Alcohol withdrawal?

[[mi...]]

I have a post in introductions, but I will say here I am a heavy drinker as well. I have some periods of sobriety, with no s/sx of withdrawal. If you were trying to tackle both of these issues, which would you address first, the klonopin, or the booze? both at the same time?

[[De...]]

I chose to do mine at the same time..alcohol most certainly hinders healing from benzos, so if you code to do one before another, do the alcohol. But I know how addictions are, you may end up taking more benzos to compensate...or you may not. The best way to do it is just to revamp your lifestyle into a healthy one free from substances. Best wishes 

[[li...]]

Hey Bud

 

I agree I am or was (7 weeks sober today) also a heavy heavy drinker when I came into the forum and was having bad W/D, within a week or so of getting off the booze they began to get better and have continued to do so, I still have W/D but there is absolutely no doubt that alcohol makes the W/D worse and interferes with the healing as both substances affect the same GABA receptors

 

So taper off the benzos and put down the booze, you don't have to say you will never drink again, but instead you will abstain until you are healed

 

Type alcohol or booze in the search engine here and think you will find a lot of posts that will say the same thing I am, so good luck with getting off both.

 

LK

[[sp...]]

When I came off benzos the first time in 2007, I noted that for months after even having fairly moderate amounts of alcohol would give me insane hangovers that persisted 48+ hours. Not only is alcohol pushing a lot of the same buttons, it's pushing other buttons all over, and it's well known that anxiety and insomnia are common rebound effects from drinking. Trying to do a benzo taper while still using large amounts of alcohol on a regular basis seems to me to be inviting disaster. Ashton's work does mention that many of her patients were able to continue to drink small quantities of alcohol throughout withdrawal, but that doesn't make it a good idea, and she's also talking about people who have a glass of wine with dinner a couple times a week much more than she is talking about alcoholics who are consuming toxic quantities of alcohol on a daily basis.

 

I know that for me, if I have a couple drinks, there's a real good chance that my anxiety, tinnitus and sweating will take a dive for the worst within 2-3h (which is consistent for the elimination time of alcohol), so I'm electing to largely set it aside until I get out of this maze. I've never been a heavy drinker, and I don't expect to be alcohol free for the rest of my life, but right now I'm a lot more focused on trying to be as happy and healthy as I can, which means no neurotoxic GABA agonists.

[[Pa...]]

I'd tackle the alcohol first, if you're drinking your willpower will go out the window with the first drink.  If you're an alcoholic, you might not be able to taper, I know I couldn't have, even if I'd known I had to.  I would have reached for the drug to make the pain go away.

[[Fl...]]

I think Pamster nailed it. Alcohol WD doesn't last long from what I read. Might be better to get that under control first. The benzo dependency is the real monster.

 

I was a nightly drinker for years until recently. Decided to give up the booze (or at least cut back dramatically) while I'm dealing with the benzo issue. I didn't have any WD from the alcohol which I am thankful for. I have been pretty much alcohol free for about a month, but the couple of times I did drink I had mixed results. Last weekend I drank friday and saturday nights. I had a horrible headache on saturday all day long. Might not have even been from the alcohol but it seemed like it. Drank again saturday night and felt fine on Sunday.