Old 08-17-2023, 05:14 PM
  # 86 (permalink)  
BettyP
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 326
Welcome, Korinne! My hands-down worst symptom all the way through PAWS was anxiety, panic attacks and depersonalization. Before I got sober, I was aware that I was drinking more and more to keep from having panic attacks or anxiety, and when you're at that point I think basically your brain can't operate "normally" sober - it needs alcohol to give it all that GABA to calm down. It takes a long time for things to go back to normal. I think if you felt better after about a year last time you got sober, that's pretty encouraging and you will likely have a similar trajectory this time around. That said, nobody really knows. Way back at the beginning of this thread the OP relapsed and said PAWS round 2 was way worse than the first time, and it took longer to recover, so if you're not on quite the same path this time, don't be discouraged - you'll get there, just as long as you stay sober.
I'm at the same length of sobriety as Graceful - 36 months. My anxiety has finally mostly calmed down and I can juggle multiple jobs (I'm a freelance writer). I could NOT work in my first year of PAWS, and it was very white knuckle in the second year too. I got super lucky in a weird way that the world closed down in 2020 and I didn't have to work, because I could barely walk around the block!
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