I’m in my 40s and have beaten a few substance abuse problems in my life on my own. I’m proud that I was able to tackle them to be where I am now. Over the last 8 years I started to fall into a depression and booze has been my crutch. Almost 3 years back I went through a brutal breakup and spiraled from there to binge drinking very regularly. I can’t afford an inpatient treatment center (both the cost of the center and being off work) so I’m hoping to do it from home with a “wean down” strategy. Has anyone done that? Any tips for sobering up alone?
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12 step programs are free and all the reasons you don’t want to go and are convinced they won’t work are all the same reasons we all had.
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Most of us have tried the “Wean down” strategy, and the only one type of booze strategy… or my favorite… only on the weekends strategy.
There are other ways, but the one thing I have found is they all require a program of some kind. I tried all the other ways and it wasn’t until I finally said I need help and I don’t know what to do that I finally got sober. If you can do it without a program like AA I salute you. For the majority of us we need ANY program to help.
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319 Recovery. 24 hour AA zoom meetings. Give it a go. I did and it’s been helpful
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Great resource! I work nights and after work is a big trigger for me. Having someone to talk to after work would be a big help!
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I weaned myself down to jail once 
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Yeah… I weaned myself into a wrecked home and lost jobs.
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Did any of you do it without medical treatment?
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What I’m hearing is that doesn’t work? lol
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We all sober up alone. It’s an inside job.
For support I suggest you find your local Alcoholics Anonymous group. Get a list of meetings and attend. 90 meetings in 90 days is suggested.
There is a solution to your drinking problem. I found it in A.A. You can too.
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AA is not a medical treatment. It is free. “The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking”
I sobered up without medical treatment. But that’s my experience.
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Yeah, they’re always fresh out of booze in there.
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I did it without medical treatment. If I had it to do over, I would medically detox. But at the time I hated myself so much I thought I deserved the misery.
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No seizures or palpitations? The thing is, I get anxiety attacks and when I worry about the physical side effects the anxiety mimics physical side effects.
I do not know how you drank, and that really affects how you detox. I did it solo. It was miserable for 3 days. Day 4 also bad but not as bad. Day 5 I turned a corner.
The hardest thing about detox is being determined enough to see it through, knowing full well you could just make all of the immediate physical discomfort go away with a few drinks. It took me years to gather that determination.
Hit meetings, change your people places and things, and most importantly build a sober network, you got this
Never worked for me.
I'm a one is too many, 10 is not enough kinda drinker. So I don't take the first one.
I agree with a lot of what has already been said. Alone is not where you want to be. The 2nd law of thermodynamics, Entropy, shows us that without energy applied, objects left alone tend to move toward disorder and degradation. This. is the reason why meetings and a network are so important.
If AA/NA is not your thing, you should look into SMART Recovery. They don't have a ton of physical meeting locations but plenty of online. I have found that method to help prevent relapse through changing the way we think about things.
All of that said basically to show the importance of a program and community.