Originally Posted by ebaseball16

I am just wondering if anyone has experienced the same symptoms I am feeling now and if they are related to PAWS at all.

Note: I am 25 years old had been binge drinking for about 5 years before this, typically once or twice a week throughout college and a couple years following. These binges would include 6-12 drinks every time over a 3-5 hour period, and yes, I did have a few benders while in Vegas and such. I never had any adverse effects from drinking except general hangovers that would only last about half a day.

So the day everything changed for me was a normal binger and I had a hangover the following day and carried on. Thinking that the hangover would last several hours I was not alarmed how I was feeling at the time. When the evening came I still felt a little hungover but also a little off, almost as if I was in a haze. I went to bed that night thinking that I just had a weird reaction to the booze I drank the night before and anticipated waking up the next morning feeling fine. The next day I woke up in a fog, which had never happened before so I became a little concerned and started to do things to brighten up my mood because the physical fog feeling was bringing me down. I continued with life and weeks leading to months had gone by and the fog was still present.

I was now becoming worried that I had actually damaged my brain from all of the binging that I have done over the years but I wasn't convinced. Along with the brain fog came constant fatigue. Every morning I would wake up and feel as if I had not even slept. So I began to research what was going on with my head and tried to rule everything out before I started to panic. I saw an internist and neurologist to have extensive blood work, EEG, and MRI completed. All of my blood tests including Lyme came back negative. My Neuro then thought I may be suffering from sleep apnea so I completed a sleep study and that also came back negative. I don't and still don't know what is going on and am desperate to find some answers. I even tried altering my diet so that I was eating no dairy/gluten but a ton of good veggies and protein for weeks....that hasn't changed anything. I also haven't completely stopped drinking but am planning to. Initially it seemed that getting drunk masked my symptoms but then they were back the day after. So i'm not sure if this is an addiction PAWS issue or something completely different.

Over the past 2 months my symptoms have progressed and include constant fatigue, trouble focusing, head fog, bad short term memory, trouble finding words, some slurred speech, depersonalization, and difficulty with reading comprehension. Basically feels as if I have dementia. I also feel like I have pressure in my eyes even though an eye exam I had came back negative. At this point I just don't know what to do. It feels like i'm going insane.

If anyone has had a relatable experience and has either recovered or had a diagnosis please let me know.