LeeK

Shakes in the morning were a red flag. So was losing 30 pounds in a little over a year when I wasn't trying to, probably from vomiting all day when I had a 'hangover from hell', and eventually felt pretty crappy every morning. Tired of the hazy hangover feeling, tired of puking, tired of always feeling dizzy and tired. Plus a handful of nasty injuries from wrapping a truck around a telephone pole.

The mental stuff? That's a whole nother story.

reddy2quit

I have had neuropathy for years. Was diagnosed as idiopathic years ago by a neurologist but I always knew the real cause.

Did it get better after you stopped?

Stang

Lost 25 lb
Strength went to ****, and I'm a weight lifter and martial artist.
Cardio went to hell.
Dehydration
Liquid *****
Shaky hands every morning
Throwing up

Withdrawals
Shakes
Night sweat
vomiting
insomnia (I didn't sleep a wink for four days)
depression
anxiety

Yea alcohol is just the bomb ain't it LOL

Kmber2010

Well I had the physical problems for years especially towards the end. I think what really did it for me was when I came off my last bender and felt like I was going to die and I looked around had nobody....nada. My alcoholic mind did a great job of bringing me to a dark place and I had cut off pretty much everyone. So in that sense I got a real good look how I my life was being ruined by alcohol and finally my body was saying enough.

rws177

What martial arts do you do?

tmbg

-decreased energy (the first insidious symptom)
-weight gain/decrease in muscle mass
-diarrhea/loose stools
-chronically red eyes
-dry skin and hair
-abdominal bloat and puffy face
-shaking hands
-withdrawal sweating/itching
-needing the morning drink to stop the withdrawal
-injuries/bruises from falls
-more blackouts/memory problems
-sleep problems
-hangovers that lasted for days
-anxiety and depression

Toward the end, I was unable to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. Every awakening was accompanied by an anxiety attack followed by sweating, pounding heart, and the depressive feeling of doom.

It's pretty amazing how the body bounces back when the alcohol is gone, but after many failed attempts to quit, I found that the only way for me to keep going was to heed my doctor's advice to be very gentle with myself in early sobriety while my body was healing. Looking back, the horrible cycle of despair at what was happening was perpetuated by the feeling that it was getting worse and I didn't have the energy/desire to fix it. Only the drink would take it away (and make it worse).

After the initial three-day withdrawal, the anxiety attacks lessened in frequency to the point where they'd only come round during those bouts of sober awareness where you look around and know you have to deal with the mess you've made.

wow1323

Yuck

Hungover for the last time
vertigo
nausea
exhaustion
dry mouth
headache
lethargic

tmbg

Forgot to add to the above list:
-nosebleed (that really scared me)
-elevated blood pressure when it used to always be low-normal

Stang

It's called Danzan Ryu Jujitsu. Its stand up and ground. Part of it is traditional Japanese Jujitsu and part of it is Hawaiian Lua or "bone breaking teqniques.
I see the triangle choke or "Sankaku" as its called in our art in your avatar. What do you practice?

Bugzer

well let's see.... depression anxiety more then 10 panic attacks
acid reflux indigestion severe DT's either during the night or right
in the morning... at one point in 2007 I was so malnourished I started
to lose hair....

5 or more trips to the emergency room either because of panic
attacks or because I was going thru severe DT's and I was
in such bad physical shape I couldn't stand to drink another day..
Became delusional insane I hated the entire world in the end I only
drank to pass out I wasn't even enjoying it anymore...

If I would have kept on going I'm sure the hallucinations weren't
far off, I took drinking as far as I could tolerate it.


I think that's enough for me lol

sable1

alcoholic neuropathy was the main reason. When it first came it was bad. I couldn't walk for a while, and it took me weeks to be able to walk normally again. Yet I went back to drinking.
I had other symptoms to, I sweated like a pig, when I woke up after a night of "sleep" it was like someone was waking me up from a horrible nightmare by banging my body against a stone wall or something...
My legs would just move on there own in a strange way sometimes.
After a hard night of drinking I had panic attacks that where really bad, so much that I had to drink to keep them at bay.
The withdrawals were becoming worse and worse.

Allso I used to be able to drink and drink and drink and not feel affected by it, but all of a sudden it turned, and I got a very low tolerance instead, and drinking made me really sick and weak. It was as if my body said; enough!
I'm glad I choose to listen to it.
All the physical problems went away with sobriety, luckily.

sable1

oh, and I forgot, the horrible stomachpain, and the slurring.
I never used to slurr when I was drunk but towards the end I slurred to the exreme. And I had a slight slurr in my voice even when I got sober. It soon went away though.

TheNile

I have dull pains in my right side where my liver is (dr tested enzymes and were normal but it could be gall bladder or pancreas), sweaty, shaky hands, cold feet and hands, twitching, memory loss, loss of interest in my passions (art, music, Buddhism, nature and travel), weakness, insomnia, migraines, personality change (angry, impatient, rude, stupid, as in loss of intelligence), loss of muscle tone, hair thinning...the list goes on and on.

April999

I couldn't stand my hands shaking in the morning, and that tingling feeling all over my body in the morning (perhaps some sort of seizure).

MsCooterBrown

It was just in the last few years of drinking that alcohol turned on me. Certain days I could not even sign my name. I thought it was anxiety..maybe part of it was but I am certain that I was in constant withdrawal. Thru it all..I never got sick (vomiting) ..but I did start getting the dry heaves EVERY morning when I woke up. My mind was no longer functioning right. I couldn't put thoughts together ..blackouts became more common. Tiny spider vessels started on my face. Never slept more than 1.5 hrs then had to fight to get back to sleep. Doom. I really started feeling doom alot. I started falling more..finding more and more bruises..I bailed. Threw in the towel and quit..It took years to get to the end result. For a long time I only suffered mild hangovers. This is insanity!

reggiewayne

Man, we're all so different. I spent all of my twenties in excellent shape. I could run 40 miles per week, had low body fat, still drank a ton. But I would get sick, if I drank I'd be hungover for a few days....

As my drinking progressed, I started smoking, stopped exercising, gained weight, and basically became less healthy. Having said that, I bet I haven't gotten sick in 5 years. I honestly can't even remember getting a cold LOL.... Don't know why, but I could stay up until 2am, get up at 7am and function throughout the day. Now, I didn't function well, but I'd bulldoze my way through.

At the end, I will say my biggest sign was how much I was having to sleep to fight my hangovers. It wasn't uncommon for me to drink until 3am, sleep until 7am, take my kid to school, then come back home and sleep the rest of the day (till 3pm) and then pick him up. So that was a huge sign, I started to also get back pain, bloated face, bloated body for that matter, it was just like there was so much poison in me it was trying to escape any way it could...

ZZworldontheweb

For me, the interval between consumption and onset of withdrawal symptoms shrunk very quickly from 16 hours to 8 hours to 4 or 5 hours over the course of a couple of months. Anxiety, shaking, dry heaves. I went from needing eye openers to needing something at lunch to suppress the symptoms through the day. And getting any decent amount of sleep was impossible. Right at the end, I tried to go 16 hours and lost the ability to read or to speak! Talk about scared.

Harve

good lord. im glad i read this thread. I almost forgot how disgusting this disease is.

for me: terrible anxiety, flop sweat, inability to sleep, loose stools (a personal favorite), complete disregard for those around me, bloated face.

ZZworldontheweb

Oh, dude, the bloated face. I almost forgot. My nose looked like a big red apple.

And then there was the disregard for hygiene.. Ick.

imatryinhard

"I found SR on a google search...and started reading, then posting...I credit this website with truly saving my life....and I am so grateful to come back to life." Awwww. Me too!! I love your post Fandy!

"my face looked like a red full moon, puffed out, if someone stuck a pin in me, it would probably have deflated.....difficulty with vision due to dehydration." These too things also happened to me. I think my face was the give away that i was an alkie.