Sip and Suffer

taper method for alcohol withdraw

first time with alcohol withdraw? click here

What is taper?

Taper means cut down slowly. Taper is not a fast cut down. Taper is not a big sudden reduction.

Going from 750ml liquor per day to lite beer is a big cut down and not a taper.

  • If last night I drank 12 beers then day 1 taper would be 11 beers.

  • If I drank pint of liquor then day 1 of taper would be slightly less than a pint.

  • If I drank 1 bottle of wine then day 1 of taper would be slightly less than 1 bottle.

    • Tapering is very challenging and failure is normal.


    IMPORTANT

    Dehydration or low blood sugar will make withdraw a lot worse.

    You wont feel like eating but you have to.

    If nothing else drink some gatorade, soda or juice.

    It is crucial you do this - do not consider eating optional.

    At home DIY Gatorade : water + pinch of salt + 3x table spoons of sugar.


    Keep it simple

    Cut down 10% per day.

    Keep drinking whatever you were before. Don't over complicate things.

    The more complicated your plan is the more likely it will fail or get messed up somehow.

    If you keep drinking too much then only buy enough for 1 day at a time. Whatever you need +1 small emergency drink.


    Time table

  • day 1 and 2 : This is hell on earth. Taper feels literally impossible.

  • day 3 and 4 : Feeling better than day 1

  • day 5+ : Feeling a lot better than day 1, but still feel a little "off" sometimes. Kinda comes in waves for me.

    • If you cut down too fast you're going to suffer a lot more.

    If you binge drink it resets you back to day 1 (hell on earth).


    The plan

    Day time goal : drink enough to keep worst withdraw away but dont make it a party.

  • If you feel the buzz getting too strong put the drink down for 30 min

  • Don't get day drunk. Aim for a light buzz.

  • Eat food, drink water.

  • Watch something funny.

  • Do 1 small chore.

    • Night time goal : drink more as it gets later so you can pass out / sleep all night.

  • Don't get black out drunk. Dont go overboard and drink all night.

  • If you don't drink enough before bed you'll wake up early in withdraw.

    • Morning

  • You feel like shit that's life.

  • Drink water. Eat food or have a Gatorade.



    • Tapering off 750ml liquor per day

    When I tapered down off drinking lots of liquor I did it like this :

  • day 1 to 3 : at first normal liquor drinks then later liquor mixed 50/50 with water

  • day 4 to 6 : at first wine then later wine mixed 50/50 with water

  • day 7 and on : lite beer

    • You could probably also make this work by just mixing your liquor drinks weaker and weaker. But you have to be careful and measure properly so you're not under-pouring or over-pouring.


    Notes

  • There is no benefit to "toughing it out" or going cold turkey.

  • If one day you dont decrease but also dont increase, this is still a win.

  • If you drink too slow / too little, you might suddenly feel very bad / anxious then freak out and over drink. So it's best to stay slightly ahead of the curve.

  • After a drink / shot it takes 30min for the alcohol to fully hit you. So if you're freaking out and take a shot, then take another shot 15min later - the first shot hasnt even fully hit you yet. Because of this it's possible to accidentally over drink when trying to taper.

  • There might be periods where you feel totally normal or even good. You might want to stop drinking at this time. It's an illusion. If you stop drinking in about 1hr or so you're going to feel bad.

  • Don't sit around thinking about taper / alcohol withdraw. Will only raise your anxiety & panic levels which leads to increased drinking. Find something else to do, netflix or whatever.

  • If you go to sleep "too sober" your BAC is going to drop during sleep and you will enter alcohol withdraw during sleep. For this reason I recommend going to bed with a decent buzz on. That way you can get some halfway decent sleep.


    • Things that can happen during taper

  • Accidentally getting too drunk

  • Not drinking enough and feeling like shit

  • Getting high anxiety then suddenly over-drinking

  • Not eating then feeling like shit

  • Suddenly feeling totally ok

  • Desire to go cold turkey

  • Anxiety and health concerns

  • Some dull aches and pains that come and go

  • Feeling of impending doom

  • Feeling you are going to die

  • Feeling like a total loser

  • Feeling unhuman / subhuman (extremely depressed)

  • Feeling totally insane

  • Hearing voices

  • Hearing music

  • Visual hallucinations

  • Bizzare realistic dreams


    • Problems I ran into

  • Failed several times before I got it right.

  • Can't think straight to do what is needed.

  • Dont feel like eating and sick of drinking alcohol.

  • Trying to cut down too much too fast.

  • Getting near the end of taper then getting wasted and having to start over again.

  • Throwing up every morning.

  • Late night hallucinations freaking me out and making me drink more.

  • Staying up all night drinking too much instead of tapering properly.

  • Talking to / texting with people who wanted to argue, make me upset, causing me to drink more.

  • Changing up what I drank, buying something shitty because it was on sale. Then having to taper with terrible tasting booze.

  • Feeling ok and not drinking for like an hour - then feeling super bad and over-drinking to feel better.

  • Getting low blood sugar the morning after drinking then feeling VERY bad. Breathing slow, thinking slow. One gatorade later I was better.

  • Hospital ER in my area absolutely do not treat withdraw unless you are literally having a medical emergency.

  • Talking to families members who dont understand withdraw or taper is like banging your head against a wall.

  • Tried to taper with lite beer but couldnt get my BAC high enough and just felt miserable, full, warm, and pissing every 20mins. Tapering with liquor or wine was 100% better and could actually get my BAC where it needed to be. Taper is a slow cut down process, not a form of self punishment.


    • Sleep aids for WD and no alcohol

  • Somnapure (sold at Walmart / CVS)

  • chamomile tea (brew hot water, pour over bag, cover cup for ~10min)

  • magnesium supplement taken with a little food (this works better than you'd expect)

  • CBD (had some luck with this but it's not magic)


    • About me / this guide

    The info here is based on my own experience trying and failing to taper, then eventually getting it right. Also learned a lot from others on reddit.

    I was a big time alcoholic who eventually crashed and burned. I was a daily drinker & day drinker. At my worst was drinking 750ml vodka per day. Towards the end most of my drinking was just to deal with alcohol withdraw. Drinking wasnt fun like before, I was just getting sloppy drunk and the normal "euphoria" feeling was gone. I had lost my appetite and was very depressed, which is pretty standard for big time alcoholics.

    Suffering from minor withdraw for while, then things got really bad and I had to go to detox. Was hearing voices, losing my sanity, emotions all over the place, impossible to do simple task. Shortly after detox I relapsed and spent the next months trying and failing to taper.

    The taper guides I found online sucked. Seemed like they were written by sober people who never had to taper themselves or were never big alcoholics. In that fucked up mental state I found the guides too wordy and impossible to comprehend, on top of being fantasy land bullshit.

    Telling people to taper with lite beer when they drink 750ml liquor a day is unrealistic and not based on science. ER doctor told me to "CUT DOWN SLOWLY". Pretty sure the ER doc knows better than some bullshit web site written by sober people. Taper is a slow reduction, not massive sudden cut back.

    Social

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