I had made a post a couple months ago about wanting to stop drinking.
I drink about 5 or 6 330 ml bottles of 5% beer a night. 5 during the week and 6 or rarely 7 on the weekend.
I tried to taper my use but every time by cutting down a beer every two days. But every time the weekend came I would give into temptation and have 6 again. I think I have poor self discipline.
I have 7.5 pills of 7.5mg zopiclone. Will this help me any psychological withdrawals and hopefully help me sleep?
I really want to stop drinking for a while. But I am unable to taper off properly so I am going to try cold turkey.
What else can I do to make it easier? I have the zopiclone.
Do you experience withdrawals when you don't drink? Are you drinking only at night? Everyone is different, but I have had long periods of time (years) where I drank more than that every single night, and never experienced any withdrawals. usually people just get withdrawals when they drink every day throughout the day.
If you don't experience withdrawals when you don't drink, then my recommendation is not to use anything, because you're risking a dual addiction. Benzos substitute for alcohol quite well, but it's much easier to get addicted to them and the withdrawal lasts for weeks instead of days. You can't take a benzo every night for all that long before you develop dependence, either. If I took a benzo every night for years, I'd be dependent, but I can do so with alcohol as long as I never drink before night time.
If you ARE experiencing withdrawals, then it's a different story, and you will need assistance to come off safely. In that case I would recommend getting a long-acting benzo, and dosing once per day, or at the very most, once in the morning and once at night. Gradually decrease your dosage and do not take them for more than a week or you risk switching addictions to benzos, and you'll regret ever trying to use benzos to get off alcohol.
If you have withdrawals, it would be best to seek medical attention. They'll put you on a short prescription for a benzo, probably Librium, which is ideal because it is a weak benzo that works great for alcohol withdrawal, and one dose lasts a whole day.
If you do NOT have withdrawals, then you can definitely do this and the best plan is to just stop, rather than try to use another drug to substitute, you just need to restructure your life a bit to spend time doing things that fill that void without alcohol.
Either way, whether you cold turkey because you don't have withdrawals, or you get off with benzos, it is very important to find other activities to replace the time you spent drinking with. Otherwise you'll most likely start drinking again, or be unable to just stop, because you'll still want alcohol for the same reasons. Filling your time with a hobby is really important. Also a daily workout helps a whole lot. Everything feels better when you're in shape, and the endorphins and dopamine produced will help you feel satisfied and content without substances. Whenever I have gotten off addictive drugs entirely for any length of time, it's always included daily working out. It's SO MUCH easier with that as a part of your plan.