I can only comment on my personal experience, but when I drank hardcore up to the year 2012 and then decided to quit. I had shakes, sweating on the couch, nervous and it really really SUCKED, but I made it. I didn't think to hard about the 'what ifs'. I just quit cold turkey.
The hard part still is staying sober. I used to smoke cigarettes for 20 years, I can't stand them at all now. To this day, I still think about booze.

don't worry about what others think of you....that is not your primary concern and certainly not a good excuse to keep drinking....if they knew how often you drank they would look just as unfavorably of you as they would if you got DTs at work I suppose....but the one is better because it means no more booze going into system....hugs

eshaw, the worst of the DT's should pass within a week. You've stopped during a very stressful time. But none of us get sober without it being a very stressful time. No one can advise us on what to do. That's a decision only you can make. And congrats on the first 24 hours sober!

eshaw..I know exactly how you feel. My Dr. told me to take more benzos than usual for the first 3 days. I would take another one. Try not to drink.

I have been where you are many times this year....and the last time just this week. Not even...6 days ago. And on Day 2 I almost drank because I literally felt like I was going to die. But I had the advantage of staying home and not working, so I laid around...drank a lot of fluid, ate small amounts of food and took 2 hour naps. I still feel crappy....but not as crappy as I did on Day 1, 2,3 and 4.

I assume you are working in the daytime (so your not going to drink anyway). So if you make it thru the day than I would really just try to take an extra benzo and go to bed early tonight. This to me would be my best option because it is unavoidable to go thru withdrawals no matter what you do. If you drink you are going to prolong the inevitable.

With all that said thou...there was one time I could not make it thru the anxiety this year and I decided to taper...there are taper schedules on line. Tapering does work for some people but I read for most it just brings them back to full blown drinking. But this one time I DID manage it and it was an easier withdrawal. The instructions were telling me if I drank 12 beers in a night bring it down to 10...then the next night 8...then the next 6....then the next 4...then the next none...However, I could not make it thru the day without one at that time I was always starting my drinking as soon as I opened my eyes around 8am to about 12am every night...sometimes waking in the night to drink as well. So that time it worked for me. But I tried it a couple times after that this year and it didn't work...I just kept drinking and ended up in hospital. Try to make it thru with the benzos...If you didn't have benzos you would be in a very dangerous situation but benzos are what they use in the hospital...and the hospitals only give them every 4 hours unless you are showing high blood pressure...So maybe you can feel safe just knowing that you have the benzos and it is a God awful experience...but you can get thru it.

I am not a physician. I am a recovering addict, with one of my drugs of choice being alcohol.
I know that the only way for me to stop, was to stop. I prolonged that for many miserable years. Using drugs to counter drugs was my mode of operation, but I make no claims other than my own experience. I justify and rationalize outrageous excuses, at least that is what I call them. Coming to terms with those rationalizations didn't happen before I stopped using. I know the only way that I was able to stop was the profound truth: it wasn't working any more. I was tired of rehearsing, tired of rationalizing (often in third party terms) my own lies and self-deceit, tired of falling short on every plan of improvement, and finally, tired of knowing I was lying. Running from me was fine, the action of that was a diversion, but I always caught up and very often, other consequences did as well.

This is just a suggestion but If your doctor doesn't know about your drinking behavior, it's a good idea to tell him.

From looking at your profile, it seems you have some other things going on that are triggering your drinking which may mean that any drugs you are taking to control those problems are not working and that's very important information for your doctor to now!

In my humble opinion, you will have a much more difficult time staying sober unless you get a handle on those other issues and for that, you need to bring your doctor into the loop so he can help you with those.

Good luck and God Bless!