edge and you feel like you adrenal gland is going to pack in with the amount of adrenaline it is filling the body with. (trust me when I say, it is a really nasty feeling)

Now comes the bad part! - You start to feel like there are some form of parasites crawling all over your body, it is actually just muscle twitches but your brain is going into a type of psychosis that make it feel very real.

The next stage... and I don't know the best way to put it.... you literally go mad. You lose all grip on reality. Beyond that if not treated immediately, you will go into seizures then coma, then death!

Luckily I was rushed to hospital before the coma and (obviously! :) ) death part!

If you really want to stop immediately, I would either go to your local Alcohol clinic or your doctor and request a 5-7 day cycle of Chlordiazepoxide. This stuff is miraculous, and deals with all the withdrawal side effect brilliantly. You will also find that you appetite comes back almost instantaneously.

The one thing about Chlordiazepoxide is that it is highly sedative for the first couple of days, so if you work it would be best to take the week off.

Hi "Punk" ~ I'm sure there are ALOT of people who quit on their own and had no trouble. All i can tell you is how I did it. There was NO WAY I could do it on my own. I used to drink probably 12 beers per night, and when that was gone, I'd start on the booze. I'd usually pass out, and drive to work the next day in a black-out. Lord, how I hated that!!! I could NEVER remember getting to work. :eek: To think that I could have killed someone ! Thank God He was watching over me.

God literally took me by the collar and MADE me call AA. I didn't want to, but God MADE me. I tried to put the phone down, but I couldn't!!! I tried not to dial the phone, but HE made me!!! And when someone answered, HE made me speak. It was EERIE how it all happened, because I didn't do any of it. God was doing it for me. That was July 28th, 1993, and I've been sober since.

AA literally saved my fanny cause I would have been dead by now the way I was drinking. If YOU drink that amount of beer, you won't have a long life either because your liver won't be able to stand it. Right NOW you should have a liver panel done to see if your liver is functioning properly. That was the first thing I did when I got sober. I got lucky cause it was fine.

Best of luck to you but be careful. If you do this on your own, you could have DT's and those can be DEADLY. You should be under a doctor's care. God bless and remember to take it One Day at a Time. Peace, Lee ;)