need help with a plan

[letgolaughing]

hi
i'm new here and need help with cutting back on my drinking. I am 44 and female. for about the past 5 years i have been drinking pretty much every night. I now am up to 2-4 drinks every night. usually beer and wine. during the week, it's usually 2-3, and on weekends, 4. i wouldn't think this would be enough to cause severe withdrawals but since i have been doing it for so many years, i think it might.

i have worked myself into a frenzy over alcohol withdrawal and the fear of that is making it hard for me to cut back. I want to be able to NOT have a drink, but when I try to do that, my big fear is that I will have severe withdrawals. anyway...i'd like to taper off and end up with mostly abstinence days during the week.
my goal is not to drink at all monday-thursday, and to decrease the weekend drinking to 2-3. of course, i wouldn't mind the occassional glass of wine on tuesday or something eventually. I just want to be able to NOT drink if i don't feel like it! LOL

anyway, having said this..i don't know how much i should decrease the amount of alcohol by when i taper? do i cut it in half? third? for how long? this week I had only 1.5 drinks on monday, 2 on tues, 4 on weds, 1 on thursday. tonight i'm only going to have 2. etc

can anyone help me set a plan up? I just don't want to have major withdrawals!

thanks
reece-
ps-can you tell that i have OCD and am a little bit of a hypochondriac!

[colbe]

need help with a plan

You will get a ton of support here...welcome! I cannot give you advise on that question...I am trying to cut down too to prevent DT's. They get bad toward the end of the day. I am doing alot better than I was but that is only I can come here everyday and read and talk to people in the Chat room. (there are a couple people there now if you want to join in). Sometimes I see if I can wait longet in the day then just have a couple (that is MAJOR cut down for me at a usual 10-15 beers a day) and then try to just go to bed. Good to meet you here!

[tawnywitch]

need help with a plan

hallo there, I don't know the answer to your question, but I am doing almost the same thing, I started here last week, sometimes it;s the thought that your'e going to try not to drink that set's off the panic I find,I am just trying to cut down to 2-3 day's a week, 2 normal glasses of wine,I used to use a pint glass and then at least I could say, I'v only had 1 or 2 I was only fooling myself, good luck, your not alone now, everyone is so nice here, good luck,
Colbe , the guinea pig's are home!! Iwill join in chat agin, that's a cryptic message if ever there was one.

[Seacailin]

need help with a plan

Hello and Welcome
I can't really advise on the tapering. I have never been able to do it. I have only been able to withdraw with medications. I get bad withdrawals. I am sure that someone will come along who knows more about it. Getting a plan is a good idea. Have you read the MWO Book. It may help. Welcome aboard and best wishes.

[Lavande]

need help with a plan

Hi letgolaughing,

Welcome to MWO!
This is a great place, you find lots of support.

You mentioned that you only had 1 drink yesterday! Are you feeling any withdrawal symptoms now?
Why don't you stick with just 1 drink today or none??????? You are very close to being alcohol free right now!
Not everyone experiences withdrawal symptoms, you may very well not experience them either. Pick your quit date, today or tomorrow and just do it! Make the commitment, make your plan and stick to it.
Read the MWO book - you can download it immediately from the Health Store. Look in the Toolbox (located in the Monthly Abstinence section) for ideas to help you make your plan.

Please feel free to join us on the 'Newbies Nest' thread. There's lots of good support & conversation there.

Wishing you the best!
Lav

[puddytat]

need help with a plan

Warm welcome Reese. Everyone is different; and every 'body' reacts differently to alcohol. so ... hard to give you a "plan"

If you'd like, click this link from HARMS reduction network --- a site that supports harm reduction from alcohol/drug abuse. It suggests a tapering plan of , like, 2 days.
https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...hol-34210.html

[Doggygirl]

need help with a plan

Hi Reece and welcome! If you feel that you are not in control of your alcohol intake, then good for you looking to work on that issue. I'm not a health care professional, so the only thing I can offer is what I did when I first stopped drinking. I read and printed the symptoms of withdrawl which can be found here: https://www.mywayout.org/community/f7...wal-13412.html. I reviewed them with my husband so he could keep an eye on me and take medical action if necessary. Thankfully, the only symptoms I had to deal with were the uncomfortable ones - not any health / life threatening ones.

Just throwing that out there in case you have a significant other or friend who can keep an eye on you.

Whatever path you end up taking, best wishes to you!

DG

[letgolaughing]

need help with a plan

hi! what a warm welcome!! thanks

I did only have one drink last night and other than anxiety(which I'm used to)i'm not having any withdrawal symptoms. I only drink after 6pm, and I don't like to get drunk, and usually if I have even 4 and a half drinks, I get a hangover(tired, headache, etc). So, I don't really BINGE drink either. So I guess I'd say I can moderate.

I went to the HARMS website, but the tapering advice was to drink just enough to keep the sweats and shakes at bay. Since I don't have those, would it be safe to say I'm not gonna die of a seizure or DT's when I do finally have the AF day?



Do y'all think that I drink enough to put myself at risk for severe withdrawals? (DT's, Seizures?)

This past summer, there was one night that I didn't have anything to drink and nothing happened. But I'm scared that if I go like 3 days in a row, I will have a seizure or something. Is this ridiculous?

I have read through a couple of your stories....all of them inspirational. mighty strong folks on this board!! I seem to be on the lighter side of the drinkers here, but still, in my head, I worry. my husband assures me that I don't drink enough to have severe withdrawals, but I can't seem to believe him.

[greeneyes]

need help with a plan

Hi let! Welcome. Just my opinion, and nothing more but based on what you say, I would think you'd be alright. But you seem worried and that's the important part. Psychosomatic aspect. You know about drinking lots of water etc to get the toxins out right? Eating healthy water water water, supplements water water water.

[letgolaughing]

need help with a plan

just an update. i'm so proud of myself. we went to dinner and i had only a glass of wine. then i wanted another but opted to have only half of my husband's. i'm having a very small half glass at home now, then i'm going to take a bath and go to bed. ONLY 2 glasses of wine on a friday night. good for me.