How to quit drinking safely

I heard alcohol could kill you if you stop it suddenly, whats the healthy way to quit?

with the help of a doctor but i think the basic idea to gradually reduce your dosage and augment with benzos if necessary.

I'm gonna put this in Healthy Living, only because it's more about a social drug than a recreational drug (as in E, speed, pharmaceuticals). I'm sure you'll get heaps of help here.

Benzos are often used during withdrawal if you have a serious dependence to alcohol. It can be quite dangerous, so it's definitely best to discuss it with a doctor if you can.

How much are you drinking daily?

when i get home from work I have between 8 - 10 drinks over the course of the evening, mostly to sleep. Started out about three years ago with 6-7 drinks daily trying to self medicate anxiety and panic attacks.

I'm actually already on benzos for axiety and panic. I take one klonopin in the morning (was told three times a day but i don't) and drink at night. I know i'm still mixing them technically, but not recreationally really. Its a good 8 or 9 hours between the two.

probably best off reducing your drink intake (tapering). I like my drink but as I have no physical dependency I don't know how dangerous/hard it might be to quit cold turkey. Tapering down is likely also hard, because you may find yourself thinking "to hell with it" from the initial intoxication of the first few drinks and simply add the rest anyway.

Don't know what to suggest really, but best to address your panic/anxiety issues - I wonder how these can be addressed while under the influence of anything that will mask the feelings (both benzos and alcohol). I'd suggest finding other ways of relaxing (yoga, breathing exercises, etc.) and perhaps use LOTS of valerian root (can also be mixed with hops or passiflora or melissa) to help take the edge of the nervousness... you can safely use at least 3x the rec. dose of those herbs, I have done it with no ill fx.

If you use ANY caffeine whatsoever, try stopping. It may help with anxiety as well.

Definitely speak to a doctor, though, about stopping drinking if you feel your drinking has become a physical thing.

A substance successfully used to get people off alcohol is GHB - but this is hard to obtain as we all know. And it has its own addiction potential, too.

^ That's good advice, although I think some cases of liver damage have been reported due to valerian use - probably not an issue if you have a healthy liver, but three years of heavy alcohol abuse might have lead to damage in some form. I don't know an awful lot about valerian though, so correct me if I'm wrong about that. I agree to definately taper, particularly if you're not going to see a GP about this - but I would highly recommend you do. You've been drinking dangerously large amounts over a long time and stopping cold turkey is risky.

www.alcoholism.about.com has some info on what you can expect during withdrawal, as well as various treatment options (if you live in the US). If you're not American, it'll still give you an idea of the methods avaiable to you - support groups, rehab centres, pharmacological treatment, counselling and so on.

I think you should focus on two things at this point:

1. See a doctor to determine how dangerous it would be for you to stop. This will help you decide whether you need medical treatment, whether you should seek an inpatient rehab, whether you can deal with withdrawal on an outpatient basis, etc. Long-term alcoholics also usually have some serious vitamin and mineral deficiencies (among other health problems), so getting some info on this as well as a general health check would be a good idea.

2. Get counselling or therapy to deal with your underlying anxiety and panic issues. You'll be very lucky if you don't find withdrawal stressful and a cause of increased anxiety, and learning some ways to deal with this is a crucial part of resisting the temptation to drink more. Be wary of the temptation to just keep increasing your benzo intake to deal with the anxiety, too - benzo withdrawal is easily as dangerous as alcohol withdrawal and can be far more unpleasant to go through.

Hopefully you've got people (friends, family) to support you in your desire to quit. If you don't, seek out some. There are many support groups available, particularly if AA is your sort of thing. Good luck.

Will you be labled as a drug seeker/addict if you seek treatment for alcoholism ? I'm starting to notice a troublesome pattern in my drinking, it's not out of hand right now - usually 10+ drinks 2-4x week but that still is an aweful lot compared to most people. Do you think I am addicted now ? Do you need to drink EVERY DAY to become addicted ? Sometimes I go through shitty physical effects the next day, not sure if its because there is no booze in my system or because I have a hangover...

psychetool - I think it's like any addiction: when you start asking "am I addicted" the answer is "probably - try stopping for a week and see what happens".

Note: cold turkey may be dangerous for some people - people who have been drinking for a long time and in large amounts, consistently. It's different for everyone and seeing a doctor is always my first step - but I live outside the USA, where substance abuse is recognised as a health/social problem - at least a little bit

I don't know what the timeframe is for physical dependence. I would assume drinking every day would be necessary, as alcohol metabolises fairly quickly. But, like with other drugs, the amount needed before dependence sets in probably varies from person to person. Most definitions of alcohol addiction or alcoholism also contain a psychological/behavioural componant as well, which is perhaps why it can be difficult to find a specific answer, as they consider more than just the physical effects.

This thread

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=223626&page=1&highlight=alcohol

has quite a few people with stories of high daily alcohol intake and many claim no (or few) withdrawal symptoms. There are long-term health problems, obviously, but many of these seem seperate to issues of physical dependence. However, I've had numerous people tell me they've had physical withdrawal through years of 'moderate' use (7-8 drinks a day), so I'm of the general opinion that it's best to tread carefully when deciding to stop.

Personally, I've drunk alcohol most days of the week for more than a year and didn't have any physical withdrawal when I stopped. Psychetool, my intake would probably have been the same as yours in terms of volume, perhaps a little lower, but spread over the week. I did 'taper' in a way, although it had more to do with an inability to stop completely than out of concern for my health. Like the original poster, it was mainly to get myself to sleep, and my insomnia was anxiety-related. Any 'need' I felt to drink upon stopping was definately psychological rather than physical.

The only real way to know if you're addicted is as aunty establishment said - stop briefly, or cut back on your use, and see what happens.

i've been to psychiatrist and psychologist, i'm currently with a psychologist because my psychiatrist was just feeding me pills. I never took them in the dose that was given. The benzos' aren't really what i'm worried about. I've been drinking the anxiety and panic away for much longer and in much larger doses than I've used benzo's.

I'd llike to get on track w/ my life, and getting rid of the alcohol is necessary imo. I've come to terms with my panic, it hasn't gone away completely, and comes and goes. However, I know alcohol is potentiating the anxiety and I'd like to quit.

I will talk to my psychologist about it, just have to build up the courage to. Panic attacks are shitty.

I agree about tapering off slowly...drink lots of fluids too..water or gatorade. Healthy eating, all that stuff.

there are two other problems you *may* have here. just from experience, but it might be hard to get to sleep for awhile if thats a big reason you drink. there is also the matter of the amount of 'free time' you will have as a result of sleep loss, or just being sober in general. it helps to fill that time slot BEFORE you quit or its like "oooook...wtf do i do now??"

Starting a workout plan would be a good idea. Taking some classes, buying some new books to read. Anything to occupy your time.

^ Not only that, but exercising (especially early in the morning) is a great way to improve quality of sleep.