Steve…
if you are really concerned about some bad reaction to stopping drinking, see your doctor. Asking for medical advice in a place like this is a bit like asking for legal advice from cell mate in prison. I am sure they have some. But how good is it?

That said, the worst thing that can happen while detoxing is death. A rare outcome.

The next worse thing is the dt’s delirium tremens. They are like the scariest nightmare you ever had, but you can’t wake up. That happens a little more often, but it too is a relatively rare thing.

Most of us don’t die or go into dt’s. We stop drinking and we can’t sleep for a week or two, sometimes we get the shakes and we get very depressed. Night sweats are fairly common, as is a craving for sugar. And the most common one is, this world just goes gray. It loses all it’s color. We look around, and ask ourselves is this it? Is this what I have to look forward to for the rest of my life? Day after day, week after week, month after month of this? Never am I to catch another break? Am I never to have a drink or two to liven things up a bit?

Steve, most of us don’t die of go crazy, at the end of the day, most of us in fact don’t stop drinking. We feel we have to go back to drinking or that unrelenting sobriety is what will drive us crazy. And when we start drinking, we can’t stop. You know what I mean.

“and today is my first day of not wanting a drink” that feeling won’t last steve. You will start thinking about the ease and comfort that comes with a drink or two. You may be thinking about that now. But if not now, you will someday. We always do.

And in turn, we pick up that next in an endless string of drinks. What else can we do? Just being dry sucks.

That my friend is why almost all alcoholics die wet. We detox, and we go back out, over and over again.

Try thinking beyond just stopping. Try thinking about recovery. There are drunks much like you who haven’t gone on a bender in years. How just did they do that? That in my opinion is a much more useful question.

If you were able to write your post, detox ought to present you no big problems. But staying sober, now that is another question entirely.

E-mail me my friend, if you want more info on how I did that seemingly impossible feat.

Richard