Has anyone here ever successfully weaned themselves off alcohol?

[Steve-French]

Just quit drinking. You have to be like a 1/5 a day drinker to worry about DT's. I have drank for 2 or three days at a time before without sleeping and drank 2-3 1/5th's of vodka in that time and I've never got the DT's.

The worst I would get is some anxiety and maybe a little tightness in my chest, but I would never puke or feel sick. I usually drink once or twice a week now and usually will drink a 1/5th of Vodka in a sitting. I know it's not good for me, but I'll keep it to the weekends and not drink during the week.

 

[Hans Gercmiov]

Good to here, keep strong.

Also do you notice how much less of a hangover you have when you dont smoke

No, but I have noticed I've been getting drunker on the same amount lately though. But I never made that correlation.

 

[CO68]

I can't remember the last time I drank alcohol. I've never had any trouble quitting anything cold turkey.

 

[Graves The Elder]

I just love cold turkey.
can't get enough of it.
kind of a problem tbh.
I've tried to quit many times.
post thanksgiving is a really bad time for me.
total relapse.

 

[Ikuza]

$350 bar tab one Halloween at a bar in SF.

Wasn't drunk afterwards.

Figured it was time to calm the fuck down.

I calmed the fuck down.

 

[DrVanNostrand]

@faustian and myself had kindling. That shit is so fucked it is amazing i am not dead. Valium saved my life.

 

[lifelessheap]

Im on day 48 free of alcohol. Im 26, drinking daily for the past 4 years. Drank about 4-8 every weekday (sometimes more, sometimes less). All bets were off on the weekends and holidays/ vacations, sometimes getting into high teens to twenty ish. Hungover bad at least twice a weekend. Had an incident and im very lucky to not be crippled or dead. I sorta tapered off by only having 1 drink per day for 3 days before going to get help. Opted to try an outpatient program. They determined i wouldnt need medication for withdrawals because of my little taper off. Still had some light tremors,anxiety etc. Nothing major. Not like the shakes from going on a solid bender lol

Good for you dude. I quit on Jan 23 of last month after drinking every night for over a decade and binging on the regular for almost about 15 years. It wasn't as brutal as I thought it would be. However, the hallucinations at night were totally fucked. Auditory and visual. Voices talking to me see face and people while I wished I was sleeping. Freaky.

After about a week the cravings and horrific desire to drink started drying up. Oh, having solid shits for the first time in a decade is weird and I am eating way too much food.

 

[El Chimpo]

will be two years sober in august

 

[Oblivian]

I binge drank all through college until it turned into daily drinking. It was basically daily binge drinking too where I was able to down 20+ beers. When I decided to quit, I had a mini-stroke and had to go to the hospital. It was a lot of tests after that and ended up being pretty expensive. Prior to that day, I did have bad withdrawal symptoms (shakes, insomnia, anxiety, bad body temp regulation, etc.) whenever I stopped. If you have those, I'd go to a detox.

 

[groo]

Any stories of people being able to cut alcohol out/down in their life? Is a detox facility a must have? Do you have to go to a doctor and get benzos? Could I just slowly taper it off? Coming off a 4 day bender and I'm shakey as hell and have anxiety through the roof right now. Ugh, enough is enough. To quote the great

Well if you are as huge of an alcoholic as you seem by the wording there.

You should seek medical help for the initial withdrawal.

 

[TrueBias]

did you keep a spreadsheet or something? that's really specific.

I added up all the times i went out to a bar for certain months i felt i was pissing money away. First time i did this was $699 and it was either November or October it was $912.

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

i quit for 5 years in my early 20's - binge drinking was a huge problem for me.

beer was massive for me in my teens, now i can only drink 1-or 2 and then feel full - i also drink GOOD beer i.e. something that isn't watered down - i like wheat beers and they are very filling.

otherwise, these days i basically don't drink sunday through thursday, leaving it for friday & saturday. i say 'basically' because i do have to take clients out during the week from time to time and you inevitably drink something

all in all, my drinking has been greatly reduced over the years.

unlike when @fingercuffs and i got smashed together - shit that was fun

 

[Clear Winner]

I rarely drink in the house, so instead of going to the pub 4 times I week, I changed it to twice max.

Meet friends for a meal instead of a drink more often too, that helps. It was actually something that some friends found tough to deal with, as they knew me as the guy they get drunk and have a laugh with, but once they realised that we could still have a laugh (although admittedly not quite as much as when drinking) sober, it was fine.]

Hangovers are too much for me now I'm in my mid 30s

 

[TheNinja]

Your lieing to yourself, you dont want to quit at the moment, your just feeling guilty after a bender

How about if I say I want to want to stop? It wasn't feeling guilty it was feeling and knowing that if I don't stop I'm going to literally die.

I drank about 8 oz of vodka last night which is off pace from my normal 10-12+ oz. I feel a lot better this morning actually as far as energy and not feeling shakey or hazy. My kidneys hurt but that's to be expected I suppose. I sweat like a crazy person during hte night. Woke up around 3am dripping in sweat and it was 65 degrees in my house.

I'm gonna drop quicker as it went well the first night. Maybe try 6 oz tonight. However I have a feeling the taper from 8 oz to 4oz is gonna be a lot tougher than the drop from 12 to 8.

 

[Jesus X]

I used to binge drink in my early twenties now I have way better control over my drinking I drink like 4 beers every two weeks,I could've quit entirely but I found it to be unnecessary.

 

[TheNinja]

Just quit drinking. You have to be like a 1/5 a day drinker to worry about DT's. I have drank for 2 or three days at a time before without sleeping and drank 2-3 1/5th's of vodka in that time and I've never got the DT's.

The worst I would get is some anxiety and maybe a little tightness in my chest, but I would never puke or feel sick. I usually drink once or twice a week now and usually will drink a 1/5th of Vodka in a sitting. I know it's not good for me, but I'll keep it to the weekends and not drink during the week.

Thanks for the comments and congrats on cutting back. I wasn't a 5th a day and I would go the whole work day without a drink. I never drank at work. I was more binge 10-12oz or more week nights. Weekends I'd definitely do a 1/5th each day. I'd wake up and take a sip before I even got out of bed. After 2 days of that Monday really really suck. Thing is I don't really get the traditional hangover anymore. Just upset stomach a bit and the shits...heh.

 

[TheNinja]

Good for you dude. I quit on Jan 23 of last month after drinking every night for over a decade and binging on the regular for almost about 15 years. It wasn't as brutal as I thought it would be. However, the hallucinations at night were totally fucked. Auditory and visual. Voices talking to me see face and people while I wished I was sleeping. Freaky.

After about a week the cravings and horrific desire to drink started drying up. Oh, having solid shits for the first time in a decade is weird and I am eating way too much food.

Thanks for sharing your story. The only thing positive for me is that I cut back before I flew back to my parents before Christmas since I wasn't sure I'd hve easy access there and didn't want to be drunk around them the whole break. I was able to handle it fairly well, though a few nights I had 3-4 beers with some buddies.

I also have to lol at your comment about solid shits. I know exactly what you are talking about. When I cut out the vodka I was shocked I didn't crap for 3 days then when I did it was solid. And yes, I ate way more b/c my stomach wasn't always upset.

It's nice to hear others' stories.

 

[Phlog]

Any stories of people being able to cut alcohol out/down in their life? Is a detox facility a must have? Do you have to go to a doctor and get benzos? Could I just slowly taper it off? Coming off a 4 day bender and I'm shakey as hell and have anxiety through the roof right now. Ugh, enough is enough. To quote the great

After drinking so much in January that I was drunk 3 days later I decided to stop. I used the distate I felt at the time and nurtured it.

I had a drink for the superbowl and now I've gone back to having a couple of beers on a Sunday but I think it's changed my relationship with booze full stop.

I'd been drinking everyday, except for fight weeks, for 20 years. I felt no downside stopping for a month before restarting with a now healthy relationship to booze.

 

[Phlog]

Never had to since I have self control.

Thank God you're here to impart that wisdom.

 

[RockstarChris]

i tried last week but now i just work out more and drink less. Seems to be working.

I might even get laid tonight