Originally Posted by ttamelbon;[url=tel:5229705

5229705[/url]]Hello, all and thank you for having me. I'm 39, sober for two months with nary an aspirin. I drank on NYE, but was sober for four months before that.

My drinking career is as follows: drank every night (7-10 standard drinks) from ages 18-24 with marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, LSD, mushrooms, crack, and benzos mixed sporadically in there. I'd been drinking 3-4 nights a week average for the past 15 years, with no less than 10 standard drinks per night.

So, I started to hate hangovers, and felt alcohol was ruining my life. I've always had immaculate health checks, but was developing some really undesirable symptoms. But since I quit, my body has been going nuts.

I had no real acute withdrawal symptoms to speak of. No shakes, no nausea, no diarrhea, etc. But after the first week, it all hit me. Here is a list of my symptoms:

Persistent tiredness that turns into feeling like I just mainlined an espresso. Anxiety every morning on my way to work, then crippling anxiety for the first hour or so. Dizzy spells that usually end when I get home. Horrible bouts of nausea without throwing up or diarrhea. Some occasional paranoia that somebody has poisoned me, that I'm having a stroke, or an asthma attack (none of the above is true). I experience muscle rigidity at times, and bouts of anger. I can cry over nothing, or I can feel nothing. I often sleep terribly and have dreams of falling off the wagon and hating myself, and I wake up feeling I've been hit by a truck. I'm very photophobic at times, and can feel overwhelmed in open spaces, when many objects in my field of vision are moving simultaneously, or when talking to anybody who isn't my wife or kids. I have no history of mental illness and have been evaluated physically and mentally as my job requires it every year.

Besides the occasional moments of clarity, life is one massive challenge. Thankfully, I don't crave alcohol.

Basically, I would like to know how long you had to deal with PAWS and was it anything like this? Did you have nausea going into your sixth month? Longer? It's the worst symptom for me, besides the anxiety. If you have any experiences, I'd be happy if you could share.

Thank you all again for this, and hope everybody is well.