This was sent to me in a private message by one of our members who wanted to stay anonymous but thought the information might be useful to other BariatricPal members:

"Alex,

I realized my drinking was getting excessive. Particularly when I woke up with my hands shaking. It was quickly going from drinking after working out, to wanting to take nips to quiet the nerves during the day.

There are two schools of thought out there when it comes to alcohol - the AA/total abstention model and Harm Reduction model.

In my typical fashion, I started researching it and realized that sudden withdrawal could be very dangerous. Just stopping drinking if you have been doing for an extended period of time can create bad withdrawal symptoms, the worst being known as Delirium Tremors (DT's), but it also can spike your blood pressure, elevate heart rate, night sweats.

If I went into a medically supervised system, my options all involved sudden withdrawal with benzos and other anti-anxiety drugs. And at the same time you risk loss of professional licences, reputation, gun rights etc. Not a great solution to a problem.

And it is a problem. Not only is it stalling my weight loss, but if I was in a accident, the hospital is not going to bring you a bourbon as medicine, instead you get to go through DT's. So I didn't want to risk being dependent on alcohol, the dangers are too great.

Then I found these articles:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0022994

https://hamsnetwork.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/more-on-tapering-off-alcohol/

One of the benefits of controlled tapering of alcohol is avoiding a syndrome called "kindling."

Some people who have repeatedly gone through cold turkey withdrawal without tapering off become more and more likely to have bad withdrawals from even small amounts of alcohol. This phenomenon is referred to as "kindling".

People who have undergone kindling can suffer withdrawal seizures from drinking as little as a six pack of beer. Some decades ago some detox facilities forced clients to undergo cold turkey withdrawal to "teach them a lesson". Not only did this fail to stop people from drinking, it resulted in many people suffering from kindling.

I used this system over three days and the result was a controlled landing. I've now been able to go through the last week alcohol-free without really bad withdrawals. Can't say it wasn't without discomfort. It did goof with my sleep and I have been agitated and muscles are a little sore, but it was bearable. Used a portable breathalyzer to monitor my BAC and home blood pressure monitor to make sure nothing spiked.

My goal is to stay alcohol-free for the next month and re-evaluate. I need to re-learn my relationship with drinking, and make sure I bring my BAC down to 0 between drinks so I don't get back to that level again and make sure it is not an everyday activity. But that is my goal, not a recommendation."

Have you ever been to an AA meeting or are you worried that showing up will risk your reputation? I would suggest at least trying it once. It may help you to talk about your struggles as you go through your transition into sobriety. Don't be afraid that they will judge your weaning process. It's not something you have to share. Sometimes it helps to take what you find useful and leave the rest. I've always found group settings to be more useful than talking to a therapist.

Cognitive Behavioral therapy is also useful for people recovering from any addiction (food, alcohol, illegal substances) because you learn preventive strategies. You need to have a plan in action in case severe stress, anxiety, or depression arises and it becomes terribly challenging to turn away from alcohol.