People who drink daily or almost every day should not be left alone for the first few days after stopping alcohol. Withdrawal symptoms can quickly go from a bad hangover to a serious medical situation. Remember you are facing a difficult challenge during alcohol withdrawal, but you are not alone. There are many resources available to help, including peer support groups, counseling, therapy, and inpatient rehabilitation.
Unsupervised Medical Care
In fact, for several decades now, the medication naltrexone has been successfully used to help people cut back and moderate their drinking, without requiring total abstinence. And in general there is sufficient research to suggest that moderation-based programs can be an effective alternative Top 5 Advantages of Staying in a Sober Living House to traditional treatment. If you feel that you’d like some help quitting alcohol, but don’t have the time or money to go to inpatient or outpatient rehab, there are some options that can make things easier. One of the best tools at your disposal may turn out to be your smartphone.
Can Tapering Your Alcohol Intake Reduce Withdrawal Symptoms?
Risk factors contributing to AUD include genetic predisposition, environmental influences, and psychological factors. Obviously quitting cold turkey from https://businesstribuneonline.com/top-5-advantages-of-staying-in-a-sober-living-house/ a 12-beer-a-day habit is going to be more stressful than tapering off slowly. But that does not mean home detox is effective, appropriate, or safe.
Tapering Off Alcohol vs. Going Cold Turkey
- This might actually encourage relapse, and then make you scared to quit again.
- It’s even helpful to read it out loud, as this has been shown to help you retain the information more effectively.
- Inpatient treatment may be an expensive option in terms of time and money.
It’s best to reduce your drinking by a small amount each day to avoid the shock to your system. So, if you normally have 6 beers a day, you could be done tapering within one week. It’s always best to consult a physician on the best strategy, especially if you drink heavily. Dr. Streem says that if your goal is to stop drinking altogether, you’re more likely to have success quitting all at once, rather than weaning off alcohol. But that advice changes if you’re living with alcohol use disorder.
Withdrawal and Safety When Tapering Off Alcohol
If it’s too hard to control how much you drink each day, weaning might not be the right strategy. That said, there are now several medications that can help reduce your cravings and make weaning off alcohol easier. The main difference between tapering and quitting alcohol cold turkey is how fast you quit. Cold turkey is a common slang term for quitting alcohol (or any substance) all at once. Tapering or weaning means ramping down your alcohol use until you get to zero—or to a more moderate level of drinking that you prefer. If your body is used to a certain amount of alcohol, you may feel certain effects when you stop.
Understanding the Role of Alcohol Tapering in Treatment
It’s common for the first symptoms to appear within a few hours after your last drink. There are several ways to taper your alcohol consumption without therapy. BetterHelp offers affordable mental health care via phone, video, or live-chat.
- But Dr. Streem knows that it can be hard to recognize signs of alcohol abuse in ourselves.
- Use the NIAAA’s drink size calculator to determine the amount of alcohol in various drinks.
- If you’ve become dependent on alcohol, cutting it out of your life may produce withdrawal symptoms, such as a rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, sweating and shaking.
- Pull the letter out and read it to yourself when you feel tempted.
- Even if your situation seems like someone else’s, your body may respond differently to the tapering process.
It also covers some of the different treatment options that are available. You may have tried to quit drinking alcohol and discovered that the symptoms you experienced were more severe than you anticipated. Maybe you decided to go back to drinking just to relieve those symptoms. Alcohol addiction can be difficult and sometimes dangerous to handle on your own. If you or a loved one is struggling with alcohol addiction, contact us to learn more and get started with alcohol addiction treatment.