This can happen whether you’re quitting alcohol cold turkey or tapering. An alcohol taper can be effective in beginning recovery and help set a realistic goal for those not ready to quit alcohol completely, but they’re not for everyone. Someone who has been drinking heavily for a long period may struggle with cravings and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, leading to relapse. Alcohol addiction poses significant risks, and the optimal approach to mitigate these dangers involves abstaining from alcohol altogether.
- A healthcare professional can provide invaluable guidance on the best ways to safely taper off alcohol.
- For people with moderate to severe alcohol addiction, utilizing an alcohol detox center is always the safest option.
- 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.
- It is only advisable to direct taper if the preferred drink is beer with a low alcohol percentage.
Is Prescription Drug Rehab Necessary for Your Parent?
- In summary, while it is possible to wean oneself off alcohol safely, it is essential to be aware of the potential for severe symptoms.
- When that person cuts out alcohol, there is a period when their brain hasn’t yet received the message and still overproduces the stimulating chemicals.
- It’s common for the first symptoms to appear within a few hours after your last drink.
- When you quit through tapering, you drink a little less each day until you’re able to have no alcohol at all.
Discover what inpatient drug detox is, its benefits, and how it supports long-term recovery from addiction. Discover vital support, community, and resources for lasting recovery. Discover why drug and alcohol treatment are not for me and explore holistic alternatives to recovery. Discover the signs of alcoholism you can’t avoid and learn how to recognize and address alcohol addiction. Explore the 5 levels of care in rehab, guiding recovery from addiction with the ASAM criteria for effective treatment. Discover the ways behavioral therapy works during detox to support recovery and foster healthy coping strategies.
Is it Safe to Taper off Alcohol at Home?
- Abstinence, or total and lifelong avoidance of alcohol, is the best treatment for those who have gone through alcohol withdrawal.
- For people who experience hallucinations as part of alcohol withdrawal, these may begin in the 12- to 24-hour time frame.
- More severe symptoms can include hallucinations, seizures, and delirium tremens, characterized by confusion, rapid heartbeat, and fever.
- If you’re struggling to wean off alcohol, it might be best to seek addiction treatment.
- By Sarah Bence, OTR/LBence is an occupational therapist with a range of work experience in mental healthcare settings.
Tapering off alcohol is a method of reducing your alcohol intake gradually. This process can help your body break its dependency on alcohol with minimal side effects. Although it is possible to taper your alcohol use alone, professionals highly advise that you seek medical attention. Laying it all out in black and white can take time and some serious self-examination.
Insurance May Cover The Cost of Alcohol Detox
This can involve switching to a different alcoholic beverage or replacing alcohol with a prescription drug, but the latter should only be done under the guidance of a medical professional. Recovery is a lifelong process, and safely tapering off of alcohol is the first step towards achieving the life you want. It’s important to nurture a healthy relationship with your body so you can have a healthy relationship with your mind. You can start building the foundation for a happy future by going to rehab for alcohol. A private oceanside center treating addiction and co-occurring mental health with tailored plans, evidence-based care, fun beach activities, and support for working professionals. To give you a rough idea, often the recommended schedule may be to decrease total alcohol consumption by 10-20% every 1-3 days.
Because of the risk of a lower success rate and prolonged alcohol exposure, most healthcare professionals will recommend a professional detox over tapering. Stopping all at once can make withdrawal symptoms more severe, but it also shortens the duration of withdrawal symptoms and gives you less time to change your mind and go back to using alcohol. Quitting cold turkey under medical supervision provides the best of both worlds, allowing increased control and comfort of withdrawal symptoms while also getting you through withdrawal quickly. Quitting cold turkey means suddenly stopping all alcohol consumption. This method can lead to withdrawal symptoms, especially if you’ve been a heavy drinker.
Quitting drinking can feel very isolating, making it even more difficult to do alone at home without medical support. Direct tapering is not recommended for liquor drinkers as it is challenging to measure amounts and can result in binge drinking. Additionally, mixed drinks may contain sugar or other additives that could exacerbate withdrawal symptoms and should be avoided during the taper. Prolonged and excessive alcohol consumption can impact your brain, causing changes to the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors. Heavy drinking can lead to a reduction in the sensitivity of your brain to the amount of GABA produced.
Withdrawal and Safety When Tapering Off Alcohol
So if you’re usually drinking a 12-pack of beer per night, your provider might suggest that you step that down by one beer per night, every day or every other day. For many of us, the decision to change our drinking is at least partially influenced by health concerns. This being the case, it can be scary and feel a little counterproductive to go through a more dangerous withdrawal process than is necessary.
Gradual Reduction Method
But if you’re living with alcohol use disorder, drinking is more than a habit. People with alcohol use disorder can’t stop drinking even when it causes problems, like emotional distress or physical harm to themselves or others. Or maybe it’s a pregnancy that made you realize it’s time to stop drinking. Or maybe you’re just looking to improve your health, wake up hangover-free and give your liver (and your heart and brain) a break. Deciding to quit drinking and following through isn’t just about willpower.
How to Wean Off Alcohol: Tapering Safely and on Schedule
Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant that affects your brain. When you quit drinking or wean off alcohol, should i taper off alcohol your body will adjust to the lack of alcohol in your body. If you’ve been drinking for a long time, you may experience withdrawal symptoms when you quit drinking. 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. The time it takes to taper off alcohol varies based on how much a person drinks.
