I have cut back my drinking but...?
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 12
I have cut back my drinking but...?
I have cut back to just Friday and Saturday evening and have been at this for some 3 weeks now. Before that I was drinking everyday for a month, before that I was drinking a few nights in a row or every other night for the past 4 years. Now that I cut back I have mood swings and I am more anxious when not drinking, is this normal? It not like I have completely stopped, I still drink weekends. Maybe its my body reacting to a major adjustment?
Member
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 40
I think it's your body reacting ...
It might also be your body trying to heal itself ... or recenter. The first 2 weeks after I quit drinking ( usually 6 + double jack and cokes a night ) ... I had major feelings of anxiety. After the first month ... I felt less and less ... now they are only occasional.
It might also be your body trying to heal itself ... or recenter. The first 2 weeks after I quit drinking ( usually 6 + double jack and cokes a night ) ... I had major feelings of anxiety. After the first month ... I felt less and less ... now they are only occasional.
Member
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 58
I agree with everyone else. The anxiety is pretty normal. I had to breathe through it and mentally talk myself out of drinking in the first few evenings on the many occasions I'd quit. This time around has been much easier (9 days so far with no fanfare) but I gradually cut back and then stopped. Just keep at it and remember that the discomfort of the negative feeling will pass.
now's the time
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 2,181
Well it depends on your body and how much you drink in those sessions. But from what I've read and what you describe, it sounds like you're putting your body through withdrawal over and over again. The anxiety and mood swings are signs that you are physically dependent on alcohol. That being the case, you will probably keep experiencing this until you quit entirely.
The basic gist of it is that alcohol mimics inhibitors like GABA in the brain. It also releases large quantities of dopamine, seratonin, etc. All of these things dampen the stress system in your brain. But the brain compensates, since stress is a survival mechanism, so your central nervous system basically amplifies everything it does to signal anxiety and stress so that it can be felt even through all the inhibitors you put into your body every day.
Take the inhibitors out, and you just leave a really overactive nervous system. Like when you're screaming to be heard in a bar and then the music turns off.
It takes abstinence for your brain to start re-configuring its hormone levels. If you're drinking heavily two days a week and then abstaining for five, you may just be putting your brain on a seesaw.
It's probably good to check in with a doctor and see what s/he thinks you should do... all I know about it is what I've read.
The basic gist of it is that alcohol mimics inhibitors like GABA in the brain. It also releases large quantities of dopamine, seratonin, etc. All of these things dampen the stress system in your brain. But the brain compensates, since stress is a survival mechanism, so your central nervous system basically amplifies everything it does to signal anxiety and stress so that it can be felt even through all the inhibitors you put into your body every day.
Take the inhibitors out, and you just leave a really overactive nervous system. Like when you're screaming to be heard in a bar and then the music turns off.
It takes abstinence for your brain to start re-configuring its hormone levels. If you're drinking heavily two days a week and then abstaining for five, you may just be putting your brain on a seesaw.
It's probably good to check in with a doctor and see what s/he thinks you should do... all I know about it is what I've read.
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