Old 04-22-2009, 05:43 AM
  # 17 (permalink)  
FightingIrish
problem with authority
 
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 870
I realize I didn't really answer your question. Yes, I was anxious and depressed after quitting drinking. Alcohol is a depressant. Withdrawal from alcohol is a sudden change in equilibrium for your brain. The nerves, which are used to over-compensating for repeated exposure to a depressant, become over-excited/excitable when suddenly without alcohol. And if alcohol was the solution to boredom, then suddenly not having it is likely to be disconcerting. We become unaccustomed to constructively using our time when our default has been alcohol.

My depression disappeared about a year or so after abstaining completely. But I was a very heavy, everyday drinker toward the end.

M
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