Seizures can occur within the first 24 hours, but seizures occur only in about 25 percent of patients, according to the NIAAA. Emotionally, you may feel some anxiety or sadness about ending a chapter of your life and nervousness about the future. We all become conditioned to have certain responses to triggers throughout our lives. It’s normal for certain stimuli to cause a reaction in your mind and body without even being aware of it. Even if you fail, there are still plenty of treatment options you can turn to.

Alcohol Tapering Methods

Tapering off alcohol provides a smoother transition compared to quitting abruptly. Gradually reducing alcohol intake allows the body to adapt to lower levels of alcohol over time. This approach can help prevent or minimize the potentially severe physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms that can occur when stopping suddenly.

Quitting Drinking: How to Taper Off Alcohol

If you have trouble sleeping, reducing the amount you drink could help. How triggers make you crave drugs or alcohol and how you can start to avoid them. A substitution taper can involve https://thecoloradodigest.com/top-5-advantages-of-staying-in-a-sober-living-house/ substituting a prescription drug for alcohol. It can also involve substituting the drink of choice with another drink; for example, a person may taper off hard alcohol with beer.

Decreased Risk of Alcohol-Related Death

Providing evidence-based and individualized care for addiction and co-occurring mental health conditions, set in a luxurious home near the Los Angeles city lights. It can be helpful to make a plan ahead of time for how to handle a relapse. For example, some people choose to write a list of reasons why they want to stop drinking alcohol, and revisit the list to remind themselves after a relapse.

• Rather than quitting drinking abruptly (or “cold turkey”), many professionals recommend gradually reducing your drinking (or tapering) over time.
• Laying it all out in black and white can take time and some serious self-examination.
• DTs can be fatal, and a person going through them should have medical support in a hospital or rehab facility.
• If you can get through a day with no physical withdrawal symptoms, you probably won’t need to taper.
• The reason for this is that alcohol withdrawal symptoms can quickly snowball and worsen.

Can You Quit Alcohol Cold Turkey?

Here are suggestions for how to get through alcohol withdrawal at home. If your body is used to a certain amount of alcohol, you may feel certain effects when you stop. How you feel when you stop drinking is largely based on how often and how heavily you drink. People who only drink occasionally probably won’t Sober House notice any physical or psychological symptoms. People who have a severe reaction to quitting alcohol should seek emergency treatment. Ria Health offers access to many of these tools, including prescription medications, recovery coaching, and online support groups—all through a HIPAA-compliant smartphone app.

Tapering off alcohol involves gradually reducing the amount of alcohol you drink. Besides its positive health benefits, it can help you quit drinking after weeks or months. Although you can use methods to taper off alcohol at home, the best way to taper is to talk to a doctor.

What Causes Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms?

This approach helps to break the habit of constant alcohol consumption and promotes a healthier relationship with alcohol. By tapering off, individuals can gradually break the cycle of alcohol dependence and reduce the chances of experiencing intense cravings or relapses. It provides a more realistic and sustainable path towards sobriety, increasing the chances of long-term success. For most people, alcohol withdrawal symptoms will begin sometime in the first eight hours after their final drink.

• These symptoms can vary in severity and duration, depending on factors such as the level of alcohol dependency and individual differences.
• Sober living homes provide a comfortable, safe place for you to focus on your healing.
• But that advice changes if you’re living with alcohol use disorder.
• The first days were miserable, but now you’re a week in, you’re at the 5-6 drinks a day mark, and you feel fine.
• Getting professional treatment for alcohol addiction can give you the tools to create, and maintain, a healthy and happy lifestyle.

If you’re lucky enough to have a supportive friend, a roommate, or a family member that lives with you who can assist, that is ideal. Tell them what you’re planning on doing, give them a copy of your planned taper schedule, and have them hold all the alcohol to portion out and give to you as needed. Ideally, pick someone who doesn’t also have a problem with alcohol. The idea is to religiously take this like medicine for the next week or two.

The chances of seizures and DTs are low if you’re tapering, but they happen even in controlled rehab environments. In this study on tapering with a benzo, about 1% of patients had a seizure after completing their taper. This does not, by any means, mean that you have a 1% chance of a seizure if you taper with alcohol according to the schedule above. The actual percentage could be significantly higher for tapering with alcohol. I couldn’t locate a study on people who tapered at home with alcohol, because it’s kind of hard to assess the topic, and no rehabs are detoxing people with alcohol.