Help me stop. Please.

Hi everyone, 39 year ole male.

I come to you today to ask for general anecdotal experiences and advice. MOD’s please don’t nuke this post. I am not looking for medical advise, even if it is provided in the comments as good will and I have posted medical questions. They will all be taken with a pinch of salt as a general “this is what happened to this person and I likely wont see the same benefits from said medical advice they did/undertook”

I began drinking heavily in 2011 which was nearly always 4-6 beers a day, 99% of the time your general low strength Carlsberg/Coors/Bud light. Occasionally I might have 1 or 2 pints of Stella/San Miguel – but that stuff gives me a headache and makes me uncomfortably drunk.

I mostly drink to keep my anxiety issue at a low level. Not that I have panic attacks any more, I used to have them daily, but now its just a general anxiety and having a few beers seems to just turn the volume of the anxiety down so I can relax much better.

Since then I have done exactly the same. Every night. No more and very rarely no less. I don’t drink wine/spirits or generally anything above 4%. Not even on weekends, as 6 beers gets me drunk enough that I don’t want to drink any more as (ironically I guess) drinking any more annoys the hell out of me as I become unable to be coherent or do tasks I want to do and it winds me up.

I don’t drink during work ever, I do not ever drink and drive and I’ll get to that point later in the post, I also have two jobs. One paying mid £40k’s in a complicated/high level IT role and a part time job at the weekend paying around £5k a year. I do all my tasks, shower every day, clean dry and fold clothes, have an ‘ok’ diet with fast food being once a week. My flat is clean and tidy. I have a great relationship with my family and friend circle.

I think this means that I’m a functioning alcoholic, please correct me if I’m wrong.

I want to stop so bad. I have managed to plan today that the beer I am drinking right now was the last one in my fridge without the ability to go and get any more (the drink driving part [part 1]

I dont get any withdrawal symptoms that I read about (shakes, itchy skin, brain fog etc) when I dont drink for days at a time.

I have not had any tests at the doctors for liver function because if I tell them how much I drink I can bet I will say good-bye to my driving license[Driving license part 2], I do not drink and drive. I do not drive the next morning if I am up late, and late for me is 11pm I rarely ever see past that time before retiring to bed. I did have a blood test about 4 years ago in A&E because I had some really bad pains in my groin, which turned out to be severe IBS and the results were all down the middle, no concerns, although there 6 or 7 things on the printout were down the middle, I cant remember what they were for, and unlikely to be liver function results.

To recap: 13 years of heavy drinking, an anxiety disorder and a wish to stop drinking..how do I do this.

Do I need to detox given I don’t get withdrawal symptoms if I don’t drink for 2, 3, 4 days? Generally the times I don’t drink for days at a time if when I am unwell with a cold/flu which is maybe once a year or less.

I’m looking for your experiences, what ever they are. What your steps were/are to get off the booze. What happened when you tried, what happened when you managed to quit.

I want and NEED to know there is a better life for me without the alcohol.

Thank you to you all.