Addiction anyone with experience quiting alcohol?

[asecin]

i keep trying to quit that garbage but i end up on benzos (which addict me even worse) so i end up going back to alcohol to withdraw from benzo, therefore ending again on benzos to quit alcohol! wtf man!? every dumb ass doctor i have seen knows one thing only "benzos"! well, they never helped me, ever! especially that crap librium, wtf is that crap about, it lasts like 3 days and you can barely move around, especially dangerous is driving on that garbage. how can this be safer than few beers when driving??
so anyway, to cut things short, anyone has any recommendations to getting off benzos and alcohol? the only other alternative i have found so far is naltrexone, but when i asked about 5-6 doctors to which i spent hundreds of dollars and time, they all said they dont even know about it! its so funny since most doctors i see are my age and i know more than them LOL what a crappy life!

 

[aihfl]

It sounds as if you need to consult a board certified addiction psychiatrist. Yes, benzos are the preferred way to detox off alcohol, but it is very important to taper off the benzos during the withdrawal process. You can find a taper schedule using Librium, Ativan, Serax and phenobarbital here.

Naltrexone can be useful (IME) after the withdrawal process is finished to reduce cravings. It also supposedly blunts the pleasant sensations produced by alcohol, but that said, I've been drunk as shit on nal and it didn't feel any different than any other drunk. It also made me violently ill, like I was in opiate withdrawal all over again.

There are other useful drugs. I found Campral (acamprosate) to be effective. It had minimal side effects and it cut down on a whole host of obsessive behaviors (craving for alcohol, impulse buying, obsessing over sex etc.). Antidepressants are another possibility. I had a doctor in a medical detox put me on Celexa. I resisted at first insisting that I wasn't depressed, but to put it in the simplest terms, once I felt better about myself and everything else, I had no more reason to drink.

Lastly, is an inpatient medical detox a possibility? Your benzo taper would be supervised and a week in a facility is likelier to help break the cycle you're in than just doing it on your own.

 

[cj]

It sounds like outpatient taper isn't working. Have you ever been to an inpatient treatment center?

 

[asecin]

i dont like those inpatient clinics. i called few and they keep bullshitting me saying they dont even prescribe important meds like naltrexone, plus you have to stay there 30 damn days (costing you money and your life) only to be in group therapy up to 3 hours a time! how is this helpful? one of the reasons i get high or drunk is to either avoid people or feel comfortable enough to tolerate them. how is group therapy going to help me stay sober?? so putting me in a group of losers who whine just like i do and i am SOBER listening to this for 3 hours is going to benefit me or anyone how exactly?
to make things worse, ive been hooked on tramadol while on benzos and alcohol in what i see as the holly trio of devil's addictions. tramadol might be the weakest opioid out there, but its very underrated potent serotonin releaser that causes massive panic attacks and psychosis when you quit it. combine that with quiting benzos and alcohol, dear lord, you are for a trip!

 

[Tombs]

Right after I got out of prison, I started drinking almost a handle of Sobieski every night. This lasted give or take 5 years with dozens of unsuccessful quits in between. In retrospect, I'm not even sure how this is possible. I must have been vomiting or something during my blackouts.

Alcohol is the most difficult substance I've ever quit in a multitude of ways and it's not even my drug of choice.

~It took the most attempts and relapses to completely stop.

~Liquor is everywhere and the obsession is incredible. Every liquor company knows that they make most of their money off of hard-line alcoholics and not the weekend tailgater. As a result, everything in most liquor/beer commercials is designed to make us relapse by making us feel like that drink is going to be the only way to recapture the nostalgia of youth, find some semblance of comfort or finally fuck that person you've always wanted to fuck but don't have the cojones to talk to sober. Adds a new dimension to it. There aren't billboards for crack everywhere.

~It easily caused the most damage to my body. Worse than my gram a day heroin habit that lasted for years. It's honestly not even comparable. That said, EMMV, this is only my experience.

~The withdrawals were probably the most pain emotionally and physically I've ever been through. Physically for sure and I've been shot. To this day I've never been in such a disgusting and grueling state of mind for such a long period of time. To top it off for at least a year afterwards I had fight or flight adrenaline responses to the smallest social situations. I frequently ran out of stores feeling like I couldn't breathe and about to throw up. I switched my work to night shift to avoid people. I didn't medicate and I detoxed at home, which I definitely should not have done. I could have died and I probably would have if I hadn't been born from a lineage of human junkie cockroaches.

This horrific experience genuinely traumatized me. It bitch slapped the taste for liquor straight from my mouth. Despite this, in a way I still regret not going to a medical detox. If I had to do it over again, I would go to the hospital. I can't tell you what to do with your life and I'm not trying to, but please at least consider that it is may likely be your best course of action.

I screwed up with my pain pills recently and went through some fairly rough withdrawals. I had a night where I couldn't sleep about a week ago with a big day up ahead so I couldn't look all strung out and tired. I figured fuck it I'm relapsed already so I tried drinking some wine to calm my nerves. I'm a chef so I love wine but man I absolutely HATED the feeling. I will never drink again, I'm sure of it. If I believed in a God I'd love to express my gratitude for this.

 

[aihfl]

i dont like those inpatient clinics. i called few and they keep bullshitting me saying they dont even prescribe important meds like naltrexone, plus you have to stay there 30 damn days (costing you money and your life) only to be in group therapy up to 3 hours a time! how is this helpful? one of the reasons i get high or drunk is to either avoid people or feel comfortable enough to tolerate them. how is group therapy going to help me stay sober?? so putting me in a group of losers who whine just like i do and i am SOBER listening to this for 3 hours is going to benefit me or anyone how exactly?

1. Detox and a four week rehab are two completely different things. Detox from alcohol takes about a week, perhaps a little longer if the doctor determines your benzo withdrawal warrants it.

2. Dealing with people is just a fact of life. It sounds to me as if you're going to have to learn how to deal with them if you're going to take away what drives your addictions. You could try to figure it out on your own but it will almost certainly go more smoothly and faster if you have a professional helping you along the way. In order to grow as a person you have to step out of your comfort zone and that goes for anything in life, not just fighting addiction.

3. Whether or not naltrexone works for you is far from guaranteed and it is certainly not a cure. If it works for you, it is simply one tool among many that you will need to quit your addictions.

 

[asecin]

dear lord, tombs! it was difficult for me to read your experience, it sounds like hell, but it relates to my awareness now of alcohol's destructive nature to which i agree with you and i dont even wanna imagine your situation because i already have it the same.
i was getting those near death panic attacks today from not using any, but i made the mistake of taking opioids beforehand thinking that will calm me, but it really only stimulates and urges me further to drink. anyway, i managed to calm down after few beers. now, that im running out of tramadol, this is the first to quit and then benzos with tapering down alcohol. my regular use is 1-2 bottles of wine either red or white dont matter much, then about 5 beers. im gonna start to lowering it to just 1 bottle plus some beer and slowly down just a small 355 bottle with no beer. what do you guys think of this strategy??

 

[Captain.Heroin]

gabaergics are highly addictive and it sounds like you're not willing to go through withdrawal.

have you tried going through WD without benzos?

there are no safe GABA drugs that can be taken long term without forming addiction. It's best to face that going into this.

 

[Tombs]

my regular use is 1-2 bottles of wine either red or white dont matter much, then about 5 beers. im gonna start to lowering it to just 1 bottle plus some beer and slowly down just a small 355 bottle with no beer. what do you guys think of this strategy??

You know yourself better than anybody. If you feel like you're capable of tapering, I don't see why not.

I, for one, am not. It's this bizarre feeling I get like I only partially scratched an itch. Then, almost as if spitefully rebelling against a parent, I would intentionally drink as hard as I could like I was making up for lost time.

Like, I'd go out with a bunch of project managers for drinks and I'd only have a beer or two to keep up impressions. By the time the second beer was over I was already thinking shit like, "What's the point? I'm not even buzzed." or "If I'm going to drink I'm going to go all out." and you read where it landed me.

Another one of my biggest barriers was the fact that I convinced myself that I wouldn't be able to do this or that because I can't drink. As an immigrant, I grew up with little family, partially in dcfs. In my teens I bonded over alcohol with my only father figure outside of gangs, my grandfather. I couldn't imagine not drinking with him. How can I celebrate my birthday without drinking? Every family party everyone is loaded.

That was all bullshit. There is not a single situation I can think of since I quit drinking that would have been made better by drinking. Not one.

Again, good luck. I wish you much resolve.

 

[asecin]

tombs how are you doing without alcohol now days? do you have cognitive problems because each time i quit alcohol, i become paralyzed and cannot think clearly and horrible memory problems. very paradoxical when i start drinking it gives me back my cognitive abilities. im much quicker. thats another huge fucking problem quiting. last time it took 6 months to feel just OK. and no, i cannot taper alcohol either, i tried today and im itchy as fuck as you describe. i feel like i itched my hand to feel OK but now i wanna scratch it OFF! im gonna get more soon...