I understand that PAWS is a fluctuating phenomenon (and I might get the symptoms again [especially if stressed] - but probably to a lesser degree than originally experienced) that, in the majority of cases, follows an incrementally improving course. However, my experience of PAWS is far less of a burden than the scary picture painted by the articles I discovered on the Internet.

My guess is that PAWS in low-to-moderate-alcohol-consumption alcoholics is nothing like PAWS in heavy opiate users, who, in many cases have to use opiate substitutes, such as Methadone for the rest of their lives, to keep PAWS manageable, and that for most recovering alcoholics, it is a syndrome that probably lasts weeks or months (with spasmodic re-emergence under stress for perhaps a few years).