Originally Posted by
16YearsDrunk 
I'm coming up 6 weeks sober. Feels great. But this time it feels completely different to any other attempt.
1 week into quitting I was severely depressed and anxiety along with rage and other common withdrawal side effects. After a crazy weekend that week I decided to see my doctor. He put me on 100mg sertraline. Been on them almost a month and have recently been upped to 150mg.
Tablets have finally started to work and I can feel a huge difference. The tiredness is kicking my backside at the moment, it's a struggle to even get out of bed, but my mental state is getting back to normal.
Looking back on who I was I can't believe it. I've lived so many years in a manic cycle of depression and anxiety that I forgot what it feels like to feel normal. I've forgot what it feels like to not be anxious. And here I am now in what feels like bliss. A happy balance.
Not once have I considered alcohol. The thought of drinking just doesn't interest me. It's as if I have no reason to drink anymore. There's no cravings, or no difficult periods of withdrawal. My girlfriend drank the weekend with her friend. There was alcohol around me and I had no desire to touch it. I made a cup of tea and sat on my laptop with my headphones on and enjoyed a documentary.
Which leads to me to question whether or not I was using alcohol to fix my depression and anxiety.
Maybe it's too early to say, but it's something I thought I'd make a note of just incase there's anyone else in a similar boat.
My resting heart rate has gone down to 69bpm and my BP is 127/78. I'm impressed with that given the abuse I've put my body through over the years. I also have no more edema. I believe that was a warning sign that my drinking was starting to affect other parts of my body,
“Relatable” right down to the starting of edema is an understatement.
I was high functioning and rarely “s***faced”, so I convinced myself that I wasn’t an alcoholic for the same reasons you’re pondering. It was just to keep my anxiety and nerves in check.
You’re looking at it with a much more clear head now, but like I need to, keep your guard up. It’s great to lack symptoms as time progresses, but at the end of the day, you sound like you were having some pretty bad withdrawals a week later. The sertraline probably kept more/longer lasting symptoms at bay. That means your mind and body (like mine) had a certain level of dependency. At the end of the day, that’s alcoholism. It took me a while to come to grips with that.
So glad you’re feeling so much better 6 weeks in. I’m on day 15 and looking forward to seeing any improvements in my mind and vitals.