Hi Horn,
To echo what everyone said, withdrawal is different for everyone, but I can speak to my experience (unfortunately I have gone through it several times) --
As you've probably read, withdrawal usually peaks 24-48 hours following the last drink. This has been true for me. Within ~15-19 hours, I start feeling a bit shaky, maybe some sweating, but nothing major. For me, it gets bad after the 24-hour mark. I am a binge drinker, so I don't drink every day, but when I do drink, I go way overboard and generally keep myself inebriated for 2-3 days. I can tell you that on day 2 or 3, the nights can be terrible. I have pins and needles pain randomly, chest pain, shakiness, difficulty with equilibrium (balance, walking etc), muscle spasms...the whole 9.
Not to scare you, but without knowing the extent of your drinking, I'd like to let you know that one time after a particularly bad binge, I was more or less okay the first 2 days. Didn't feel great, had bad anxiety, but nothing that I thought was too dangerous... day 3 no drinking, I go to work on my thesis. I work all day, chugging water etc. By the end of the day, I start to feel like my heart is racing. I mean like I felt like I was having a heart attack. I raced to the health center at my university and told them that. Wrote it off, as I was only 28 at the time, and wrote me a prescription for Ativan. Go to take the shuttle home and a full-blown panic attack hits me. Suddenly I'm paranoid, hearing things, my voice sounds echo-y when I speak; in short, I'm certain I'm about to die. Had to call an ambulance, for the first time in my life. I had to stay in hospital for 3 days to replenish my vitamins etc.
This may not be the case for you, but I'm telling you all this to say -- do NOT mess around with alcohol withdrawal. It is the only withdrawal that can actually be fatal, and the symptoms can come on very suddenly and out of nowhere, as they did for me that time. As I said, it's happened several times since, but nothing that warranted a hospital visit. You can possibly avoid it by drinking lots of water, Gatorade, Pedialyte, all those to rebalance electrolytes.. for me I also take vitamin B and D supplements, as alcohol interferes with the body's vitamin absorption capabilities.
Just stay true to what your body is telling you, please. There is no shame in going to the ER for help if you need it, and if so, be sure to be honest about your drinking. They've seen it a million times and will not judge you.
Hang in there, and keep us posted
