Dee74

Welcome to SR George

D

Bafarrar79

yes it is very common...I know from experience as im going through the same thing. It sucks and makes you wanna just drink again. They tell me that it may never go completely away...I would try the meds they seem to help me.

marker853

Yes I know what you are talking about, I once stopped for 2 months and I felt like crap. Alittle anxiety, but I mostly felt dull. I thought I was suppose to feel better. I read that It can take months until you fully recover depending on how much you were drinking.

maintainin

Wow, I came back to these boards to ask a question(more on that in a minute) and am pleasantly surprised to find my post from 6 years ago still active. I'm sorry I never posted more on this and gave updates, but I guess I just got on with life and forgot about it, you know? That was a pretty rough time back in 2007 when I first created this thread. The stopping of the daily moderate amounts of alcohol(as well as getting blitzed on the weekends) really did a number on me. I ended up taking a couple different AD's for a few years. I don't know if I ever needed them that long but I was on them for that long anyway. I didnt drink at all for those 3 years.

Sadly, the not drinking didn't last. Cant remember exactly when I started back up but its been going on roughly the last few years. I didn't start back up with the daily drinking thank God, but rather resorted back to the binge drinking on the weekends. Not a consistent pattern. Some weekends I'd get drunk on a Friday or Saturday night, some weekends both nights. Might go on for weekends at a time. Sometimes I skip a weekend here or there. Reading some other posters on here, I can relate with some in that I think I do it mostly out of boredom. It's like OK, I have the day off and I'm sitting here wasting my time watching boring tv. TV is so much more fun while drinking! Everything's more fun while drinking! I think thats my problem. If I dont drink then I feel like its a waste of a weekend. But of course I hate it on the morning after and tell myself I'm going back on the wagon. Until next weekend. What an insidious cycle.

What I've noticed lately though is that I just can't recover nearly as fast anymore after the binges. I'm talking just feeling like crap for days at a time after a night of hard drinking. I don't know if its because I'm getting older or what(just turned 37). Oddly, depression and anxiety don't bug me in the days after the binges like it did when I quit in 2007. No, lately its been soul crushing insomnia. I drank on Saturday night. Hardly got any sleep Sunday night and hardly got any sleep last night and needless to say I feel like a can of smashed @ssholes today from being so tired. Just beat. I've noticed this lately that my sleep is just horrid in the few days after the binging episode. Last time I drank before this weekend I swear I mightve gotten 8 hours of sleep in 3 days before I just crashed and finally returned back to normal.

So how common is that? Is short term severe insomnia pretty common after binging? For days at a time? I really think after this last weekend I'm going back on the wagon. I'm just tired of it, man.

Ruon7

Day 1 and I'm super depressed and un motivated. Thanks for this forum it's helping.

karate

It gets alot better ,you did not get sick in a week ,you wont be well in a week

But its worth it .

Chrysalis7

I just read this post for the first time and was very curious as to what ended up working for you. I am happy to see that you came back and really hope you see my post and are able to respond. I have quit drinking for 4 months and am experiencing depression. As far as I know I was not depressed before I started drinking but who knows whether or not I have just been self medicating for the past 17 years. I am generally a very active person but now after quit drinking have little motivation. I cry a lot and just feel hopeless. You say that you were on ADs for 3 years. How did they work for you? Out of curiosity, what made you start drinking again?

As far as your question goes, I can tell you that one of the reasons I quit drinking was exactly what you are talking about. I would binge drink on the weekend and I wouldn't be able to sleep well for a few days after. So, my two day hangovers on top of lack of sleep made for a miserable existence. I don't know if this is normal but I know what you are going through and it sucks. I am so happy I quit, but am very frustrated with the depression and lack of motivation. I have absolutely no desire to pick up drinking but just feel a little lost and alone. I know that it will take work but just don't know what to do to feel better.

MattM316

Yeah i've had that before, more in terms of mood swings tho.
One minute i'm motivated and i'll want to sort my room out or something, then a few minutes later i'm feeling down and can't even get the motivation to watch a film.
That was definitely the worst part for me. Also, especially at night I could lie there for hours worrying about stuff.

jeffjanon

Hi...I'm over three months sober. I attend meetings daily. I pray. I've worked the steps and continue to do so.

Still in the past week or so have been filled with major anxiety and hopelessness. I find no joy in anything anymore. I can barely stand to stay at work. But I'm sober. I'm doing all I know to do besides drink.

I don't know how much more of this I can take. I'm at the end of my rope. My sponsor is unavailable. Please help.

cittanatha

i can only offer suggestions; i hope one or more might help. in my opinion, sponsor unavailable = call someone/anyone else you know from your meetings and openly discuss your situation and your condition. beyond that, and likely even more importantly, i'd consult my doctor (or emergency services) *pronto* if i were you; i know depression and anxiety, and beyond a point -- a point that it seems as if you're well beyond -- it becomes time to seek professional advice and assistance. there's *no* advantage in not seeking medical help! good luck and best wishes to you.

artsoul

Hi Jeff -

If you haven't already, you might want to read a little bit about PAWS (post-acute withdrawal syndrome):
Post-Acute Withdrawal Symptoms - Relapse Prevention Strategies

Someone here at SR recommended it to me when I was several months sober and it still felt like a roller coaster at times. I found myself wondering what was wrong with me until I read this article and discovered I wasn't alone.

I also agree with cittanatha that professional help is good idea, too.

slimjim30

I'm 7 months sober now and still experiencing depression, amongst other PAWS symptoms. Has anyone here experienced depression this far into quitting and had it later subside?

My addiction specialist/psychiatrist isn't a believer in PAWS and seems all too keen to label me with some scary psychiatric diagnosis, however I know from experience if I drink the depression will lift in a few weeks. I'm not going to drink BTW, but am wary of trying any psychiatric meds as previously many such meds disagreed with me in serious ways. I am on a mild antidepressant that I've been on for 10 years though.

If I knew it'd lift by itself in weeks/months I'd struggle through, but it feels unlikely for whatever that's worth.

Has anyone here had similar PAWS related depression this far into sobriety? What happened for you? Did it go away without meds?

sugarbear1

slimjim, 7 months isn't very far into recovery.....give yourself more time to heal. If you are working AA, get through all of those steps and possibly get through them again a few months afterwards....

I got high/drunk, I stopped and got low, then flat, then it all evened out, but not until about 18 months - 2 years in did it all get better.

Just my experience. I wish you well on your sober journey!

slimjim30

I didn't mean I've been sober a long time, but on talking with my psychiatrist he's strongly of the opinion that I've been sober long enough to be back to normal, so therefore any psychiatric issues I'm having now are unrelated to my previous drinking.

So much of what I have read here and elsewhere indicates that it takes much longer to be back to normal. If how I'm feeling is related to my drinking and needs time to balance out I'll live with that. But he doesn't believe so and wants to put me on more drugs, thus the dilemma.

That's why I wondered if others have gone through what I'm going through and "come out the other side"? Or if most people were well balanced out by 7 months sober.

I'm not talking a little bit down, I'm talking severe depression that came on suddenly and has hung around for 3 months.

slimjim30

Just wondering if anyone else had anything to add? I'm going back to the psychiatrist soon and am just not sure which way to go.

Mindy1215

Day one of sobriety for me. I'm a mess. I have this terrible anxiety & my heart feels like it'g going to jump out of my chest. Hard time breathing because of this anxiety. I drink when I have anxiety then I get anxiety the next morning because I drank. It's a such a vicious cycle and it's winning. I'm trying to get through this day at work. It's not easy. I feel like breaking down in tears. I need help

Mindy1215

Day one for me too. Hopefully I will succeed this time. How are you doing? I'm a mess right now with my anxiety and depression. I don't want to drink. Such a vicious cycle.

MaxR

Hi everyone. I have been living with depression/anxiety for over 20 years and been drinking moderately but regularly for the past 15 years, mostly to numb the depression and enjoy life more.

Recently I decided to cut back a lot on my drinking, and this is the second week where I've not had a drink every night. I did have one glass of red wine this past Sunday to make it through a social event with 11 people, but that's it so far.

Like many, the depression is creeping back and I feel flat and hopeless about the future, and fighting the urge to take another drink. I'm going to see my GP about going on some SSRI again for the depression, see if that makes any difference.

Thanks for listening.

Dee74

Welcome to SR Max

It's ironic many of us started to drink to deal with depression because I think there's a real causal correlation between regular heavy drinking and depression - even if it's not everyday...

and of course SSRIs won't work if you drink on them.

I think you'll find things will improve if you stop drinking completely.
D

MaxR

Thank you for the welcome.

Definitely, there's a relation between the two. Although I started drinking at a point where my depression was at its worst (late 1990s). It seemed to help a lot. But of course that doesn't work as a long term solution.

At the moment I'm working on significantly reducing my intake, almost to nothing.