Did you ever wake up one morning and realize that you have been out of your mind for a real long time. It happened to me once about 4 years ago. I started thinking about a dinner party where everyone was drunk and we talked about not drinkinking anymore after the age of 40 years old. Now 4 years ago, 16 years had gone by in an alcohol whirl, since the evening and the promise.
I was now well past the 40 year mark and the years were starting to show. After a series of unhappy incidents around alcohol abuse gone wild, I convinced myself that to quit drinking alcohol I needed to quit altogether. I did what the AA crowd calls "white knuckling it". But I firmly believe to quit, you quit. End of story.
The process of getting over the physical addiction required about 7 days in the local detox clinic to ensure a safe transition to the dry state. Alcohol withdrawal can be very dangerous and should be undertaken with the help of professionals, if you want to get it over with fast. Otherwise you can taper-off using beer in decreasing amounts over about a week.
I know this because I watched my alcoholic father taper off many times while I was growing up. I used this technique myself, too. But not the last time I got myself addicted to this socially acceptable substance. I wanted it over with tout suite.
