Well it has been a long time now since I posted on this thread. I forgot about even joining this site and just ran across it again and found this post.
8/1/2011 will be 2 years alcohol free!!!
I found out alcohol was not my main problem, although it did play a role. My main problem was benzodiazepine (benzo) withdrawal! I had been taking 1 mg per day of Klonopin for around 3 years and stopped that at the same time I quit the alcohol. I never imagined just 1 mg a day could cause such a horrible withdrawal. I've been off the Klonopin for 14 months now and am still having a hard time due to a lot of central nervous system damage caused from Klonopin. I am getting better all along very, very slowly but healing is happening. Thank god the panic attacks went away.
Everything i've read online says you do heal but it can take a lot of time. Thanks god for the benzo sites I joined for support too. Hopefully before long I will be able to drive myself to some meetings.