MattM316

I think I've told this story before on here, but nearly three years ago I ended up in hospital due to having an alcohol withdrawal seizure (and two more in hospital).
As a result of that I managed to badly fracture my shoulder, had a metal plate and bolts put in, then had them removed and a few months ago had a whole replacement shoulder fitted. So three operations in all over the past few years!

I've had various slip-ups over the years, a few scary times where my heart was racing etc and I thought I would have another seizure, but thankfully that never happened.

Recently I lost my Grandfather who I was very close to and for the past few months I've been going downhill a bit to the point where it started to affect my job.
On top of that, emotional issues with an ex and caused more turmoil.

Last week I'd decided i'd had enough. Originally I was just going to cut out spirits and stick to beer/cider socially, but now I've decided not to do that. I'm sick of it now.

I've only been completely alcohol free for two days now (Friday and Saturday) and i'll be perfectly honest - I am not missing alcohol.
I don't feel like a drink at all and the shakes have gone.

The only thing that is bothering me is my mood swings and general feeling of being anxious.
It seems to come and go but I would say 80% moody and 20% OK.
Does anyone have any experience of this and know how long these mood swings last or if there is a way to ease them?


Matt.

caboblanco

For anxiety i use valerian root which you can get in health and vitamin shops in capsules or tea form. It works pretty good if you don't want to take psych meds or benzos. Since you only been sober now 2 days it seems understandable that your mood and anxiety have been bothering you

Nevertheless

I don't know about you. But I spen't 30 years drinking almost every day. So looking at the bigger picture,after doing something that long I knew it was going to take some time and dedication to change. I knew this habit and the damage it had done would not be repaired in a few days.
For me the first 30 days sober were always pretty intense, but slowly getting better after that.
Yea you can probably get a doctor to prescribe you some "drugs" to ease the ride. But in my opinion that is trading one habit off for another.
I think the best thing is to bite the bullet and stay away from all mind altering substances. But that is only my opinion.
When MR. alcohol comes knocking on the door saying "let's party"(he will come sooner or later),tell him to go pound sand.
I wish you the best.
Fred

MattM316

Well the first proper test will be on Saturday when I go to see my football team Arsenal play.
The coach gets to the ground about 3 hours before the kick off so you have a good 2 and a half hours to waste, which is normally spent in a pub having a few pints and reading the programme.
There really isn't anything else to do. So i'll either have to REALLY test myself and go in the pub and not drink alcohol, or just spend extra long in the betting shop!

Odelle

Welcome to SR, MatM316! I would suggest an alternate to both options you have listed for next Saturday. Neither are good choices for someone new to sobriety. A bad bet at the shop could trigger the craving for alcohol! Is there anyway you could arrive later? Another place to hang? A place to sit and read a book? Anything but the pub and betting shop would suffice. Kudos to you in addressing your problem with alcohol. To really succeed at this, you need to put your sobriety at the top of your list and do everything to protect it!

MattM316

Not really because I use the supporters club coach which takes me and picks me up at the same times :/
To make it worse, it's payday the day before!

I know I can do it, I know I could go into the pub and just drink coke or whatever whilst reading the matchday programme, but then I also am wary of the mindset of "well, if I have two or three pints it's not going to hurt".
And no it wouldn't hurt, but I've already made my mind up that it's no good just staying off spirits, it's either all or nothing.

Another incentive is that there is someone who has always doubted me, so if I can manage that it'll be nice to tell them!