SoTM

I am quitting alcohol again, I am trying to have it "catch" in the sense it will become a habit not to drink, I cannot seem to make it out of 3-4 days.

Anyways...the fear of withdrawal has always freaked me out a bit. What are the shakes like? The next day, I get some slight trembling when I do some semi-precise thing, like hand a dollar bill to someone. It is not really noticeable....is that shakes? Or is it more uncontrollable, even when just sitting there?

I have had heart palpitations after a heavy night of drinking before, and it seems like an issue in my family. I find low sodium V8, namely its potassium and magnesium, to prevent that. Other than the slight trembling, I have never really had anything scary.....

caboblanco

yeah thats alcohol withdrawal. just having trembly hands isn't severe withdrawal. Delerium Tremens is severe. You will hallucinate and shake uncontrollably. You can die from this form of withdrawal.

SoTM

Yeah, that is what I figured......you just don't know what level of shaking they are talking about . The trembling is more unsteadiness, not anything that has alarmed me. Knock on wood I have never experienced severe withdrawal, I should consider myself lucky and keep sober...why play the risk game with that?

Dee74

If you're really worried about withdrawal, and you're prone to heart palpitations, I think it makes good sense see a Dr SoTM - best to be safe

D

RobbyRobot

DT's - delirium tremens describes having the shakes, the shakes being a symptom. Withdrawal from acute and chronic alcoholism can sometimes produce the DT's in some persons. I've had them. The shaking is the least of the problems with DT's. Its all the mental breakdown of constant hallucinations of seeing and hearing things like they were really there along with the physical hurting for alcohol is the biggest challenge with DT's.

The shakes as they are called can also be fatal if convulsions come into play. I've not had convulsions so my DT's were not as serious as they can become. The seizures can kill. Benzo's are usually used to medically control DT's. Alcohol of course can control DT's too because then there is no withdrawal suffered.

I had a supervised detox and I was pretty well out of my head. Scary stuff.

Without the mental breakdown, and the physical hurting for alcohol, it's not recognised as DT's ie the shakes is my opinion anyways.

Not sure why your hands tremble whenever but you may as well get yourself checked out by your doctor to be sure. Anyways, its great your quitting alcohol - no need to have it get as bad as the shakes to happily and successfully quit

Welcome to SR!

SoTM

I am not too worried.....it is more the anxiety of withdrawal that builds on itself. The palpitations have happened even years into sobriety, they are triggered by food a lot.

I am just going to keep a watchful eye on it. I am not avoiding doctors...just I am not sure it is needed. I have quit several times in the last few months, for a few days each and I have been fine.

SoTM

Yeeesh, they do sound scary!

What kind of things have you seen and heard when withdrawing? That is the crap that would freak me right the hell out. I have had the sensitivity to loud noise, but again nothing alarming. Maybe it is just the luck of genetice (Irish and German :p ) that keep that from happening to me. Ha!

From what I gather, the withdrawal builds on itself....meaning the all out shaking or hallucinating comes progressively, not just out of the blue? Maybe I should not even ask that, ask it will add anxiety....ahhh!!!

I need to quit. Enough of this nonsense.

artsoul

Welcome SoTM!

I had a hard time quitting as well. You've come to a great place for support.... being here helped me turn things around.

As Dee said, it's always best to see a doctor about withdrawals.Keep reading and posting - You can do this!

RobbyRobot

Good to hear you've quit several times - don't give up on quitting

Any clue to why you can't get past a few days? Do you have a mental and/or physical hurt with your quitting? When you do have a drink, does it really satisfy immediately?

Quitting really does work and it does get easier to stay quit when you get it working for you instead of against you

SoTM

I seem to be lucky enough to not be experiencing withdrawals when I quit, despite a quite high volume of alcohol. Not saying it cannot happen, but I am going to keep my eye on it. The last several times have been remarkably calm....almost relaxing. The dreams get pretty intense, but not scary.

SoTM

No mental or physical hurt from quitting. If anything, I feel fantastic almost immediately, and like total crap the day after I lapse.

It always seems to be me thinking ahead to the rush of drinking, or the other activities I have based around drinking....I will keep that at saying its with women, I do not want to violate TOS here. But even that is meaningless crap, it is the rush I am going for. I guess I feel bored a few days in, and fall for the trap of even thinking about any of it.

I really just need to stop it all and distract myself for a week or two. I was sober 6 friggin years, and it was not hard for me...I was not battling any cravings. I have 2 great time consumers.....an aquarium hobby and video games. The 2 could occupy a lifetime , I am going to get re-involved and change up the aquariums to give me something to do.

RobbyRobot

Well, we've all heard of the crawling bugs and such- I've had those. And of course whole surreal realities which overtake and replace normal reality - total hallucinations. They come all of a sudden - there is no slow buildup - its all in a heartbeat.

It was all very disturbing, and it cost me a lot in a intimately personal way to recover from such breakdowns. Once you cross that line its hard to forget like it never happened. And I've seen worse then mine - I was at the early beginning times of DT's. I sobered up at 24. I started drinking at 12. I quit in 1981. Never drank again.

Yeah, it for sure freaked me out too. I can't say it enough: I'm totally grateful I finally quit when I did. I'd be dead otherwise. No kidding.

Yeah, quitting saves lives.

SoTM

Wow, as I said...it sounds scary as all hell, I cannot imagine experiencing that crap.

Thank you....it is really stories like yours that make me realize I am not screwing around with simple crap, this is serious. I have no desire to go through that or to be dealing with the fear of it years from now. Hopefully I can get one last sobering up without dealing with that.

Congrats on the over 3 decades of sobriety man, that is a great feat to have under your belt! I know how serious you are when you say this would kill you were you not sober...

RobbyRobot

Okay, so if you can accept your thinking needs to change up to be inline with a sober lifestyle, all you need after that is to find your rush inside yourself by living a life which excites you and rings all your bells

It is a lousy call to think alcohol adds excitement - what it really does is depress us and worse it convinces us that this kind of twisted upside down kind of experience with drinking is what makes things better for us. Not.

I have more rushes in my sober life then I ever did in my drinking life. Alcohol robbed me of being me when I drank. While drinking, I did not really know I was selling myself out. After quitting and changing my alcoholic thinking out, I was able to really understand how cheap I was with myself.

You'll do good to quit again. Awesome you had some good years of sobriety already to help you figure things out too.

Andante

Shakiness or tremor -- especially in the hands -- commonly occurs during detox in people who have developed tolerance and dependence to alcohol. Just because you may not have developed it yet doesn't mean that you won't.

Withdrawal symptoms often quickly and dramatically escalate after repeated detoxification episodes, even after years of drinking with seeming impunity. The phenomenon is called "kindling" -- try Googling "alcohol kindling" for more information.

For a long time during my drinking career, I seemed to be immune -- I never got hangovers and could take days or weeks off without suffering any ill effects. Then, within just 2 years or so, I went from having no noticeable withdrawals at all to experiencing extreme and protracted symptoms. Now, even after months of sobriety, my hands still shake noticeably -- my signature, once neat, is an illegible scrawl. And as Robbie indicated, there are worse things than shaky hands that may await you if you continue.

My experience may be outside the norm but I've learned that it is by no means unique.

zjw

I had minor shaking but more a skin crawling uneasiness. Couldnt sit still and was really restless.

rockindog

I am closing in on two months sober and have small, but noticeable shaking. I will check with my Doc next time I am in.

Lindsaysg13

I have always gotten the shakes every morning when I woke up. That's why I would start drinking again. To me, I feel as if I have Parkinson's. I notice now that I'm sober my shakes get worse when I get nervous and have the urge to drink.