Alcohol addiction

[Cantsleepwontsleep29]

Hi, I'm just generally lost. I have tried all sorts to stop drinking. Never had a problem until lockdown. I just need to know how people cope with the shakes. I have absolutely no cravings or withdrawal other than the shakes. Which being extremely anxious as a person is worse in a sense. I know I just need a way to stop the shakes to be able to stop drinking. I can last all day until the shakes are so bad I couldn't loft a fork. Any idea? I just want to be happy.

If you have shakes, I think it will be a good idea to see your gp and start there. Have you read some quit lit ? There is lots out there…also podcast like the bubble hour.

Alcohol slows down brain activity and, long term, the brain adapts by speeding up the nerve transmissions (this is why alcoholics sometimes appear to function normally). The alcohol consumption has to be reduced slowly so that the brain can adapt back to normal, if the reduction is too quick the brain continues to work as if alcohol were still present in the body and so the nerves and muscles shake because everything is now running too fast.

How much are you drinking? It does sound like you need to cut down very gradually rather than cold turkey it. What have you tried so far?

Hi, about a litre a day. I've cut down so far to a 70cl. Before lockdown I hadn't drank since being 18. I'm trying to gradually cut down but there isn't a guide how to do it.

You need to reduce it slowly otherwise your body could go into shock requiring a hospital admission for acute alcohol withdrawal.

Start by reducing the amount you drink each night and then days

First, work out the actual alcohol consumption daily
e.g. gin is 37.5% so 70 cl of gin per day = 70 x 0.375 = 26.25 cl of actual alcohol
Then cut down by 10% of alcohol per week
So (if gin) 1st week would be 26.25 cl of alcohol per day
2nd week would be 23.625 cl of alcohol per day
3rd week would be 21.2625 cl of alcohol per day
and so on
Obviously it doesn't have to be that precise, and can be a bit more than 10% if you can tolerate it.
So it could be 26, 23, 20, 17, etc etc
The point of working out the actual alcohol consumption is so that you can change from, say gin, to say strong cider at some point.
I'm just using gin and cider as examples.

You need a GP my love, it would be dangerous for you to try and quit by yourself.

Wishing you all the best and well done for making the decision to quit.

The medical guidance is to cut by 10% per week, but, the problem is that it's very difficult to do on one's own. On the other hand, from what I've seen with my son, whilst there are several support services out there, he didn't want to use them. He was already bad before lockdown, lockdown made him far far worse. A vague analogy is with anorexia, in that eventually the body becomes so badly affected that it becomes impossible without medical help, even if one wants to stop. He has reached that stage and I'm trying to get intervention for him.

If you're not at that stage, try your best to stop by cutting down, keep a drink diary. You may need some medical assistance because of vitamin deficiencies, but also, as you reduce the alcohol usage, instead of the shakes, other physical symptoms usually appear, felt as anxiety - basically due to being more aware of the world around you.