Hi Everyone,
Any response to this would be very very helpful, and there is a bit of urgency to it.
A little history:
father-in-law has been drinking heavily everynight for over 10 years now. He is 57 years old. He is text book alcoholic. Now, due to health reasons (very high blood pressure) and family pressures, he has decided to quit. Previously he drank mainly whisky, sometimes excessive amounts of wine or beer. Recently, for about the last 4-6 months, due to some pressure I've put on him, he has started using his treadmill. From what he's told me, he does do about 30 min of speedwalking 3-5 times a week. I do think however this is quite inconsistent, but have been stressing he does this consistently. Generally he would drink until about 1AM on weekdays, and even later on weekends. He wakes up M-F for work around 10, weekends even later, noon sometimes 1 or 2PM.
Currently
He has gone 7 days now without drinking a drop whatsoever. The first 2 days he didn't find much of a difference, but now he has had trouble sleeping. He falls alseep easily around 11PM, but then wakes up around 5AM and cannot go back to sleep. He doesn't want to take a drink, as he knows he will be unable to control himself to just one. He is adament to make this change in his life.
Couple questions:
At his age, is 6 hours of sleep enough? If so, what can he do to his sleep patterns aside from trying to keep himself up even later at night?
Is there any or special foods/ drinks that would help his cravings cease? Also, any special recommendations anyone can make?
Any general suggestions???
Thanks, any help is much appreciated!!!
Drinking
Moderators: Boss Man, cassiegose
- 6hrs probably isn't enough for anyone
- he needs to get into a sleeping pattern
- i think he's goin through what i call "the horrors" which is basically what happens to me when i have at least days on the grog in a row and when i try to sleep you just wake up all night...your body is totally out of whack when this happens and tryed to adapt to the last 2 days and now i'm trying to get it to adapt back to normal...the body loves routine
- get him to try and go to bed at the same time everynight and get up at the same time every morn
- i started work back 3 weeks ago...before than i was up at 5:30 - 6am every week day morn and in bed at 9 - 9:30 with weekends just getting up whan i woke and going to bed when i wanted...i had 6 weeks off changing jobs and although i tryed to keep routine (sort of) i/m not a morning person by nature and i ended up staying up til 2am and getting up at 10:30 - 11am...than i suddenly get a job and within 3 days i've interviewed twice and started work at 6am which killed me for the 1st week...after the body has gotten used to this now and i get up 5:15am every week day morn and go to bed at9 - 9:30 with the lights off at 10...this past sunday i woke up at 7:30 with no alarm or anything as body clock has gotten used to 7 hrs sleep or so and i'm no longer napping throughout the day
jeez that went a bit long
not sure about the cravings though, more about will power than a simple remedy i think and if he wants to come on here than we'd welcome him
Couple questions:
At his age, is 6 hours of sleep enough? If so, what can he do to his sleep patterns aside from trying to keep himself up even later at night?
Is there any or special foods/ drinks that would help his cravings cease? Also, any special recommendations anyone can make?
Any general suggestions???
Thanks, any help is much appreciated!!!
- he needs to get into a sleeping pattern
- i think he's goin through what i call "the horrors" which is basically what happens to me when i have at least days on the grog in a row and when i try to sleep you just wake up all night...your body is totally out of whack when this happens and tryed to adapt to the last 2 days and now i'm trying to get it to adapt back to normal...the body loves routine
- get him to try and go to bed at the same time everynight and get up at the same time every morn
- i started work back 3 weeks ago...before than i was up at 5:30 - 6am every week day morn and in bed at 9 - 9:30 with weekends just getting up whan i woke and going to bed when i wanted...i had 6 weeks off changing jobs and although i tryed to keep routine (sort of) i/m not a morning person by nature and i ended up staying up til 2am and getting up at 10:30 - 11am...than i suddenly get a job and within 3 days i've interviewed twice and started work at 6am which killed me for the 1st week...after the body has gotten used to this now and i get up 5:15am every week day morn and go to bed at9 - 9:30 with the lights off at 10...this past sunday i woke up at 7:30 with no alarm or anything as body clock has gotten used to 7 hrs sleep or so and i'm no longer napping throughout the day
jeez that went a bit long
not sure about the cravings though, more about will power than a simple remedy i think and if he wants to come on here than we'd welcome him
Couple questions:
At his age, is 6 hours of sleep enough? If so, what can he do to his sleep patterns aside from trying to keep himself up even later at night?
Is there any or special foods/ drinks that would help his cravings cease? Also, any special recommendations anyone can make?
Any general suggestions???
Thanks, any help is much appreciated!!!
If he needs more Tryptophan, try looking into 5-HTP.
5-HTP is a supplement, that assists Serotonin increases by, (from memory), converting into Typtophan, and thereby causing the Seratonin release.
He should possibly avoid other Methylxanthines too, which means Theophalline, and also Theobromine found in Chocolate.
Such things can cause potentially dependancies / addictions, and subsequuant withdrawal symptoms, being as they are categorised as Methylxanthines like Caffeine is.
He is going through a potential withdrawal period, as 1 unit of Alcohol, (1 glass of wine, or half a pint of beer), take 1 hour to process in the Liver.
This means, if he were to consume the equivalent of 10 shots of Whiskey a day, that's about 10 hours of consistant alcohol processing. guess is he might have consumed more, and obviously not once an hour, possibly 3-4 at one time, equally spaced like food, as a rough estimate.
This could account for his delayed reaction, as the body might have coped for several hours, without what it had become partly dependant on, but then could no longer cope without the part of the Alcohol, it had become accustomed to.
The Brain needs sugars to help it function, so his Brain probably got used to the Maltose, which is likely to be the one in Whiskey, if Whiskey has any Sugar content, and it is the one in Beer, if I remember.
I don't drink, so I have no first hand experience of boozing.
It's possible he might need to eat more, if he was using drink as a meal replacement, just to give his body something to do. His body would then be functioning, by keeping some of the processes it was instigating to process drink, and using them to process food instead, thereby stopping those bodily processes from shutting down, partly or completely
This allows his body to keep working, in a similar way to how it would have, but with something different, I.E. food, not Alcohol. plus if that is the case, he'll improve his metabolism by not feeding it with muscle.
6 hours sleep might be okay, but more should be attempted, and as already said, he needs routine. He has to have set sleeping and waking up times. He might be getting sleep problems, as you say he drank into the night sometimes, so he already had those irregular times, but his body is now going through that erratic sleep schedule without drink.
So he's taken something out of the equation, the body got used to coping with, so he needs a routine of some kind, to give his body back something it can work with, somethng positive to help it with its adjustment to no Alcohol.
I know this sounds a bit like psychobabble, but I'm speaking partly from a logical standpoint, or an outside looking in perspective.
5-HTP is a supplement, that assists Serotonin increases by, (from memory), converting into Typtophan, and thereby causing the Seratonin release.
He should possibly avoid other Methylxanthines too, which means Theophalline, and also Theobromine found in Chocolate.
Such things can cause potentially dependancies / addictions, and subsequuant withdrawal symptoms, being as they are categorised as Methylxanthines like Caffeine is.
He is going through a potential withdrawal period, as 1 unit of Alcohol, (1 glass of wine, or half a pint of beer), take 1 hour to process in the Liver.
This means, if he were to consume the equivalent of 10 shots of Whiskey a day, that's about 10 hours of consistant alcohol processing. guess is he might have consumed more, and obviously not once an hour, possibly 3-4 at one time, equally spaced like food, as a rough estimate.
This could account for his delayed reaction, as the body might have coped for several hours, without what it had become partly dependant on, but then could no longer cope without the part of the Alcohol, it had become accustomed to.
The Brain needs sugars to help it function, so his Brain probably got used to the Maltose, which is likely to be the one in Whiskey, if Whiskey has any Sugar content, and it is the one in Beer, if I remember.
I don't drink, so I have no first hand experience of boozing.
It's possible he might need to eat more, if he was using drink as a meal replacement, just to give his body something to do. His body would then be functioning, by keeping some of the processes it was instigating to process drink, and using them to process food instead, thereby stopping those bodily processes from shutting down, partly or completely
This allows his body to keep working, in a similar way to how it would have, but with something different, I.E. food, not Alcohol. plus if that is the case, he'll improve his metabolism by not feeding it with muscle.
6 hours sleep might be okay, but more should be attempted, and as already said, he needs routine. He has to have set sleeping and waking up times. He might be getting sleep problems, as you say he drank into the night sometimes, so he already had those irregular times, but his body is now going through that erratic sleep schedule without drink.
So he's taken something out of the equation, the body got used to coping with, so he needs a routine of some kind, to give his body back something it can work with, somethng positive to help it with its adjustment to no Alcohol.
I know this sounds a bit like psychobabble, but I'm speaking partly from a logical standpoint, or an outside looking in perspective.