leeman

This post is a little long, but for anyone who reads it entirety thanks for taking the time.

I had a scare moment earlier this week in the middle of the work day. Around noon, out of nowhere, my voice became slightly shaky, heart was racing very fast, hands were shaking, my whole body was just kind of twitchy. Felt like I had drank 100 cups of coffee. I was at work and freaked out, called a nurse hotline because I had no idea what was happening to my body. I couldn't get my body to calm down no matter what I did. I ended up walking around outside for a bit and finally just sat down, drank some water, and after awhile my body came back to calm.

I should also mention that earlier in the morning, I drank a 24 oz energy drink and only had 2-3 hours of sleep the previous night.

So now let me give the backstory of what led up to that moment.

For a period of ~4 weeks I was drinking pretty heavily almost every day. I'd drink anywhere in between 4-5 on a light day, 9-10 on a moderate day, and maybe up to 15 or so on a heavy day. Mostly beer and whiskey. I'd start anywhere in between 4 pm and 9 pm and drink anywhere from a 2 hours at a time all the way up to probably 10 hours some days. I wasn't really keeping track, but I was drinking nearly every day.

I stopped getting hangovers and was just enjoying being out at the bars with the locals. I'd go out and drink, and wake up the next morning with no hangover whatsoever (even if I had 15 drinks) and be full of energy for the work day. Everything seemed fine.

Then for a few days in a row, I noticed just a strange body sensation sometimes. Couldn't really tell what it was, but I noticed something odd. This happened for maybe 3-4 days. And then BAM -- out of nowhere, I had the scary episode at the top of this post.

That episode happened on Tuesday (today is Sunday). So here's what happened between Tuesday and now. (I read about "tapering down" if this was indeed withdrawal)

So the same day I had the anxiety/panic attack or whatever that was, I had exactly 6 drinks that night. The next morning, I woke up with the thumping heart and twitchy feeling all over my body. I drank some gatorade, took some vitamins, and after an hour or so it disappeared. The rest of the day was normal, feeling just fine.

Wednesday I had 4 drinks. In the middle of the night, I woke up with the thumping heart again. Went away after an hour or so and fell asleep. The rest of the day was perfectly fine and normal.

Thursday I had 2 drinks. Slept just fine, and all day was fine.

Friday I had 0 drinks. Slept fine, all day was fine.

I figured maybe this was just a fluke, so saturday I went out with a friend and had 9-10 drinks or so.

Sunday (today) around 11 am, I had the thumping heart, twitchy feeling, but this time I had a general sense of confusion for a bit. Really weird body sensation. It eventually went mostly away after a couple hours and I took a nap. Woke up from the nap with thumping heart again. Continued, but in a very mild manner for most of the day until 5 pm. Then I had 1 beer at a family cookout and after that 1 beer I felt perfectly fine and dandy.

I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened to me? I've never drank this much before 4 weeks ago. From my research, it looks like this might be a form of withdrawal.

I hate to think that I've permanently altered my brain chemistry or body. I'd like to go back to being a regular social drinker. It'd be nice to go out and have 6 drinks or so and not wake up with the scary thumping heart feeling. Maybe it's too late?

Do you think it's possible for me to recover and be able to consume more than 2 beers and wake up fine the next day? I don't have any emotional addiction to alcohol -- I was simply having fun drinking nightly and up until the scare episode I was not suffering any negative consequences.

Thanks for reading. Looking for any input.