Trying to stop

[Fedupofmedication]

I'm drinking a bottle of 11% a night and want to stop my doctor did blood tests for my liver and they all came back normal.. But my red blood cell count was slightly low.

Great work - the very first part is wanting to stop so that’s much easier!! Have you tried to stop before?

Can you think about when your habits need to change to avoid opening the bottle -
go for a walk, meet a friend, join an exercise / evening hobby group.

Can you decide to have 1 alcohol free night per week. Then when that’s habit, make it 2 nights etc.

Sometimes stopping completely all at once can be too much to maintain and you just give up so maybe trying to taper it off might be less intimidating

The liver can take a beating and regenerate itself to a high degree, doesn't mean you don't need to stop or at least decrease the amount. Does the GP know how much you drink and that you want to stop? Anyone else who can hold you accountable?

Do you really want to stop and if so what are you willing to do to stop? Low threshold things like reading quit lit, podcasts, online meetings (if AA's not your thing, maybe SMART Recovery I think it's called)? Whichever helps you to make stopping easier in the beginning.

You will find it hard to stop on your own. did your GP refer you to a local group? Contact AA - a lot of their meetings are online.

I'm going to try and taper it down my GP knows I drink a bottle of wine a night I don't drink during the day. She said not to just abruptly stop she said taper it over time.

Thank you everyone for your kind help and advise. 🙏🙂

Telling the GP takes courage, also well done for wanting to stop even though your blood test came back ok. A lot of people take it as a sign that their drinking isn't so bad (yet) and they can keep going.

Reducing gradually definitely is the way to go, you might want to keep a diary to keep track of your progress to do so safely.

Maybe follow up with your GP, as very few people manage to stop right away all on their own, after all quitting has nothing at all to do with willpower. Once you're ready to stop completely you might want to commit to an activity at a time when you usually start drinking, go for a walk, call someone, find an online meeting, maybe a podcast or read the threads on here. Hope your tapering goes well.

Thank you for your help and kindness

One suggestion I’ve seen to taper is to take the bottle and when you open it fill a glass and throw the glass away, then drink the rest. After a week or so throw away another small glass before you drink the rest. And so on until you are at just one small glass a night, then drink that small glass only every other night, then every 3, then once a week until you can stop completely.

good advice above. I used the trydry app to measure how much I was drinking during tapering. Also read or listen to as much quit - lit as you can find. My Instagram feed is now full of sober 40’s !! It’s like an army of support I listen to daily about the benefits of quitting.

and it’s true - life is significantly better than being a bottle a night drinker. If I can then anyone can….. Good luck.

Oh also, you need to find habits to replace at the time you normally drink.

So for example, I said I would only drink (during tapering) when my kids were asleep in bed. this meant my start time for drinking moved from 5pm ish to after 8.30pm

when fully stopped I putting the kettle on for a cup of tea after dinner (instead of pouring a glass of wine)

I also don’t allow life to revolve around celebratory drinks any more - a walk and takeaway coffee is just as enriching with a friend as cocktails on a Friday night.

The big question is do you want to stop completely or drink socially. Can you drink just one glass and happily leave the rest of the bottle in the fridge until tomorrow or does that bottle call you until you drink it dry? These are important questions you need to answer before you move forward.

as the wife and mother of in remission alcoholics (I was a light drinker and gave up completely to help them ) I’ve heard all the stories the I only drink a bottle of wine a night I’m ok people, but that’s how my DD started and she finished on a bottle of wine and 1ltr of scotch, she hit rock bottom and is now 3 weeks sober my DH doesn’t drink as much but is struggling to be sober he’s managed 10 months now.

they have both attacked the problem in different ways to me, each have their own merits, it really depends on what you want to achieve moving forward

That's a fantastic idea thank you