Cold turkey detox from wine?

[Minnie09]

My sister is not a heavy drinker, but surely drinks every day. She has recently spoken to me about quitting drinking altogether because she is worried about her health. Also in combination with smoking. How safe is it to quit alcohol cold turkey? If you have -say - had two bottles of wine every day throughout the day, not only at night, for the past three years? I know delirium tremens is an issue, and so are seizures. But how frequent are they, and how much do you have to drink and for how long, before they become an issue? I told her to speak to her GP, or to go to AA, but she doesn't want to have anything to do with those. Probably out of shame and guilt. She's of medium height and she weighs about 140 pounds. I'm just guessing the weight. I feel like she's gained some weight due to this over the years.

Edited June 18, 2017 by Minnie09

[carhill]

Two bottles a day, every day?

 

IMO, professional monitored detox is really the only way.

 

FWIW, my wife's best friend and a good friend of mine was a similar habitual drinker, even to the point of secreting the booze, and she died of alcohol-related organ failure just prior to her 50th. They tried the gamut, including in-patient detox and it failed. From my perspective of knowing her for over a decade she was a good woman who stuffed down things to put on a smiling face and medicated that stuff with alcohol.

 

Prayers and best wishes to your sister. Alcohol can be an evil master.

[Minnie09]

Two bottles a day, every day?

 

IMO, professional monitored detox is really the only way.

 

FWIW, my wife's best friend and a good friend of mine was a similar habitual drinker, even to the point of secreting the booze, and she died of alcohol-related organ failure just prior to her 50th. They tried the gamut, including in-patient detox and it failed. From my perspective of knowing her for over a decade she was a good woman who stuffed down things to put on a smiling face and medicated that stuff with alcohol.

 

Prayers and best wishes to your sister. Alcohol can be an evil master.

 

Thank you! How long and how much had she been drinking? My sister is the same way. Everything is always perfect on the outside. I think she averages two bottles of wine - red - every day, sometimes more sometimes less.

Edited June 18, 2017 by Minnie09

[carhill]

My exW knew her longer, over 20 years, and had been best friends for much of that time and, to my knowledge she was always a drinker. In fact, I first met her at her BD party at a nice restaurant where she was enjoying quite the bottle of bubbly, the whole bottle.

 

I didn't see the secreting stuff until much later. Her behaviors also changed and, even though we'd known each other for years, I began to get this sexual vibe from her, uncharacteristic of her. Something was off. At the point she died she'd been prior married twenty years and divorced, in part due to alcohol, for a couple.

 

Anyway, I don't know exactly how much she drank but the amounts that I personally observed her consume, being about the same build and weight as your sister, often shocked me so I can speculate it was substantial.

 

My wake up came after one dinner where her H and son left early, she kept drinking and I foolishly didn't take her keys when leaving the restaurant and she nearly ran us, exW and myself, down in the street, not on purpose of course. She usually displayed few outward signs of being 'drunk' but that night she was and I should've acted and didn't.

 

Having gone through this with a few women I've loved over the decades, my takeaway is we can't fix others but we can show love and support, not to be confused with enabling. And if things look like they're going sideways, do what's needed to protect them and others, like grabbing keys. Good luck!

[Minnie09]

Thanks carhill. The thing is, she has talked to me a few times about quitting, I am probably her only confidant in this, and I won't share with anybody else in my family, so now I am conflicted what to do, because she wants to do it all by herself just quitting and I'm thinking she might need a doctor to help her out with this and that's my dilemma I don't want to lose her by being a smart ass and telling her what to do, rather than support her. But of course I don't want her in danger either

[carhill]

Ask her how she will go about quitting then watch what happens.

 

I work this milieu currently with a MW whom I've know for decades and what I do is 'switch', when we're together, to a non-alcoholic beverage, even though I may start off with a beer, etc. She's backed off to weekends only, from what she states and/or I observe, but I accept she might be secreting during the week.

 

FWIW, even though my exW's partner at the time (they're still together many years later) was a recovered alcoholic for decades and active AA participant, even his expertise (relative to mine he's an expert) could not help the lady in question and he was instrumental in getting her into in-patient.

 

Fortunately, the last time I saw her, a couple months before she died, she was, to me, normal, except looking a bit puffy and we hugged and said our usual ILY's and I'd only find out about the whole mess later from my exW when she was in the hospital and expected not to live.

 

That underscores another aspect of love and support. You never know what tomorrow may bring. I didn't know that customary interaction between us would be our last. Live in the now.

[Arieswoman]

Minnie09,

I think you are in denial when you say that your sister "isn't a heavy drinker".

 

Two bottles of wine a day ( and I presume you mean 750 mil bottles ? ) equates to about 18 units of alchohol.

 

The recommended safe limit for women in UK is 14 units a week.

 

Your sister needs professional help, certainly not a "cold turkey" approach which can cause fitting and convulsions. Please encourage her to seek medical advice.

[preraph]

She kind of needs to be under a doctor's supervision to quit like that and I don't think it matters cold turkey or not, really. To quit, she has to quit and go through the tremors and all that sometime. It would be best to do it under supervision of a doctor who knew what to expect and recommend. I really think an AA meeting where she could ask those questions would yield the best results. It's a wealth of information about it.

 

I used to drink about 1 and a half bottles of champagne on the regular but not every single day. I am not an addict and would stop for months at a time in order to diet and lose weight. But I'm not an addict. It makes a big difference. I never had any withdrawal from alchohol.

[LifeNomad]

My sister is not a heavy drinker, but surely drinks every day. She has recently spoken to me about quitting drinking altogether because she is worried about her health. Also in combination with smoking. How safe is it to quit alcohol cold turkey? If you have -say - had two bottles of wine every day throughout the day, not only at night, for the past three years? I know delirium tremens is an issue, and so are seizures. But how frequent are they, and how much do you have to drink and for how long, before they become an issue? I told her to speak to her GP, or to go to AA, but she doesn't want to have anything to do with those. Probably out of shame and guilt. She's of medium height and she weighs about 140 pounds. I'm just guessing the weight. I feel like she's gained some weight due to this over the years.

 

The main thing is if she really wants to quit and not just saying it. But she can taper and stop slowly.

 

 

Like someone said professional monitoring is best but she can do it herself too. (I did)

 

 

For example, if she drinks 2 bottles every day, she can keep drinking but set 1 or 2 days out of the 1st week to drink 1 1/2 (or 1 3/4) bottle instead of 2, and then the 2nd week add 1 or 2 more days to that reduced amount.

 

 

Keep doing that adding 1 or 2 days each week and after a few weeks she can cut down further to 1 1/5 bottles each day, and then lower it even more to 1 1/4 etc each day, then 1 bottle for another few weeks, then eventually lower it more to half a bottle or nothing.

 

 

The other thing she can do, is depending on the type of wine she drinks if she can find something "lighter", or even dilute whatever she is drinking with something non alcoholic little by little.

 

Its a slow process but helps with avoiding nasty withdrawls.

 

 

Also, start taking a good multivitamin and multi mineral, particulary magnesium and even electrolyte pills. Exercise does wonders as well.

 

 

If she is being forced or pressured into quitting it wont work as she will likely relapse.

 

 

She must want to really quit for whatever reason. If she has anxiety the vitamins and multi minerals (important) will help. PM me for brands!