3 pints of beer a night. Worried about withdrawal.

[V82]

I've been drinking 3 pints (tall boys) of beer 6 days a week for about a month now. On the weekend its more like 4 pints.

Before this I would drink about 3 nights a week.


If I stop now will I likely go through withdrawal?


Should I taper? And if so how?

 

[Speed King]

You'll go through a light withdrawal. During the week, drink two pints with a soda water or tonic water.
On the weekend, knock out a pint and replace a pint with soda or tonic.
Keep doing this till you get as low as you want to go.
Also, slow down the rate at which you drink.

 

[blowpipe]

Speed King has mostly summarized everything there is to it. Unless you're really lightweight, 3 pints of beer an evening isn't much at all (I don't like measures such as "pint of beer" personally; I think it's better to use the universal unit of millilitres of ethanol. For example 1.5 litres of 5.2% beer would be 78ml of ethanol. Besides, even pint is different from place to place - US pint is 473ml, but here a pint is 568ml. But I digress...). I personally have frequently drunk anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 litres of ~5% beer a night up to 6 days a week for prolonged periods and haven't experienced anything particularly disturbing in terms of withdrawal. I think you'd be fine just stopping cold turkey if you want to quit alcohol altogether, but if you feel like you're not going to get much sleep the first night of abstinence just have a drink ready. If things are not so bright and you should actually taper, then do as Speed King has suggested. I think you should have no problems unless your GABA system is really messed up from GABAergic drug (ab)use.

I wish you best of luck while I slam this beer for your health. Cheers.

 

[szuko000]

To put it into some perspective from personal experience. I was an alcoholic in college I mean drinking at least a 200mL of vodka a night for 2 years, every night even at my parents house by the end of the summer I had a trash bag full of 200mL Dubra (cheapest of the cheap vodka tastes harsh and gritty). I had no job and I couldnt let my parents know so getting a 200mL bottle for 2 dollars was something i could do every night and there would be no evidence.

Anyway this continued from 2008-2010 in varying intensity but always at least the vodka. Some nights i would go way over board and be sick for days others i would just be able to gather enough change for the bottle in pennies, from a liquor store that was basically on campus i always wondered what the owner thought i did lol.

Anyway I stopped abruptly when i met my g/f and though it was something i would crave i did replace it with weed. But i went though what i would consider minor withdrawals especially for what i was thinking i would experience. When i didnt have proper motivation it was almost impossible to quit because between 6-11 i drank that is what i did and it was hard to not do, even if it meant running home and chugging that 200mL so i could go to bed at 1230 i did it. But my withdrawal was a strong desire to drink and taht was it. Maybe some sleeping issues and stuff but they were all so minor it was ok. I think you can do this no problem!

 

[blueskies565]

Withdrawal? From 3 pints a night? For 1 month? You'll be fine I doubt you'll feel anything. I drink 8 - 12 cans a night currently and I could go a couple days without anything really major happening, hands might shake a little but not end of the world stuff. I used to drink more (2 - 4 bottles of wine a night) did that for a few months and that was a cut down from a 1 month of so period of all day 1litre + of vodka drinking (starting at like 5 in the morning when the shop opened). I was committed and obviously went without alchohol while in for two weeks and only issue was my hands shook. You should be fine no need to taper or anything. Maybe I have a distorted view as I drink so much but 3 pints is nothing.

 

[cripkeeper]

Everyone is different of course but I used do down a liter of cheap gin a night for a couple years. When I decided I needed to take a break and cut down on hard liquor I experienced some discomfort from suddenly not sedating my brain daily but it was no worse than an average hangover for a day. No reason to worry about your situation. Maybe I was lucky, but Im sure your in the clear as far as delirium tremens.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I would consult a medical professional about this, and ask them what you should do at the very least. Or you can always see if there's a free medical advice hotline you can call up and ask questions to a medical professional. Don't do what I did.

3 pints of beer an evening is not that much at all; but still be careful.

I drank daily in low, moderate, and then very large amounts of alcohol in college nightly for half a year. I looked here on bluelight for advice about what to do about quitting and someone posted a link to an alcohol harm reduction site that said it was easy and best to quit on your own. Thankfully the link to this site is no longer posted.

I did quit drinking daily, and slowly cut back, and had no withdrawals but I've never been physically addicted to alcohol. However this was very stupid as I did not tell anyone I was planning to do this, and people have died from alcohol withdrawal when they tried it on their own. Be safe, and good luck.

 

[Larc]

The people having siezures from alcohol are drinking a 5th a day for years.

Obviously some people have lower siezure thresholds due to medications or brain chemistry. The point being it's not like heroin or other drugs where heavy withdrawal can set in within a couple weeks of use.

 

[Rio Fantastic]

Unless you're really lightweight, 3 pints of beer an evening isn't much at all (I don't like measures such as "pint of beer" personally; I think it's better to use the universal unit of millilitres of ethanol. For example 1.5 litres of 5.2% beer would be 78ml of ethanol.

Can't really call it a "universal unit" if you're the only person who uses it, pal. Even on drug forums like this I've never seen anyone say "I consumed 120ml of ethanol", that's stupid. Who wants the hassle of converting the units? At a glance I'd say the vast majority of people will get a closer idea of how much has been drank from reading "3 pints" than from reading "78ml of ethanol". Myself, and I'd say most people, without making some calculations would have no idea how much or how little "78ml" of ethanol is. It's a stupid way of getting across how much you've drank - there's a reason nobody uses it. I figure if you want to be precise then "units" is a pretty good way of communicating how much you've drank, and failing that what's the problem with "x pints/shots/litres at x%"??? Nothing is wrong with it. You're just being pedantic and trying to push something that's awkward & unnecessary for no reason.

 

[Rio Fantastic]

I've been drinking 3 pints (tall boys) of beer 6 days a week for about a month now. On the weekend its more like 4 pints.

Before this I would drink about 3 nights a week.


If I stop now will I likely go through withdrawal?


Should I taper? And if so how?

You are definitely going to need medical supervision for this. Even people who've had one small sip of shandy a day for two weeks need medical supervision when going through withdrawals in order to prevent them from having life-threatening seizures. If you don't want to die, see a doctor.

 

[Speed King]

The point I was trying to make, which basically everyone has said, is everyone is different. The fact you have to ask, means you have some concern. This is the internet. People usually don't care all that much, but Bluelight is usually decent with their responses.
Only you know how your body and mind feel. Just because I did X and can handle Y really doesn't mean shit.
The best advise no matter how big or small is to seek medical attention. A doctors job is to make sure you don't seize and die of something people can seize and die from.
You want to be super safe, see a doctor.
Can't see a doctor, ween yourself off slowly. The less abrupt you can be, the better. There is absolutely nothing wrong with medical assistance.

 

[blowpipe]

Can't really call it a "universal unit" if you're the only person who uses it, pal. Even on drug forums like this I've never seen anyone say "I consumed 120ml of ethanol", that's stupid. Who wants the hassle of converting the units? At a glance I'd say the vast majority of people will get a closer idea of how much has been drank from reading "3 pints" than from reading "78ml of ethanol". Myself, and I'd say most people, without making some calculations would have no idea how much or how little "78ml" of ethanol is. It's a stupid way of getting across how much you've drank - there's a reason nobody uses it. I figure if you want to be precise then "units" is a pretty good way of communicating how much you've drank, and failing that what's the problem with "x pints/shots/litres at x%"??? Nothing is wrong with it. You're just being pedantic and trying to push something that's awkward & unnecessary for no reason.

I see your point but I have to disagee. Yes, a pint of beer is pretty much well defined and there is nothing wrong with saying x litres of y% beer, that is absolutely fine. But I've seen people use units such as "can of beer", which could be anywhere from 300ml of 2% beer to over 500ml of 10% beer, and there is a difference. What I was trying to say is not that everyone should use ethanol volume as the dosage unit, but try to think about being more precise when describing dosages. For example, when someone says that they're eating a packet of codeine pills a day, your first question will be "how many pills is that? how much codeine?"; the list goes on, you get my point.

Another thing is that just because nobody uses "ethanol ml" doesn't mean it's wrong or stupid. It's just more complicated for your average Joe to do the math, but if people did that, it'd make information exchange a lot easier. You don't think it's stupid that people describe their oxycodone dosages in milligrams not "a couple pills", do you?

Yes, I am pedantic at times and I apologize if it offended you so much. I just think that the more precise info a person asking for help can give, the better help they can get. Have a nice day.

 

[Groogrux]

As previous posters have said everyone is different. I don't think you've crossed the line into physical dependency, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I'm 5'2" 150 lbs and I drank 6 drinks weekday nights, more on the weekends for years and I was fine stopping cold turkey.

 

[deos68]

currently on 4 beers a night told the doc.... yeah i fucked up by talking to her...it goes on your record
she looked at me like i was stupid when i mentioned withdrawal she said WD tends to happen while drinking crazy amounts for a long period of time
she advised me i could go CT but to prepare to feel a SHIT TON of anxiety which is true after 24 hrs i get crazy anxiety
grab some diazepam and CT if anything is gonna happen itll be around the third day after that things should calm down
general treatment from a detox center includes daily vitamins and diazepam 5 to 10mg 3x a day then after the 3rd day as needed
you can try the same along with staying hydrated and sleeping thats basically what i got and did when i went into detox

 

[torboy]

it takes much more than this to produce any real withdraw effects that are medically significant. You might feel like crap for a few days but its not going to kill you or cause DTs or anything....

 

[Phil.McKeer]

Though it's better to be safe than sorry, I'd say you can get off CT with zero negative symptoms. At least, I know I would in your situation (yes, everyone's different). One thing you don't want to do is create a mental image of it that gives it too much power, and makes a mountain out of a molehill. Then your brain will conspire against you and create symptoms where none exist.

A month of drinking a six pack a day will not cause any medically significant symptoms. I'll eat my left pinky if it does. This isn't heroin (yes, I understand that alcohol withdrawal can be potentially fatal, but that happens with people who've been drinking a bottle of vodka every day for a decade).

 

[Sparkoid]

Fuck my life what a bunch of cretinous replies. I am an alcoholic and in recovery and I can assure you that the risk of you have a seizure if you quit dead stop today is lower than you dying from drinking 3 pints in a night and your heart stopping or choking on your own vomit while you sleep.

3 pints of beer will not mean you will go into severe withdrawal and you state that you drink 6 days week. I presume this means that you go from one night (let's say 12 midnight) without drinking, you miss the whole next day (24 hours) and then you probably have your next beer at 8pm? so another 20 hours on top. You were dry for 44 hours!!! If you were going to have withdrawal to worry about, you would have had some symptoms of it by then. At the very least you'd have severe anxiety, shakes and sweats. This is not the same as downing that first pint and thinking ...NICE!

Now what you MUST do is listen to your body when you stop. IF you feel after 2 days that you really are feeling crap then call for medical help, all you need is some benzos of some sort to keep you safe until you withdraw totally. However, the chance of you needing that is so small it's impossible to imagine you'll feel that bad.

Stop procrastinating and stop, you know you need to and you know you want to. If you can't then you're an addict and you might need help.

 

[blowpipe]

Fuck my life what a bunch of cretinous replies. I am an alcoholic and in recovery and I can assure you that the risk of you have a seizure if you quit dead stop today is lower than you dying from drinking 3 pints in a night and your heart stopping or choking on your own vomit while you sleep.

3 pints of beer will not mean you will go into severe withdrawal and you state that you drink 6 days week. I presume this means that you go from one night (let's say 12 midnight) without drinking, you miss the whole next day (24 hours) and then you probably have your next beer at 8pm? so another 20 hours on top. You were dry for 44 hours!!! If you were going to have withdrawal to worry about, you would have had some symptoms of it by then. At the very least you'd have severe anxiety, shakes and sweats. This is not the same as downing that first pint and thinking ...NICE!

Now what you MUST do is listen to your body when you stop. IF you feel after 2 days that you really are feeling crap then call for medical help, all you need is some benzos of some sort to keep you safe until you withdraw totally. However, the chance of you needing that is so small it's impossible to imagine you'll feel that bad.

Stop procrastinating and stop, you know you need to and you know you want to. If you can't then you're an addict and you might need help.

Funny how you call all these replies cretinous and then go on to say basically the same thing most people said.