Immediate effects of stopping

I'm mid 40's and have been a drinker pretty much all my life. Beer and then on to wine. Probably a bottle a night until a few years ago when the credit crunch affected our business and things got very difficult money wise. We have worked really hard and can see the light from the money worries but my drinking has got really bad. There is a date in the future when our money problems should be sorted and I'm almost trying to black out life until we get there. My wife went off and got a job which helped with money, leaving me alone all day. I was starting to find that I would enjoy the odd snifter of vino with lunch, usually ending in the bottle going, the afternoon wasted (work, not me) and then probably a couple more bottles starting when the kids got home. Completely stupid I know. When I read all the govt health stuff, I wonder how I'm still alive. 

Anyway, yesterday I called it a day. Had enough. I'm getting a bit fat and reckon I'm on a crash course to an early grave if I continue with this. Damage may already be done. I stopped. I had half a bottle left which I considered pouring away or leaving as a test but in the end, I downed it with lunch and that was that. No more sneaking around to the shop later on. The evening was OK, a little craving or two here and there but nothing much. The biggest thing was what to replace the glass with. Tried water but drank it too quickly so ended up with multiple cups of tea. Went to bed at about 11pm, pretty tired. 

By 3am I'm in all sorts of problems. Sweating, muscles aching, headache, hot and then cold. No craving, just felt awful.. Got up had water and pain killers and got about 3 hours sleep. This morning still no desire to drink at all but still sweating and feel a bit 'buzzy' (alive maybe:-)).

My question is to others who have gone cold turkey. Did you get a similar thing? I started reading about Withdrawl Syndrome which basically says I'm going to start have hallusinations and then drop dead, which cheered me up no end. 

I'm now wondering whether stopping so soon is such a good idea. I'm going shopping in a bit and was considering buying a little bottle of scotch, just for a night cap so I can at least sleep. Or is that just a silly idea? I 'think' I can resist and just have a double before bed but maybe that's nonsense. 

Help. I feel good that I have made this descision. Should I go through the cold turkey or is it too much of a body shock to go from 30 units a day to 0? 

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