Professional mental health support becomes essential when co-occurring conditions exist. Therapists specializing in addiction treat substance use and underlying mental health issues simultaneously rather than separately. Build relationships with people who support your sobriety.
How To Taper Off Alcohol at Home
Learn more ways to explore your relationship with alcohol. You may also consider joining an online support group to help you feel less alone. It might also be worth checking out a 12-step program in your area, like Alcoholics Anonymous or SMART Recovery, to see if it feels like something that might be useful for you.
Make a plan.
Start by talking to any doctors, nurses, or therapists you may already be seeing. Talking with an addiction therapist or medical specialist can assist you in your goal to stop drinking. This could mean attending a support group specifically for people with alcohol issues like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). But it could also be helpful to make new social contacts based around an interest such as a sport, the arts, or other activities you enjoy. As a specific example, an analysis of the electronic medical records of over 73 million people—including 1.26 million people with alcohol use disorder (AUD)—was best way to stop drinking published in Nature (1). Most people wait for January 1st to change their lives, 11 years of sobriety taught me that if something matters, the date doesn’t.
- Simply removing alcohol without replacement leaves dangerous empty space.
- Laying it all out in black and white can take time and some serious self-examination.
- But, with a little prior knowledge on how to taper off alcohol, adequate planning and professional consultation from a healthcare provider, it can certainly be done.
- Start your recovery journey with peace of mind, knowing your care is covered.
- They will initially be milder, with a headache, tremors and mild anxiety being the first symptoms.
- One thing that has kept me sober is that I no longer wanted to be the person I was as a drinker.
Struggling with alcohol? You’re not alone.
Methods like these can help you quit alcohol in a safer, more-timely manner. With tapering, you start slowly to minimize the chances of severe withdrawal and relapse, avoiding the shock quitting cold turkey can cause. Alcohol tapering should be personalized, based on how much and the length of time someone has been drinking. Alcohol Tapering is a method of decreasing alcohol intake slowly and in a manageable manner. Rather than quitting cold turkey, which could lead to severe (maybe even fatal) withdrawal symptoms, tapering is a slower reduction of alcohol over time. Drinking less each day can help you eventually achieve alcohol abstinence or drinking moderation.
Similarly, this allows you to not worry about keeping alcohol around for guests, as they know your home is an alcohol-free space. If you’ve decided to stop drinking alcohol on your own, here are a few tips that may help make the process easier. Once you’ve cut back on your drinking (so you’re at or below the recommended guidelines), examine your drinking habits regularly to see if you’re maintaining this level of drinking. Some people attain their goal only to find that old habits crop up again later. Family and friends can provide encouragement and support when you stop drinking.
What happens to your body when you stop drinking?
- Nearly 29.5 million Americans aged 12 and older met the criteria for alcohol use disorder (AUD) in 2021, according to SAMHSA.
- Whether you’re seeking help for yourself or a loved one, our trained professionals are ready to help you navigate recovery one step at a time.
- It is very wise to seek medical assistance to detox to prevent harmful complications.
- Quitting alcohol leads to numerous health benefits, such as improved liver function, better sleep, weight loss, lower blood pressure, and enhanced mental clarity.
- Rearrange furniture if certain spots trigger drinking memories.
Detox symptoms vary in severity and often depend on factors like the intensity and duration of alcohol use, overall health, and metabolism differences. But, perhaps most importantly, understand that setbacks happen and that progress takes time or may look different than imagined. It is all part of the process, and no one’s process is the same. A person may require intravenous (IV) rehydration fluids to correct any electrolyte imbalances. Some people may also need supplements such as folate, multivitamin, thiamine, and dextrose. However, deep reflection may help uncover where internal triggers arise.
If you’re a long-term, heavy drinker, you may need medically supervised detoxification. Talk to your doctor or an addiction specialist to learn more. If you feel you’re experiencing alcohol withdrawal, please seek help from a qualified professional or addiction specialist. If you drink heavily on a regular basis, it can be dangerous to stop alcohol cold turkey. For this reason, you should not suddenly quit drinking without talking to your doctor. The consequences of quitting alcohol cold turkey can be serious and lead to alcohol withdrawal syndrome, which can be fatal in severe cases.
This post shows you how to take a break from booze so you can get your physical, emotional, and mental health in order. I developed a unique framework for getting alcohol rehab sober and dealing with vices. This post will show you how to take a break from booze so you can get your physical, emotional, and mental health in order. By prioritising nutrition and hydration, you give your body the best chance to recover, manage symptoms, and regain strength as you move forward in your journey to stop drinking. Willpower is the hard way to quit drinking and not the Easyway to quit drinking. As long as you use a drug-free method that also ensures that you understand the psychological aspects of alcohol addiction – these tips will help you.
But, with a little prior knowledge on how to taper off alcohol, adequate planning and professional consultation from a healthcare provider, it can certainly be done. For a more rigorous way to determine whether you have a drinking problem, visit the AUDIT-C for Alcohol Use diagnostic tool (mdcalc.com/calc/2021/audit-c-alcohol-use). Many drinkers seem to be doing just that in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, a stressful time during which alcohol sales in the US soared by more than 40%. Learning how to stop drinking alcohol is a process that continues throughout recovery. Even once the alcoholic is sober, many things around him may entice him to drink; these are called triggers.