Chiming in to say good luck, and please keep sharing your story.
Update?
Been doing well. I had one slip-up about two weeks ago and had a few drinks, but I’ve been completely sober aside from that. My doctor started me on acamprosate this week to help eliminate my cravings, and it seems to be helping. I started outpatient therapy on Thursday - right now it’s three hours a day, three times a week for the next two months, and then once a week for a few months after that.
Been having trouble sleeping, but that’s about it in terms of long-term withdrawal. I’m not allowed to take any sleeping medicine while I’m in outpatient so I’m coping as best as I can, but I might ask my doctor about doing a sleep study if this keeps up for a long time.
Sounds like you’re doing well. Keep it up!
What caused the slip-up? Can you go through your thought process when it happened?
Without needing to go into details if you’re uncomfortable with that, what does the outpatient therapy do?
It was the beginning of my weekend off work and I was going out of town for a concert. I started thinking to myself that, since I’d been able to keep sober and had time off and didn’t have to drive home, I could have a few drinks at the hotel, just that one night, and then go back to abstaining the next day, just to kinda prove I was beating it. Silly idea, but once I started thinking about having some drinks, I got this really excited and anticipatory and really wanting to do it even though I felt bad about it. Ended up buying a bottle of my favorite whiskey and drinking some of it before the show and the rest after.
Woke up with a massive hangover, and ended up throwing up on myself in the car on the freeway on the way home, which I’ve been keeping in mind as a way to remind myself that slipping like that was a bad idea. (Fortunately I hadn’t eaten anything solid yet that day and I had an extra shirt in my overnight bag.) Didn’t have any withdrawls after the hangover, which was fortunate, but I don’t think I’ll be trying that again.
That was before I started on the acamprosate, which was this Tuesday. I’ve been told it takes 5-8 days to take effect, but I think it’s starting to kick in.
It’s a combination of group sessions and one-on-one counseling run by the same hospital I was in last month. The counselor went over some of the issues I’ve been having that have been motivating my drinking and assigned me some “homework” to work on between sessions (getting in some outdoor activity, going to AA once a week, keeping a log of times I feel an urge to drink, etc.) and in the group sessions we discuss our individual goals, and difficulties we’ve been having, and ways to work on them.
I’m so glad you’re doing this, Smapti. Good job. As for the not sleeping, are you working out? I’m usually a bad sleeper but if I work out regularly I sleep much, much better.
My job is a workout in and of itself - I usually walk about 10-15 miles in a shift and spend a good amount of that time lifting heavy boxes and stocking shelves. I don’t have an exercise schedule outside that, though, but as I mentioned above, one of the goals the counselor set for me was to do some physical outdoor activity twice a week. I’m going to start off by doing some walking on some of the trails and parks around here and go from there.
I remember interviewing one of the doctors at one of the clinics I (used to…grrr) work for and he said (and I’m paraphrasing here) “As long as it’s not life threatening, sometimes a relapse is good for the patient to realize just what life used to be, and remind them why they need to get better”
I think you had that experience. Keep up the good work, man…we’re pulling for you
How long are you saying for the withdrawal to be “managed”? I know benzos have their own seizure and death problems if they’ve been used long-term, and even a tapered withdrawal can be hell if you’ve taken them long enough.
That’s actually one of the reasons I decided to never drink, period. Just in case I get addicted, I do not want to be put back on a benzo.
Smapti,
I have read and reread this thread with hesitant, voyeuristic interest. You are undertaking a Great Work and I am very happy for you.
Thank you for updating the thread.
Most alcohol withdrawal protocols have the patient off the benzos within a week or two.
Of course, the approach would be different for those patients who are already addicted to benzos also.
Thanks for the update, Smapti. And congrats on your progress.
I had a lot of trouble sleeping for a month or so. It’s pretty common in very early sobriety. After that stage passes, you’ll find you’re sleeping so much better than when you were drinking.
Good for you Smapti! Keep it up.
Was wondering. Lets say you have been boozing it up long enough and hard enough that detoxing is a medical danger. You are sober for awhile. Then that wagon thing happens.
Under what set of conditions does detoxing yet again go from a PITA for various reasons to a medical risk again?
Do a week long bender with 5 liters of Vodka do it? Two months of 6 beers a night? Something else? 6 months of serious drinking all day and night?
To the OP.
I have to ask, have you ever figured out how much money you spend on booze? I look at the prices for a say a 6 pack or what people pay for a drink at a bar and their is no way I’d do it. At the last baseball game I was at it was $11 for a beer.
At the point when I quit, it was about $100 a week.
Nice savings! Unless you spend it all on cake and cookies, you’ll likely find you’re going to lose some weight since you aren’t drinking all those calories. Just so you know, though, one’s sugar cravings can really kick in. Hence the traditional doughnuts at meetings.
Best wishes.
You liked the cheap stuff, huh? 
I like to drink, but I like the good stuff. I just bought two twelve ounce bottles of Russian River Brewing’s Supplication. The beer was $27.50 a bottle, plus I purchased 15 one dollar raffle tickets to earn the opportunity to purchase those two bottles.
I would’ve sworn those were only $12.99 a bottle the last time I saw them on a shelf in this area.
My routine was that on payday I’d go to Total Wine and buy 4-6 bottles of liquor for mixing cocktails and a couple six-packs of craft beer and/or cider. (My “standard order” was Black Velvet reserve, Cruzan white rum, Bellringer gin, Platinum vodka, E&J XO, and Hiram Walker triple sec.) Occasionally I’d go with a more expensive whiskey (I tended to go with rye, bottled-in-bond bourbon, or highland single malt) or pick up some other liquors or liqueurs if I wanted to make something fancy, like a Pimm’s cup or a Singapore sling (which requires Benedictine, Cointreau, and Heering, none of which are all that cheap.) In between paydays, I’d buy another bottle of Black Velvet and/or a six-pack every day or two. I’d have a bottle of champagne once a year on my birthday. When money was tight, I’d brew hard cider with bottled apple juice, a few cups of extra sugar, and champagne yeast (and get about 11% ABV out of it.)