Howdy! And PAWS
Hi everyone, I've lurked for a couple of years, but getting on a home stretch finally made me join.
A quick background: I'm 31, drank "socially" since 21, pushed my luck for 2 years (8-14 beers/night, often more if I got bored and started early), then realizing I had a problem, cut it back to just weekends for 6 months, then just Saturday nights for another 6 months, with a few attempts to quit. I've come a long way, and my family & friends have said I've made huge strides.
Recently, with a crappy job out of the way, and much more exciting activities starting up, I've decided to give quitting another shot. I haven't decided if I'll ever start again, but I want to begin by stopping for longer than a few weeks. The last time I went through any real withdrawal was a little over a year ago. I never got DT's - I could still write, type, and go to work - but I did have some jitters.
So every time I've tried to stop for more than a week in the past year, I get about 3 weeks in, and start getting pretty down in the dumps here and there. This time, I'm finding it quite annoying, having a bad attitude, lack of energy, and it's really eating into my exciting new prospects in life. Like, enough that I feel it would be in my benefit to use weekly again, or risk losing my career.
Is this the fabled PAWS? What can I do? How long can I expect it to last? Everything I've read mentions 6 mo - 2 years...but tends to go hand in hand with the folks who drank harder for longer than I did.
Thanks for any input, and thanks for all the great reading you've given me in the past to bring me this far!