Need to Stop Drinking!!!

[Tampa21]

Hey Everyone!

I have finally broke down and realized that I'm an Alcoholic after many years of denial. I found this site a couple months back and was very hesitant to register but found the stories of others struggling with alcohol and finding a way to beat this very hopeful.

Long story short I was laid off from my job in the construction industry and found out one of my parents had stage 4 cancer all in one week. I became a full time caregiver and morphed into a full time drinker, functional but finding myself always needing a drink to deal with the stress. My anexity is now through the roof and alcohol is the only thing that takes the edge off. I'm drinking as I write this.

I want to stop but can't find the will power, sad I know. I just want to learn to live without it and not let it control my thoughts daily. All I think about is, when can I get the next drink!

Not looking for pitty, looking for a solution to get my life back on track! I have to for me first but also my family and friends.

I'm really interested in trying baclofen. I have read numerous success stories on this site and others and I think it might be worth a shot.

Anyways any advice would be appreciated, it would mean alot. I admire the strength of alot of people i see posting on this site. Hopefully if I can beat this I can help others too!

Thanks.

[Lavande]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

Hello & welcome Tampa!

Glad you decided to join us, MWO is a good place
I started here 4 years ago & have found success, you can too.

Go to tthe Health store here on the site & download the MWO book. It's a quick read but has a lot of info for you. I did not use any Rx medications myself but others do so.

You need to make a good plan for yourself. Take a look thru the https://www.mywayout.org/community/f1...box-27556.html for lots of great ideas.

Please drop in the Newbies Nest thread for ongoing support too. Lots of folks there just getting started as well & a few of us who have been around for a few years.

Kicking AL out of your life & taking back control is not easy but completely doable. It's the best thing for you & for your family. Being fully present for my family has made me a very grtaeful person. You can do this too

Wishing you the best!
Lav

[kuya]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

Hi Tampa and :welcome: to MWO.

It is interesting that the subject of anxiety and baclofen was being discussed a couple of days ago.
Have a chat in the meds section if you wanna try that route.

I had a lot of anxiety, but it was being caused by the alcohol. When I first quit I used GABA supplement to control anxiety and it worked a treat.

Now my anxiety has completely gone.

Check out the link in my signature to learn more about some biochemistry of alcohol abuse. Whatever route you choose....read, read, read and post A LOT.

Committing to this place works. You CAN get free of this demon and be happy again.

[lizker]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

That is quite a lot to deal with and keep a straight head.
You are taking a crucial step of actually recognizing that
you have a problem and are starting to do something about it.
In my attempts to quite the biggest battle was finally deciding
to give up alc completely. Once I accepted that possibility
things have started to really come together for me. Iam
on day 42 today. Cravings come and go but iam not caving.
Are you trying to moderate or quit altogether?

[Tampa21]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

Thanks

Thanks for the replys! I'm new to this site and feel akward posting such a personal problem but hearing from you guys makes me feel not so alone anymore. I hide this addiction from loved ones for the most part...they all know me as the fun loving guy who always has a beer in his hand. What they dont know is I have a problem which I have come to realize.

I'm hoping to beat this and still be the funny guy in the room minus the beer in my hand.

I'm very encouraged by all the positive and uplifting messages i have seen shared between members.

I HOPE THIS WORKS....I NEED IT TO!

Thanks again...I'm going to check around the site some more tonight and will always be willing to share as all of you have been so generous to!

[Tampa21]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

lizker;1466885 wrote: That is quite a lot to deal with and keep a straight head.
You are taking a crucial step of actually recognizing that
you have a problem and are starting to do something about it.
In my attempts to quite the biggest battle was finally deciding
to give up alc completely. Once I accepted that possibility
things have started to really come together for me. Iam
on day 42 today. Cravings come and go but iam not caving.
Are you trying to moderate or quit altogether?

I'm honestly confused to what I want. I don't honestly know if social drinking is something I can achieve now that I'm so far gone. Sure I would like to go have a drink and not worry about the need for another and another and another till I pass out. Kinda depressing. I often just want to go back to when I was 18 and had my first beer and slap the shit out of myself! I guess I will have to play it by ear...but if I could never need a drop of alcohol again and could be happy without it that would be the road I choose!! Thanks for the kind words by the way and your 42 days! Impressive.

[kuya]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

Tampa21;1466906 wrote: I'm honestly confused to what I want. I don't honestly know if social drinking is something I can achieve now that I'm so far gone. Sure I would like to go have a drink and not worry about the need for another and another and another till I pass out. Kinda depressing. I often just want to go back to when I was 18 and had my first beer and slap the shit out of myself! I guess I will have to play it by ear...but if I could never need a drop of alcohol again and could be happy without it that would be the road I choose!! Thanks for the kind words by the way and your 42 days! Impressive.

What is the longest stretch you have had sober recently Tampa ?

[Tampa21]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

Honestly...it has been over 2 years since I have had a completely sober day...no alcohol drank. Tough to admit that but I have nothing to lose. Why do you ask?

[kuya]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

Well it gives a starting point as to how you should try for sobriety.

Have you got any supplements, vitamins etc?

[Tampa21]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

I just started a daily dose of viatimin b50 complex x2. I know heavy drinkers are deficent in that. It has helped a little in cutting down but it I know it is not my answer. I also take a daily multi-viatimin. Do you have any Advice???

[kuya]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

Tampa21;1466943 wrote: I just started a daily dose of viatimin b50 complex x2. I know heavy drinkers are deficent in that. It has helped a little in cutting down but it I know it is not my answer. I also take a daily multi-viatimin. Do you have any Advice???

If you can afford it get the starter pack from here or check out the Biorecovery site in the US. It is owned by Joan Larsen who wrote 'seven weeks to sobriety'. Check out their site and book, very useful.

I used a LOT of supplements and had a pretty easy quit. But that was after THOUSANDS of day ones.

I wrote a post about it they may help you so here that is........








To those struggling to get past the first days on days and when they see people getting congrats on reaching multiple days and think it came easy............... I pulled this post up for you.......it might help you through these early days......I hope so

KUYA


I see you keep falling over at day 2 or 3. I assume you know from everyone here that the first seven days are the worst, but of course you don't really KNOW how much better you will feel so there is no incentive to stick it out cos your brain is screaming

DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK

You read my previous post of 23 years of failed day ones. Sometimes my work meant I would go 2 nights AF and they were sleepless and I felt exhausted but I couldn't understand why they were actually not too bad. Then I would have day 3, promise myself that if I could do 2 nights working I could do a third, fourth, fifth FOR ME. But I never could because I had convinced myself it was too hard, I needed to sleep yadda yadda yadda.

I eventually made myself so sick and tired that I knew I was gonna die if I kept this half a bottle of vodka a day habit going. So I got my son and his girlfriend to move back in, had a big song and dance about it, set up umpteen safety nets and started the first quit of my life.

I started that first week in absolute terror, convinced that by day 3 or 4 or 5 at the latest I was going to be having DTs, hospitalized or a basket case in some way. Those first 5 days were hard, mostly because I was holding my breath , waiting for all hell to break loose.

Truth is by day 5 I felt fine, tired and a little out of body aching but my days were AWESOME I was sober! The feelings some describe as cravings are, IMHO better described as simply your body shedding alcohol. Your brain knows from years of practice that you can reverse this process and stop the pain by drinking alcohol. Your poor brain, the primitive part doesn't know that it will stop in a few days. Your poor alcohol sodden primitive brain only knows how to stop it NOW..... BY DRINKING MORE ALCOHOL.

This is where you are at, the alcohol leaving is causing you fear, no pain just FEAR. This is your battle, to stick it out cos your intellect brain has the benefit of US people telling you it WILL stop.

But you wanna know what hurts most is when I look at my sons who had to grow up watching me suffer and helpless to stop me.......

I HAD JUST WASTED 23 YEARS OF MY FECKING LIFE FOR FEAR OF ONE WEEK OF DISCOMFORT
__________________

[Oneredshoe]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

:welcome: Tampa.....Vitamins vitamins.......I prefer food based supplements. I read this article.....hope it helps
Beverage alcohol is ethanol, C2 H5 OH. It is a simple carbohydrate, much like sugar, supplying lots of energy and no other nutrients. Thiamin, vitamin B-1, is needed for carbohydrate metabolism. Extra carbos, including extra alcohol, require extra thiamin.

Because alcohol is filling, it displaces more nourishing foods in the diet, causing malnutrition and specifically causing thiamin deficiency. So the heavy drinker is much less likely to get even the usual dietary amount of thiamin, at a time when she needs much more. Add to this the fact that alcohol destroys the liver and brain gradually, but profoundly. This damage increases the need for nutrients to repair the body at a time when the drinker is eating fewer and fewer good foods. Still worse, alcohol causes poor absorption and poor utilization of what B-vitamins there are. Alcohol can literally destroy folic acid.

A deficiency of thiamin, just thiamin, produces the following symptoms, according to the respected textbook, Nutrition and Diet Therapy:

Gastrointestinal: anorexia, indigestion, severe constipation, gastric atony, and insufficient HCl secretion. All the above result mostly from a lack of energy to the GI tract cells; no thiamin, no energy, no function.

Cardiovascular: dilation of peripheral blood vessels (edema), weakened heart muscle, and heart failure.

Neurological: diminished reflex response, reduced alertness, fatigue, apathy. Continued deficiency produces damage or degeneration to myelin sheaths (fatty nerve cell insulation material). If you see an obvious tie-in to M.S., you are right. A lack of thiamin causes increased nerve irritation, pain, prickly sensations, deadening sensations, and if unchecked, paralysis. Thiamin-deficiency nerve damage can result in the DT's and hallucinations.

All this, mind you, from a deficiency of just one vitamin.

The US thiamin RDA of a milligram or two is not even remotely close to being enough. A very strong case can be made for 25 to 65 mg per day even for non-alcoholics. The heavy drinker's poor diet plus ensuing alcohol damage plus increased thiamin need proportional to carbohydrate intake points to an optimum B-1 intake of several hundred milligrams a day.

The 1975 MRCA study of about 2000 households for a full year showed that, of adults 19 or older, over 65% got less than the RDA of thiamin. This means that half to two thirds of Americans probably are thiamin deficient even if they do not drink at all. Thiamin is found in almost all natural foods, but in very tiny amounts. Precious few sober Americans, let alone alcoholics, eat quantities of the whole grains and legumes (peas, beans and lentils) that are modest food sources.

Therefore, vitamin B-1 supplements are essential. And to get maximum results, additional nutrients must also be provided in abundance through supplementation.

Which ones, specifically?

1. Vitamin C to saturation (on the order of 10,000 to 20,000 mg per day and more). Beverage alcohol (ethanol) is chemically just one carbon and two hydrogens either way from methanol (windshield washer fluid) and propanol (rubbing alcohol), both of which are poisons. In quantity, vitamin C is an antitoxin. High doses of vitamin C chemically neutralizes the toxic breakdown products of alcohol metabolism. And, vitamin C increases the liver's ability to reverse the fatty build-up so common in alcoholics.


2. B-complex (comprising 50mg of each of the major B-vitamins, 6 times daily). Extra thiamin and extra niacin may be helpful. Unlike drugs, the B-vitamins work best together.

3. L-Glutamine, (about two or three thousand milligrams). Decreases physiological cravings for alcohol.

4. Lecithin (2 to 4 tablespoons daily). Provides inositol and choline, related to the B-complex. Lecithin also helps mobilize fats out of the liver.

5. Chromium (at least 200 to perhaps 400 mcg chromium polynicotinate daily). Chromium greatly reduces carbohydrate mis-metabolism, and greatly helps control blood sugar levels. Many, if not most, alcoholics are hypoglycemic.

6. A good high-potency multi-vitamin, multi-mineral supplement as well, containing magnesium (400 mg) and the antioxidants carotene and d-alpha tocopherol.

Dr. Williams second Nobel-worthy contribution to nutrition is the genetotrophic concept. Simply stated, the reason different people need different amounts of vitamins to be optimally healthy is due to their genes. And more importantly, any genetic deficiencies can be compensated for with larger than normal (megadoses) of nutrients. Dr. Ruth Harrell elegantly confirmed Dr. Williams theory when she gave huge doses of vitamins, especially B-complex, to severely mentally handicapped children. She obtained extraordinary improvement in learning and IQ in a matter of months, including spectacular advances in Down's Syndrome children. This work was done in 1981, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[Tampa21]

Need to Stop Drinking!!!

Thanks!

Thanks you guys for all the useful information. I will be checking out the advice you have given me. Even though I'm down about my drinking and the problems it causes I feel good about the fact I can talk to you guys without be judged or people saying just stop. I WISH IT WAS THAT EASY. I know I drink to deal with my anexity but I want to find other ways, healthy ways to deal with it and start living again.

You all have given me hope...and renewed strength that I will overcome this. :thanks: