Watched my sister go through it and heard about the other three times she did it. (And she is sober now, so eventually it did stick - it just took a few tries).
I think its a little like giving birth. Its hell to watch. It isn’t exactly easy to go through either. When you get done, the hard work begins. But when you get through it “it wasn’t that bad” and the results are worth it.
Best wishes and have strength.
My body decided for me FoieGras. I had a seizure at work without any real warning although a coworker told me later that I had been acting strangely all day. I was rushed to the hospital and spent approximately the next 40 hours going through the dt’s. They had me pretty drugged up because I really don’t remember it at all.
The only evidence was waking up with bruises on my wrists and ankles from the restraints and the IV’s sticking in me. I spent the next two days in intensive care and two more in a regular room. So one week total, the day after Christmas through New year.
You can probably guess what my New Year resolution was! I wasn’t allowed to smoke even after getting out of intensive care so I went a week without smoking, Unfortunately I started that back up once I got home. My Doctor doesn’t get on me much about it right now, he is just concentrating on me remaining sober.
I’ve been sober for nearly ten months now, if I can stay sober anyone can! Also I was up to nearly drinking a liter of vodka a day before I crashed so you will probably have an easier time than me. I’m certainly not trying to scare you man, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, really. Good luck!
I should have added that what set off the seizure was that I didn’t drink on Christmas day for the families sake. So it only took about 28 hours without alcohol for my body to react the way it did.
I’m just curious here, because I thought alcohol detox was one of the more dangerous ones, at least if one were to do it on one’s own without benefit of medical supervision. Do you mean that based on the amount of alcohol the OP says he consumes, he or she probably has not reached that extent of physical addiction?
My experience has been that, once I was through the first week or so and had tapered off the librium so that I wasn’t sleepy any more, physical cravings weren’t really the issue.
My story is that I tried a medical detox and then an outpatient evening program while attempting to hang on to my job, family responsibilities, etc. This did not work and I relapsed almost immediately.
The second time around I did 30 days of in-patient and am now doing outpatient with a reduced work schedule. Much better–I’m coming up on 90 days now.
The bulk of treatment is helping you to understand what you are up against and to deal with the “mental” part of craving. Basically, a lot of us used alcohol to avoid feelings (stress, anxiety, depression, whatever.) Those feelings don’t go away when you are sober and you have to learn better ways to cope with them for the long term. That’s where group therapy and 12-step programs come in. A lot of people may also have undiagnosed depression, ADHD and other things that may also need to be addressed. A good treatment program should help you identifiy those, too.
I’d strongly recommend getting your family and, if appropriate, trusted people at work involved too. The more you are surrounded with supportive people, the better. Families especially need their own support and education during recovery.
Good luck.
Wow. That’s pretty bad. I can’t imagine drinking a liter of hard liquour a day. I black out enough after a twelve pack of beer as it is. I’m happy for you, it sounds like your life has been saved.
That’s another thing that sucks…I wonder how many years I’ve shaved off my miserable internal organs as is.
Thank you for the words of support. I know I’ll need it everywhere I look. I’ll come back in here tomorrow once I have a chance to talk with my doctor about the where/when for this thing. Its looking like I’m going to shoot for next Monday, and if all goes well, be out by Friday.
Yes, based on 8-10 beers per night, it doesn’t sound like he would need medical assistance, but you never know…it is a medical problem and medical advice (not advice from people on a message board) couldn’t hurt. My husband drank that much beer in 2 hours, and chased a fifth of hard liquor with it, but he sobered up and went to work every day. He quit drinking on his own. His sister, however, detoxed in the hospital when her liver shut down. She drank pretty much non-stop from morning til night.
You’ll learn as you go along as far as what will trigger an urge. Those urges may change over time, as well. I do know people who resumed “drink oriented” activities once they were comfortable with sobriety. I think it’s a good idea to hang with your kids. They will provide a lot of distraction, entertainment, and non-drinking activities.
Might it help if you changed your game-watching routine? Like watching in a different room or at somebody else’s house? Maybe the association wouldn’t be as strong if you did that. (I don’t know if that sort of thing actually helps, but it sounds like it might.)
Good luck and hang in there!
Thanks again guys. This is helping me mentally prepare.
Care to share how he did this? I’ve got a buddy that’s a raft guide (no insurance) that talks about quitting, but he’s broke. He drinks A LOT. I’ve been on trips with him that have been as long as five days. He packs his booze in 1 quart plastic bottles and it seems that most nights, he pretty much finishes them. If he quits, it’s pretty much going to be without any real medical help.
How could I forget one of the best things about sobriety for me? Blissful sleep! The lack of sleep on any consistent basis was slowly driving me insane and I’m not kidding at all. If I slept for three hours straight I felt lucky and my REM sleep was all screwed up. I was beginning to feel like the crew on that star trek tng episode who couldn’t dream… it was really horrible.
I started sleeping 7-8 straight hours at about week three and I haven’t had any troubles since then. I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am not dreading going to bed anymore.
About football…hmm. At least for me I have lost interest although it doesn’t help that the 0-6 Rams suck. 
Just to comment on this aspect of recovery. At first you will want to stay away from things that you associate with drinking. It can be a very powerful trigger. After a while you will figure out what hits your trigger and what doesn’t. When I first quit I wouldn’t go near a bar. After a while I figured out that going to shoot pool or watch a football game at a bar wasn’t a trigger and didn’t bother me. On the other hand I know some folks who can’t go to bars or be around people who are drinking. It is something you will figure out after you are sober for a while. The best advice is to go nowhere that might hit your trigger for a long time, think at least a year.
Slee
I am soooo looking forward to this aspect of recovery. I generally get a decent amount of sleep, about 5-6 hours a night, but during the day at work within the last year or so I am chronically fatigued, so much so that I am relying on Red Bull so I don’t nod off on the drive home. I’ve been falling asleep at the wheel, literally. It’s scary. Deep down I know that it’s because I am hung over every morning, even if they aren’t what I would call bad hangovers. I’m just so damn tired all the time (and dehydrated…at least I do drink about a gallon of ice-cold water every day to recover). I could really do without this.
I don’t think I’ll be able to give up football viewing. I’ll simply have to find a way to drink sodapop or something during the games. I don’t really go to bars at all, as I don’t generally like the scene much anymore now that I am married and have children. It’s weird. Alcohol puts me into a cocoon of alienation. Unfortunately, those I love most often are the ones that get alienated because I spend so much time video gaming or surfing the net while I drink. I suppose I’ll be spending a lot less time on the internet for awhile, too.
I used to think having all this “alone time” while I drank in the evenings was a good thing, until I realized that sometimes one of my sons will come in my computer room and ask me to build Legos or something with him and I tell him I can’t because I am busy. Yeah, busy drinking myself silly.
It isn’t like I completely ignore my family. I cook most of the meals, I help with homework all the time, we throw the football around, I ferry my oldest to Cub Scouts, we’re in a bowling league, he plays basketball, I read all the bedtime stories every night…but I feel like there is so much more time I could be spending with them rather than isolating myself after I feel like “my chores are done, now it’s MY time (to get drunk)”. I NEVER drink during any of these activities with the kids, but always afterwards. I could be offering them so much more of my time, but alcohol addiction makes me selfish.
And lately, I’ve been worried about dying prematurely, and I often dream about it.
I don’t want to die, not right now, and certainly not by the slow suicide of mine own hand. I’ve got to sober up. Unfortunately, I’m drinking right now.
You sound like a great guy. If for no other reason do it for your kids. They notice more than you probably like to think they do. I have a lot to make up for but #1 is the damage I’ve done to my daughter. She is 19 now and I missed most of her childhood and it really sucks. She sees that I’m trying to make up for lost time and to her credit she is trying to make it easier for me.
One interesting thing that I’ve noticed is that almost all of my dreams, although not necessarily unpleasant, all have a hurry up/time constraint theme to them. It’s not hard to figure out why these dreams occur…lots of wasted years. Good luck again!
Stay sober man. It sounds like she needs you to, if for nothing else, as you mentioned, to make up for lost time. I don’t have too many of those “lost time credits” against me yet, but they are starting to pile up. I also have a fifteen year old stepdaughter that I have a horrible relationship with, partly because she’s so wayward and utterly disrespectful to me and my wife, and also because I have a difficult time harnessing my anger towards her after I’ve been drinking.
It’s usually when she tells me or my wife “Fuck you, you stupid…” that I lose my cool. I just can’t tolerate a child speaking to me that way, whether she respects me or not. In my upbringing, that level of rebelliousness just isn’t tolerated.
Just wanted to pop in to wish you well with what you are doing, and assure you that your children will thank you for this in years to come. I don’t know how old they are, and how aware of your behaviour they are, but even if you don’t think they realise, to some level, they will. If nothing else, at the moment you will be a distant father to them at times, and this will eventually affect them.
I grew up with an alcoholic father, although he was a more severe case than you; I rarely saw him sober as a teenager, and his tipple of choice was whiskey - whole litre bottles at a time. I am sad to say that by the time I was about 13, I had completely lost respect for him as a father, and probably spoke to him much the same way that your step-daughter does. I still have difficulty respecting him, but I have forgiven him for his behaviour, and he is now, again, sober. The problem, I found, was that as a child, you blame yourself for your parents’ behaviour, and when you do realise what the problem is, can’t understand why they can’t stop drinking for the sake of their families. It really does a number on your self esteem. and I spent many year feeling worthless because of this. I say this not to make you feel bad, but to give you a hopefully realistic view of how your children might feel.
I also know that my father feels very, very bad for all the years that he wasted in a comatose state. He’s 62 now, and I can understand why it is hard for him to look back over the last 30 years and not feel bitter, bitter regret. You are so much younger, and will hopefully have many, many sober years in front of you, enjoying your life and your family.
I can’t offer advice about rehab, as although my father went, I don’t know the details of the treatment. I just wanted to offer encouragement that you are doing the right thing, and your life and your family’s will be far better for it. Medical detox is also a very good idea. My father ended up alone and hallucinating one of the times (last time, actually) he detoxed. Had he not been able to get help, things would have turned out a lot differently.
Good luck and focus on the positive in all of this. As other posters have pointed out, you have so many good things to look forward to.
After a Very Bad Incident, my husband tapered his drinking down by omitting the hard booze almost completely (down to maybe a shot or two per day), and drinking beer. Then he cut the beer back. Then he just stopped the beer. From Incident to his last beer was about 6 months. This was not a decision based on a desire for safe detox. It just worked out that way. I don’t recommend doing it this way for heavy drinkers. It is dangerous. My sister in law was instructed by her doctor to keep drinking on her way to the hospital. Stopping the booze cold turkey for heavy drinkers, is dangerous. What is heavy for one person may not be heavy for another. Medically assisted detox, or at a minimum, consultation with a doctor, is the right way to go.
sorry if this is repetittive,… this thread is pretty long and ive got little patience,… but symptoms of withdrawal are shaking, nausea and blood pressure change. i am a heroin addict,… i just recently detoxed myself at home with suboxone and that shit is liek a miracle drug. theres no syptoms whatsoever. ive been to detox once and i left after a day,… withme,… i was in a place that was state funded with no insurance,… and the only medicine they gave was fucking motrin,… so literally it was like giving a heroin addict tylenol for pain,… it dont do shit. but anywayz,… pretty much detox is liek an unstructured rehab with more intensive health observation. its not the funnest place in the world,… but if its what u and your family need its whats neccessary. i myself just discovered this message board for the first tiem tonight becaus ei need my own advise on whether or not i should go to rehab. i have a2year old beautiful baby girl,… i was clean from the dya i found out i was pregnant, and would have had 3 years clean october 17th had inot relapsed with old friends,… now since my relase,… i have lost my job,… am about to lose my apartment because i owe 3months rent because i shot all the money,… and got arrested,… which eventually ended up in me losing the only person in this world that i really care about,… my baby girl. now,… as of right now, the court system isnt involved,… my mom and her father just pretty much are watching her for a little while so i can get some recovery,… but its horrible i think. i had, at 23 years old, a beautiful baby, a shitty but good paying job, and my own apartment,… now,… i want to go to rehab but im afraid, because if i do i dont want my dauighter’s father to go for custody as soon as i sign myself in, i dont trust the mother fucker, even though we have been on good terms. he actualy just wanted me to go to an outpatient program,… but at first i didnt want to,. so at first,. i got clean for liek 2 weeks, and started using again and was just going to sign myself into rehab,… but now im thinking maybe thats a bad diea. i dont know. i dont know what i should do and i need advise,… i want my daughter back, but i want to be that best mother i can be for her and if that means going to rehab and getting intense therapy,… so be it. i jsut dont know. advise please,… because i dont want to die,… i dont want my daughter to grow up without a mother,. or with a mother that is a drug addict and cant take care of her properly. i just want to be the best mother i can be for her and i need advise on what i should do…please