Hello all, it's been a while since I've been posting. But I would like insight and help into cutting alcohol out of my life damn near completely.
So to shorten up my situation, in recent I've stopped smoking pretty much all at once. But with alcohol, I've been drinking just about every day for just over a year now. I understand with nicotine that's a mental addiction, with alcohol, it can become a physical dependency.
So what should I do? I never drank heavy, like honestly 2-4 beers typically after work. Heavier on the weekend, never got blacked out or anything.
But now it's causing major problems for me and I realize now it's time to quit, or at least significantly cut it out for now. I still do genuinely enjoy a drink, but now it's a problem.
So should I taper off? Do I drink like one beer every day? Just to get it in my system? While keeping that buzz off?
I'm just confused too, do I have to get a buzz to keep off withdrawal symptoms? I'm just so scared to go through what I saw my mom did when she went without alcohol for a couple days. She ended up having a seizure at a family event, and then we lost her due to the cancer from cigarettes.
So I would really appreciate some advice, some guidance. My life has completely been shaken up and I'm trying to cut out more negative habits for good ones, and continue to meditate and become a better person.
Thank you all. HAIL ZEUS and the Gods
You don't need to feel the high in order to taper. It's actually important that you don't. Dosing to where you experience the "buzz" means your dosage is above your tolerance.
At the same time, withdrawal symptoms are unavoidable if you have developed a dependency, if you're trying to reduce your tolerance/dependence. That's because you have to take in a lower dose of the drug than your body is accustomed to in order to quit, which causes a withdrawal.
You can try cold turkey and be careful about, but if you begin experiencing serious symptoms then you should taper because your dependence is too great to simply cut it off.
The essential thing is to reduce the dosage and taper down gradually over time to keep withdrawal symptoms manageable.
If you typically drink 3 beers a day, then you can try drinking 2 beers instead, and 1 non alcoholic, or mix alcoholic and non alcoholic beer to reduce the concentration of alcohol. Some people like the taste of their drinks so this is a way that you can still enjoy the flavor while cutting down on alcohol.
Since you have a drinking habit you can also identify triggers for this habit and try to avoid them, in order to break the habit.
Don't be afraid to look for support, you don't have to do this alone, whether that's AA or a substance abuse counselor or a doctor. If you cannot resist alcohol, there is a drug called naltrexone that blocks opioids and will reduce the pleasure in drinking(alcohol has opiate effects).
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