Quitting Drinking: How to Taper Off Alcohol

Tapering off alcohol gives the body time to adapt to the lack of alcohol. This reduces the severity of withdrawal symptoms and chances of fatal complications. Quitting drinking, “cold turkey,” means you suddenly stop consuming alcohol. Tapering off (or tapering down) alcohol means you gradually reduce the amount of alcohol that you consume over time. Alcoholism, more correctly known as alcohol use disorder tapering down alcohol (AUD), impacts more than 1 in 10 Americans over the age of 12. Luckily, there are ways to safely reduce your alcohol consumption and get your life back on track.

Benefits of Weaning off Alcohol

Little data is available about the safety and effectiveness of alcohol tapers. In contrast, robust evidence supports quitting alcohol while under medical supervision. If you struggle with drinking, the safest way to quit is under a doctor’s care. If you drink heavily, your doctor may recommend quitting with the help of a medical detox center. In medical detox, you receive around-the-clock care from doctors and nurses to help prevent and treat alcohol withdrawal symptoms and their complications. This can set you up for a safe and effective detox and put you in a good position to continue your recovery in rehab.

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• Someone who has gone through alcohol withdrawal several times is more likely to experience severe withdrawal symptoms than someone going through it for the first time.
• Mild anxiety, for example, can turn into overwhelming agitation or even hallucinations.
• If you experience dangerous signs such as high blood pressure, racing heart, or arrhythmias, slow your taper and seek assistance.
• Discover how can group therapy help treat my addiction, fostering support and connection on the path to recovery.
• All your goals should follow SMART rules; they should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound.

Slowly, to reduce the discomfort of withdrawal symptoms, you will come off the medication with the goal being complete abstinence from alcohol. An alcohol taper is a way to wean yourself off alcohol and avoid withdrawal symptoms. Although all forms of alcohol cessation should be done with medical guidance, tapering your alcohol intake may allow you to self-wean from drinking at home. Alcohol detox medications can make the process safer and more comfortable.

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For people who moderately consume alcohol, tapering off may be a good option. However, quitting cold turkey or tapering is not advisable for people with an AUD. Tapering is also a strategy used by people with a substance or alcohol use disorder (AUD).

But deciding to cut back on drinking is much more important than the length of your alcohol taper. A medical professional can help you determine if a fast or slow taper, or quitting altogether, is appropriate based on a thorough medical assessment and evaluation of your withdrawal risk. If you drink alcohol and are thinking about quitting, it is important to make sure you do so safely. One potential way to quit drinking is through tapering, which involves slowly reducing your alcohol intake over time.

Tapering Off Alcohol Safely

The long and the short of it is–tapering off alcohol with medical support can help you quit drinking. In fact, 30 million people have alcohol use disorder1 in the United States alone. Luckily, this nationwide issue has resources available to help you heal. The process of tapering off alcohol involves gradually reducing alcohol consumption over time. This helps to minimize withdrawal symptoms and make the process more manageable, particularly for individuals who have been consuming alcohol regularly and in higher quantities 3.

It also can reduce the risk of relapse by not trying to attempt too much too soon, failing, and then going back to regularly using alcohol to cope with the feelings of failure. Tapering can be a long process that takes weeks or even months to finish. Although it is possible to taper at home, having medical supervision and assistance can ensure a successful taper.

• Being exposed to either form of a trigger can result in unwanted relapse.
• Both methods allow the body to adjust gradually and reduce overall alcohol intake.
• This is because Delirium tremens is caused by hyperactivity in the nervous system, which is now without the depressant effects of alcohol and is instead going into overdrive.
• There are multiple health benefits you can experience when you start drinking less alcohol.
• Prolonged and excessive alcohol consumption can impact your brain, causing changes to the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors.

This can happen whether you’re quitting alcohol cold turkey or tapering. Making a schedule to slowly reduce your alcohol intake is a safe way to taper off the substance. This will ensure that you are not quitting cold turkey which could result in severe and debilitating  withdrawal symptoms or even death. Depending on how much alcohol you’ve been consuming, it can take days or over a week to gradually reduce your dose safely and get off alcohol. Because alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, quitting drinking can cause your body to have too much of an excitatory substance called glutamate as it tries to rebalance. This can trigger alcohol withdrawal symptoms, which can be dangerous in some cases.