alwayssober1

Hi there, I feel better than I did at the start of the year, almost 2 months sober, but I still need more time to feel "normal." Like I did before i started drinking.

I found an article where someone claims it takes a year to fully recover from heavy drinking. It won't let me post the link because I need to have over 15 posts..lol.

It makes sense that its takes awhile to recover from years of alcohol abuse, how long did it take you to feel recovered, normal?

Thanks.

Dee74

Physically it didn't take a year...mentally...probably - maybe even a little longer.
I'd drunk for 20 years.

Naturally your mileage may vary considerably

D

Hevyn

Hi AlwaysSober.

I went through different stages. At first I was glad to be free of it, but I was shaky and exhausted. That lasted about a month. I think every day I felt a bit better. At 3 months I started to feel more hopeful & optimistic. It definitely didn't take me a full year to feel good.

lisatrying

My drug and alcohol counsellor shows us photos of spect scans which show after heavy use it takes on average 11and a half to 15 months for blood flow to return to normal on the average brain. But that's average, and that's just blood flow, which I guess is fairly easily measurable. I am almost at 7 months and honestly I just feel better with each passing month.

maybe just focus on the fact that every day you are getting better and better.

I have just started eating as healthily as I can and exercising every day and I think that helps a lot too.

Congratulations on 2 months, that is great.

Hope4Life

Thanks for that Dee, I love that quote!

The length of time depends on a myriad of factors that are different for each person. In my case, the physical part took 3 or 4 months. I believe that the mental aspect will take much longer, for me anyway. There were so many things from the past that contributed to my alcohol and pot use that ongoing work on my part is needed.

Welcome to SR! This place is a HUGE part of my sobriety and can help you through any tough spots or problems that come up.

least

By six months sober I was feeling good and secure in my sobriety. By one year I felt better than I had for a long time. Even so, there were good days and bad days during that time. I just handled them better sober.

Johnston

It took me about a year to feel myself.

alwayssober1

Thanks for the speedy replies everyone! I'm interested in how long to takes to recover from drinking, it gives me motivation and optimism during the days where you feel rubbish, thanks again.

CAPTAINZING2000

Not sure what normal is. A setting on the dryer.
There are many aspects of recovery.
Physical emotional and spiritual

Trying to repair relationships with family and friends can take several years to recover.
Take it a day at a time. Get plenty of sleep, eat good foods, exercise and spend a little time each day meditating

alwayssober1

Thanks for your reply captain, you make a good point about recovery meaning different things to different people, for me its more of how long it takes to feel comfortable in your own skin again, physically feeling normal.

bigsombrero

I've been sober 1.5 years and I'm still working on feeling comfortable with everything. Since getting sober my life is like a gigantic laundry basket full of mis-matched socks. Everything was very uncoordinated for a while, though things are settling down much more these days.

Mrmellow11

I'm 6 months sober and still dealing with anxiety that I never had before drinking or while drinking and a lot of places say it takes 6-24 months for brain chemistry to return to normal but not knowing this i took Xanax a few times in November for the anxiety and I've read that can set your healing back so hopefully we will all be getting better

RocketQueen

Im almost a year and 2 months. I'm not even close to what my "normal" self is, either physically or mentally. I did a lot of damage to my body and mind, so I'm beginning to accept this as a new kind of normal. You can't put a time limit on recovery, and in my experience the more you try and rush it, the longer it takes. It is what it is.

Bilr44

I think there are a lot of factors that make each persons recovery that much different. Some people are dealing with anxiety, depression, ADHD, etc., so those are big factors to consider. I've been sober since 9/1/13 and feel way different than I did at 60 days. It took me several months just to get motivation back to doing normal things. But I would just treat your sobriety as the number one thing and all the other things tend to take care of themselves.

Gottalife

I believe there are different parts to recovery. Physical recovery can be quite quick. I have seen people a week after a medical detox, with DTs and all the trimmings, feel well enough to go back out drinking. Usually, with good diet and some exercise, someone could be physically quite well in a few weeks, provided of course there is no residual organ damage.

Emotional/ spiritual recovery, that is the ability to live happily with the world and its people can take a lot longer, again depending on the extent of emotional and mental damage. In my case it took about 3 years before I felt like I was OK in the world, and about 5 years, looking back, where I was actually OK in the world.

The alcoholism was tretade quickly via the steps, and drinking was no longer a problem after 3 months. That is, the problem was removed. My emootional growth, howvere, and my intellect, were severely ******** and damaged. That took a long time to fix. I drank all the way through adolescence, and so had the emotional age of an 11 year old when I got sober. Growing up is a process which takes time. I had to grow from adolescent to adult.

I note one of your medical societies has some ideas on what they consider to be recovered. From memory they say 5 years continuous abstinence, as well as full integration and participation in the wider community are the general criteria for a condition they call "stable recovery".

soberbythesea

I am almost 1.5 years in. I don't consider myself fully recovered. I am good and happy in daily life but I'm still very aware that I need to be vigilant, and what could happen if I'm not.

EndGameNYC

How long does it take to function normally without alcohol?

Psychological dependence refers to the belief that we need to drink in order to function normally; "normally" to us. Many of us have reported that alcohol relieved us of a range of social and emotional stressors...social phobias, panic attacks, anxiety, depression, shyness, shame, sexual frigidity, introversion, self loathing and fears of all types. Having generally pole vaulted over the learning processes that accompany healthier remedies for our afflictions, we don't automatically become stable and well-rounded people by virtue of putting down the drink. Nor are we automatically the best judge of what will make us happy. Or sane. In many cases our concerns and their symptoms get worse, often a lot worse, before they get better in sobriety.

For me it wasn't any one thing. I had a generalized world-weariness long before I put down the drink following my relapse. I was beaten down, and it took me several months into my recovery to get back up. By the time I realized I was an active participant in my own recovery, it had been going on for some time. Progress seemed very slow, until it accelerated the more open I became to different ways of healing. Without getting into the wonderful details, I now live a life that I can be proud of. To be clear, none of this would have happened had I not first put down the drink. It never mattered why I drank, and debating that was a useless and wasteful enterprise.

Many of us got involved in counseling, psychotherapy or other forms of "treatment" in order to get to a better place, and I would recommend doing so to anyone interested in achieving sobriety.

Whatever helps us grow, helps us live a better life, also has a positive influence on our sobriety. Letting go of fear is a big part of the process for many of us. Helping others and learning how to love also go a long way in living a meaningful life.

Vandermast

im almost four months sober and my head still feels like a washing machine some days.

many people dont know about post acute withdrawal however it is a set of symptoms that persist for up to a year after becoming abstinent.

many beleive that once you get though the first year your chances of staying sober multiply exponentially.

hope this helps

v

Amajorityofone

That's a good question!

I am little over eighteen months and just yesterday I had bad craving. Haven't had one in months! Never saw it coming, either. This is why my mantra has always been....No matter what happens, or how I feel, not today.

I can't tell you how many times that mantra has saved my butt. Recovery is like the wind. One day you feel like "i've got this" Eeezee Peezee, and six months later, Wooooooo Jesus! WTF did that come from? Those brace yourself moments don't happen as frequently as they used to, but Good Lord they're still there...like an occasional stiff breeze.

Hope this makes sense.

abcowboy

My uncle, my inspiration, has been sober for 49 years, 50th birthday in Oct this year, tells me that I have to get used to the fact that I'm not normal, never will be..... but that I'm special, I know what it takes to beat an addiction..