Did anyone get bad skin AFTER quitting?
Guest
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Northwest
Posts: 4,215
Heavy drinking messes with all kinds of hormones so they tend to go a bit berserk after quitting. It'll even out...just try to eat well and stay hydrated.
If it doesn't...off to the doc with you, yes?
If it doesn't...off to the doc with you, yes?
Member
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: New York
Posts: 8
I haven't necessarily had any acne. A few breakouts here and there, however that's how it's always been for me. However when I stopped my skin did get worse. Lots of dry itchy patches. Took a little over a month to go away.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posts: 165
Yes I'm definitely struggling with this - at 30 days sober -around my mouth and I've also had a nasty cold sore - hate it!! I have thought it may be like everyone says - deep toxins being released ... hope it clears soon!!
sober style
Join Date: May 2016
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 2,384
Unfortunately I am having some skin problems. I have a history of food allergies and rosacea, and I'm having some problems with acne since I quit drinking. My theory is that alcohol was tamping down a lot of my body's natural responses with its depressive effect.
It can be frustrating, especially at my age. I never had acne as a teenager! I need to be more careful with some of the foods that seem to trigger it, like dairy and spicy things.
It can be frustrating, especially at my age. I never had acne as a teenager! I need to be more careful with some of the foods that seem to trigger it, like dairy and spicy things.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 1
Yeah I’ve had more skin problems since I quit, but similarly I’ve not had any of the motivation to get out and get fit and eat healthier etc that most sober people I know have. I’ve just turned 1 year sober and I’ve started a little fitness at home routine (which is really next to nothing I used to train 5 days a week for 5 years when I was drinking, before it got bad) I’ve started forcing myself to drink X amount of water each day too and it’s helping a bit with the skin I think, I’ve also been drinking too many energy drinks I’ve only just knocked them down to one a day.. trying to kick them entirely. But my diet isn’t great and I’m sure that’s what’s up with my skin. But like I said I’ve got zero motivation. I’m happy and everything I’m happy I’m sober I feel mentally sooooo much better and that’s the most important thing. My sponsor tells me as long as I don’t pick up a drink etc but I’d really like that natural motivation and self care to kick in. I feel like I treat my body virtually the same as I did when I drank. Lazy and bare minimum at times
Guest
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 8,674
Originally Posted by coraltint 
I seem to remember weird things happening for a few months after first drying out....quite a reset if you drank as long as I did! Keep it up, things will even out....
My recovery in physical form was not linear in any way, except that the curly swirly kept going up overall.
I thought of it as the effects of alcohol rolling out of my body from head to toe. The skin is our largest organ. All of mine was effected in some way. While things got better before around 100 days, I recall that being a huge shift forward in many ways! It was around 6 mo when I saw a friend I hadn't seen since I quit and she was amazed and thrilled at how different I looked! That is early days too compared to my now 4 yrs and a lifetime of planned sobriety.
Stay sober and do the routines like hydration- and stuff I abandoned on any consistent basis like washing and caring for my face. Now at 43, I look far better than I did at 39- and about as good as I did closer to 30
I also started spending money on best skin care products for my face. Worth it, too.
Guest
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 8,674
Hey Hollidrid!!! Stuff like exercise took me awhile too. People who talk about taking a walk the first week of sobriety amaze me. It was 3 mo in when I remember running 0.25 miles. It was incredibly hard and amazing. the fitness levels came as time went on. Keep going.
~sb
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: MD
Posts: 15,967
How many months or years were you drinking? Give your body a good year before you panic over something. Get a regular check-up with a doctor and learn how to not drink one day after the next. You spent a long time perfecting the bad drinking habit, it will take some time for you to heal. Rehab once told me it's about one month of healing for each year you drank. At almost 9 years of abstinence, I can attest to the fact that things just change and change....and change..... 
We just keep getting better and better!
We just keep getting better and better!
Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Colorado
Posts: 702
My esthetician told me that breakouts happen because you are dehydrated inside and/or outside. Make sure you’re drinking a lot of water, and using a moisturizer. She also said it takes 6-8 weeks for a pimple to form, so think back to what you were doing 6-8 weeks ago.
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