When do the cravings ease off?
 

I am on day four to my new life. My head is clear today but, my head is racing with ALL kinds of thoughts..strange feeling. I had to fight the my cravings last night real hard. Hopefully, they are not that bad tonight. I know we are all different and experience things differently but, when do the cravings, anxiety and mind racing ease off?

Thanks, for listening!

The anxiety and racing mind are part of withdrawal. That should get better within a week or so. The cravings are a different matter. The psychological cravings are just my alcoholism talking, wanting its alcohol back. I had to fight off cravings to drink in the first few months by asking myself two questions: one; will drinking make the situation better? and two; do I really want to wake up tomorrow sick as hell and hating myself? I never had to ask the second question as my rational mind knew darn well that drinking would only make things worse, not better.

After several months I noticed I rarely had cravings to drink anymore. And now with a year sober, hardly ever get them and when they do pop up they're easy to dismiss.:)

Don't give in, whatever you do, or you'll just have to start all over again.:(

yes early sobriety is a difficult time....:hug:

Try timeing your cravings ...mine were about 5 to 7 minutes
So I took action to distract myself.

Walked...a bubble bath...prayed...ate hard candy...brshed my teeth
drank cold water....ate ice cream....danced around the room.etc.

Rather quickly they lessened in both duration and intensity
:yup:

Please take be gentle with yourself....wwithdrawing from alcohol
will take time Yes! you too can win over alcohol!

I like this advice.

The first days.weeks and months can be pretty tough....I remember drinking alot of water and having coke with ice! still do that...for whatever reason it's calming for me!! find what works for you... all the best! you can do this!!

don't laugh but chocolate helps with the cravings

lol, you made me laugh, I ate 4 big packages of chocolate last night and just was looking at the last package!!!!
Just don't over do it, moderation it is....:rotfxko

After 8 months, I still have thoughts of alcohol, but like least said, they don't knock my socks off like they used to. I dealt with them the easy way: by coming on here and reading like crazy until my rational mind returned.:scared:

Be patient with yourself and definitely treat yourself to good meals/snacks. I always have a glass of something (water, coffee, Diet Rite....) handy too.

It WILL get better.....:grouphug:

Very good advice posted before me. I like what least said about the two things he asks himself. For me, early sobriety (which technically I"m still in) has been tough. I am 49 days sober and my cravings are far less than they were. I did have some withdrawl early on (I didn't know it at the time, but looking back I no it was). During my first two weeks I did nothing but focus on staying sober. I was in bed a lot. I went to a lot of meetings (still do 5 to 6 per week), read a lot, participated in this site, and just didn't drink.

I will say that my cravings are much more spread out now but it takes work. If I let up on my recovery even for a day, I pay for it. Recovery is my medicine for my obsession to drink. The harder I try and be in recovery the less I crave alcohol.

Hang in there. Just a day at a time. You can do it!!!!!

alcohol has a large amount of sugar in it..........so when you think your craving alcohol it's really your brain craving the sugar. Old timers will often say drink pop or eat chocolate to ease the cravings.

it worked for me

I'm at almost 5 months and I still get cravings from time to time. It's been pretty much the same since I quit, kind of like up and down type thing. One thing that I notices that works is not buying into the cravings and thinking about it too much. If you get a craving go try to do something to take your mind off of it.

I don't remember. I have 5 mos now and no cravings to speak of anymore. I did work to train myself to crave different things though. Rather than sitting my on my proverbial hands when I had a craving, I did something else to meet whatever need I had (or tried to). So if I was stressed or restless, I'd work out. If I was upset I'd do something comforting, etc. I also relied a lot on Rational Recovery's AVRT

Thanks
 

I love all of your replies. I am going to try each one of them to see which one works the best for me. I will be happy when the foggy and racing mind goes away. I honestly didn't think I was as bad as a wino as I am. It's amazing how we are not honest with ourselves. I've been talking to my husband a lot about my feelings etc...at first it was SO hard to admit to him that I had a problem...which of course he already knew. After, I admitted it to him, I felt a HUGE weight lifted from me. I can do this and I WILL DO THIS.

Thanks, again for all of your comments!! I truly appreciate it.

Congrats on 4 days! Also on telling your husbaand. I found when I finally admitted things to my wife a great burden was lifted from me too....like I know longer was hiding in the closet. The first 4 or 5 days were really tough for me...after that the edge slowly wore off day by day. I am through 70 days now and still get cravings but no where near like I did in that first week. Sweets were a huge release for me early on.

My sponsor reminds me everyday "You change a thought, by moving a muscle".
It works for me and I hope it works for you.
:c029:

Don't hate me for saying this but I'm going on 6 months now and I really never had bad cravings, even in the beginning. I was so disgusted with alcohol by the time I quit that I honestly have had no desire to drink anymore for the most part.

That said, when I've had the occasional craving/thought, I just remind myself how crappy I would feel if I did drink after all this time. I tell myself I don't want to throw away all of my hard work. That gets me through the moment, and later on I'm always glad I didn't do it.

I keep list of what to do when I have a craving (call someone, walk around the block, etc.) taped to my bedroom mirror so I don't even have to think about it, I just go down the list.

GG