Laura567

I struggle and I am at day 1 again. I feel poisoned. How long did it take for you sober guys to feel good again? To sleep well and feel good mentally?

jezza

Hi Laura.

Sorry to hear you're feeling pants.. It does vary from person to person & can be a bit of a rollercoaster ride.. Good days & bad days.. Myself improvements started showing after 5 days but it does vary.. Have you thought about checking with your Doctor?? The Doc might be able to help with the withdrawals. Hang in there, it does get better..

Oswin

I'm only on day 11 but felt horrible to begin with and couldn't sleep. Started feeling better after about 4 days. Started sleeping really well about 2 nights ago. I don't know if that's normal or just me though. Hope you start feeling better

Dee74

It varied from a few days to over a week Laura.
The more years I drank the longer I felt bad afterwards.

I really urge you to think about looking at what you've been doing for recovery and think about adding some more to it....you need never feel this way again

D

Sarah1975

Yesterday was day 4 for me and i slept.
I've still got a headache, still got back & stomach pains.
(Though I must admit, I haven't once gone to the doctors about this. So I don't really know what I'm dealing with here.)
Like many though, im not 'simply' giving up drink, ive a long history of depression & stress related symptoms which I need to address if I'm ever gonna handle life sober.

We are all different, but from each persons story, I pick up so many similarities and feel comforted.

PurpleKnight

Took a few weeks for me to feel a bit better after all the withdrawals, the thing is though at some stage we have to get off the alcohol merry go round, quitting alcohol, feeling awful and so drinking to not feel awful is just going round in circles.

Grind out the next few weeks, push through to the good times and then never go back to having to go through it ever again!!

You can do this!!

Nonsensical

If you think about it, does it matter if it takes 1 day or 1,000? If you're going to live a sober life you have to find your path through all of them.

The point is that you believe it WILL get bettter - and you are correct!

You can do this.

2muchpain

I started feeling better by the fifth day, but didn't really start to feel like myself until I made it to one week. It was a tough week, but well worth it.

Altoids

Once I could keep something down, I started drinking freshly made juices ~ cucumber, celery, spinach, apple. Sometimes I'd add a beet to the mix bc beets help detoxify the blood/liver. It really helped me feel better. I started sleeping well by night 3. Mentally, though, I felt strong pretty fast because I took a stand for ME! Like Dee said, I don't ever have to feel that Day 1 ugliness again and I choose that!!! You can do this!!!

LBrain

It depends on how many days it took to feel bad.

I felt better pretty quick. But better is a relative term.

Venecia

It takes a while, Laura. Something I wish I'd known when I first quit, but I didn't join SR until two months later.

Sleep was a challenge for me and that took a while but it also has been a lifelong issue. For a good couple weeks, I was pretty fuzzy. Super tired.

With time, you can gain a long view. You don't feel real great during the early days of sobriety, but did we feel any better when we were drinking? The sledgehammer headaches? About-to-barf stomach and other woes of the digestive system? Sore eyes? Aching and bloated? Hoping like crazy that you didn't look as bad as you felt when you got to work?

And that's just the physical stuff, let alone the mental anguish of addiction.

Hang in there. It gets better. It really does.

Hobbers

first 3 days sucked, a lot.

by day 5-6, I started to feel 'better' (again, a subjective term).

I'm on Day 11, and I feel like I have had 2- maybe 3- good nights' sleep so far.

I'm gonna guess/hope (if I make it that far out...) I'll be 'good' by Day 14? Who knows. You'll feel 'better' when you do.

slipped

Physically I felt better in a couple weeks. Emotionally it was a 3 1/2 year roller coaster ride. But I was a heavy drinker for over 30 years.

Charlie117926

Me personally, I was high on life from day 4 on. Today is day 7 and I'm feeling pretty low. Physically I feel much better. I did not drink today just a little down and out in the head.

happyandfree

I slept better after a couple of weeks. The fatigue and brain fog lasted a couple of months. Recovery is a slow process but we'll worth the effort. I don't want to go through that again, which is keeping me sober. You can get through the tough beginning laura. ..stick with it and you will be so grateful that you did.