Individuals generally experience some degree of alcohol withdrawal even after one night of drinking. In fact, a hangover is simply another term for alcohol withdrawal. As most people are aware, hangovers can vary considerably in intensity.
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A substitution taper can involve substituting a prescription drug for alcohol. It can also involve substituting the drink of choice with another drink; for example, a person may taper off hard alcohol with beer. A direct taper marijuana addiction means drinking the regular substance of choice but lowering the amount consumed daily.
Check in with your body for signs of detox
The gradual reduction method can be difficult, as you must strictly control how much you drink daily. Some find tapering is not a suitable option to stop drinking due to various factors such as social responsibilities or peer pressure. For many people, tapering alone is insufficient to help heal their addiction.
Tapering off Alcohol vs. Going Cold Turkey
Tapering off alcohol may complicate other medical conditions or co-occurring mental health disorders. If you’re addicted to alcohol, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to recover without some form of addiction treatment. You may be able to detox at home and recover from alcoholism with the help of support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous. However, medically supervised detox and professional rehab are more likely to help you maintain long-term sobriety. Anyone wanting to stop using alcohol may benefit from tapering if they first consult with their doctor to ensure they are tapering safely.
How To Make an Alcohol Tapering Schedule
For example, those who drink more heavily may need more time to taper than those who drink less alcohol. Further, if you start to develop alcohol withdrawal symptoms during the taper, your doctor may instruct you to pause or slow the taper as a result. These factors can make one person’s taper last longer than another person’s taper.
Mental and Physical Impacts of Weaning off Alcohol
Moreover, substituting one kind of beverage for another does not help you taper off alcohol if you consume the same number of standard drinks as you usually have. For example, one 12-ounce can of beer contains roughly the same amount of alcohol as a 5-ounce glass of wine or a mixed drink containing 1.5 ounces of alcohol. As you navigate this question, it can be helpful to think about how you typically prefer to approach change.
- On the other hand, if you’re struggling to meet your goals, take a step back and reassess your approach.
- Consider taking a class or workshop in a subject that interests you, such as a foreign language, coding, or woodworking.
- Start by estimating how much you drink on a daily basis—and be honest with yourself.
- Another clue that can be an indication of an unhealthy relationship with alcohol is if you make “rules” around drinking.
- Progressively tapering off of alcohol rather than stopping abruptly can mitigate both the discomfort and the dangers of quitting this powerful substance.
The central nervous system, which consists of the brain and spinal cord, is responsible for coordinating the activity of most of the body’s functions. Alcohol’s central nervous system-inhibiting effects decrease the neural activity, and it is this effect that is responsible for alcohol’s perceived positive side effects. When neural activity shuts down, people are likely to feel more relaxed and less socially inhibited. However, alcohol’s depressant effects how to taper off alcohol are also responsible for many of the dangers of alcohol consumption, such as blackouts and alcohol overdose.
The chances of seizures and DTs are low if you’re tapering, but they happen even in controlled rehab environments. In this study on tapering with a benzo, about 1% of patients had a seizure after completing their taper. This does not, by any means, mean that you have a 1% chance of a seizure if you taper with alcohol according to the schedule above.
Done With Alcohol? Here’s How To Stop Drinking
There are two types of triggers that can set off a person’s urge to drink. External triggers are people, places, things, or times that offer opportunities to drink and remind a person of alcohol. Internal triggers are thoughts, emotions, or physical sensations that cause a person to drink. Being exposed to either form of a trigger can result in unwanted relapse.