wjsprowler

I could really use some advice from people here. I hope I am posting in the right area.

I have been a pretty heavy drinker for the past year, drinking probably on average 4 times a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes 6 beers a night, sometimes up to 18.

These past 2 weeks I have had drinks almost every day, ranging from 400-750mL of 40% alcohol each night (starting the drinking about 5 hours before bed).

2 days ago I woke up and felt like complete crap. Throughout the day I felt things I have never felt before (numbness of the body, confusion, shock, abdominal pain, nausea, rapid heart beat, chest pain, flu-like symptoms, fatigue). I actually felt like I was going to die and was about ready to check myself in to a hospital.

The question I have is: are these symptoms typical withdrawal symptoms? And is the amount of alcohol I have had enough to trigger these strong symptoms the next day (the day before I had no such symptoms)?

I have never gone through withdrawal before so I am really wondering if that could be the cause or if it could be something more serious like liver cirrhosis or something of that nature. I actually went to the doc today to get some blood work done to see if it is something more serious (I get the results tomorrow) but in the meantime I am just wondering if what I could be going through might be withdrawal symptoms. Has anyone here experienced anything like this? It is so strange and new to me.. and it seems to be getting worse each day.

alphaomega

We aren't allowed to give medical advice here. But 750 ml of hard alcohol or 18 beers is a significant amount of alcohol for your body to attempt to process.

What you are describing sounds an awful lot like the withdrawals I used to experience.

If you are feeling what you are describing, I can only urge you to seek medical help as the next few days are typically where dangerous things (seizures, high BP, etc) will start to show up. Day three tends to be the most medically dangerous for us very heavy drinkers.

Please, seek medical attention of you are at all concerned.

Alcohol withdrawal can be fatal .

Coldfusion

I agree with Alphaomega, and would add that you should go to the hospital instead of drinking again.

matt4x4

Anyway, so first off its not how much we drink its what it does to us.
Its not what we drink either. Everclear (75% alc) or American Beer (3%), or wine whatever % that is, probably 10%.
Alcohol is actually a poison that you are putting into your body.
Alcohol poisoning is quite common.
To each their own with withdrawal symptoms. I will be clear here.........

You can die coming off of booze. Go see a doctor immediatly.
You can not die coming off of drugs. You might think you are going to die, you might want to die, but you will not die coming off of drugs. Only booze. Either way, you want help go to a doctor.
Sounds about right for my symptoms tho.

Might be time to stop drinking all together.
Maybe switching brands might work. We have all tried this switching of brands, it does not work. Alcohol is a progressive disease which means it gets worse over time never better, even when we are sober. Which means that a person of many years of sobriety will end up where they left of in no time. Countless AA members of 10+ yrs of being sober have died in no time once they started drinking. Next this disease is chronic, it happens over and over again. This disease is death, and being an alcoholic you are in denial so death means you die, 6' under. Now you have 2 choices. You can go on to the bitter end, drinking.........or you can work on being sober living a happy and serence life. Again us being alcoholics we are in denial. We ask again, what are my options. Drink and die, or live a happy life. For us alcoholics there is no controlling the drink, drinking normally does not work. We must abstain from alcohol 100%. Which means we must avoid the bottle or can. Avoid foods with alcohol in them. Avoid foods where alcohol is used in the cooking process, because it does not burn off. There are people out there dilusional about this, perhaps they are in denial who knows. But we like to fool ourselves we are in denail. We must avoid mouth wash with alcohol in it, you can buy non alcoholic mouth wash. I do not know at which point I get the phenomenon of craving, so why do i gamble with it? because you are an alcoholic that is why, you still have an alcoholic mind. By working the steps as its layed out in the big book it states specifically that after we have worked the steps we have become recovered from a hopeless state of mind and body. We now do not have an alcoholic mind. We however are never cured.

wjsprowler

Thanks a lot for the responses you guys. I may have to consider checking myself into a hospital tomorrow if my symptoms get any worse. I was laying on my bed today and my heart was just racing and hurting, it felt like I was going to have a heart attack or something. It was really scary.

And Matt that is also some really good advice. This experience has shown me that alcohol is nothing to mess around with. For me it just seemed like "fun" or something to do to relax from a hard day of work but this makes me never want to drink ever again...
In fact right now I don't even crave it because I never realized it was so harmful to my body and had such serious consequences. I don't think I have ever felt this crappy or scared in my entire life and that makes me never want to touch the stuff again because I do not want to die sooner than I am supposed to.

I guess the most scary thought is whether or not my liver has been shot because the symptoms look pretty similar on medical websites... and of course when you see those symptoms match yours you start to freak out a little bit. However it sounds like it might be withdrawal which (as weird as this sounds) is kind of relieving to me and has given me a little peace of mind through this rough night.

SeaScape

Please go to the doctors... You don't know how important your health is until you lose it. Be good to yourself.

karate

Yes - Half a fifth of whiskey or ,an 18 pack will make you feel like CRAP .

And that's more than enough to have the shakes the next day .

PurpleKnight

A 750ml bottle a night for 2 weeks, consumed in the space of 5hrs is a lot of alcohol!!

In short, your body has limits, it can't continue indefinitely to have what is essentially a poison poured into each day in such high volumes.

Might be time to get checked out by a doctor!!

wjsprowler

Got the results today - liver is showing signs of "inflammation and damage". Going to go back in a month and get a new test after abstaining from alcohol and eating healthy (maybe exercise too at some point but feel too fatigued to do that right now, and even walking makes my heart race)

Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst

Coldfusion

Expect the best, because you are on the road to recovery!

"The liver's regenerative potential is legendary..."

Regenerative biology: "Take the brakes off for liver repair;" Andrew G. Cox, & Wolfram Goessling, Nature 506, pp. 299–300, 20 February 2014.

skg

If you want to drink, that's your business. If you want to quit, AA can help.
Normal people don't wonder if they've got cirrhosis, nor ask for liver tests from medical professionals... Alcoholics, on the other hand, will diagnose themselves and ask complete strangers if they drink too much...

Just a couple thoughts...

wjsprowler

Skg I went to the doctor because I felt like I was going to die, he was the one who recommended I get some blood work done, and it took about 5 minutes after seeing him

Honestly though, I think that this experience is more than AA could do for me. It makes me never want to drink ever again, and I may be lucky that I had this happen because I would probably still be drinking every night before bed....

If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. As it turns out being young and healthy doesn't make someone immune to liver damage

EndGameNYC

Hi prowler.

I think the suggestion that you get help with your recovery is sound...nothing earth-shattering about that.

In all the years I've been sober, I've known several people who've gotten worse news about their livers than you did and who continued to drink. Some were scared enough to stop temporarily, and others just picked up where they left off.

Very few of us have stayed sober without some sort of treatment or program. I only got help when I acknowledged that my health and well being -- my life -- were at stake.

soberlife123

Fatty Liver and Alcoholic Hepatitis are also signs of inflammation and damage but are fully reversible with abstinence

I'm also going back for more tests after a month or six weeks of abstinence !

matt4x4

Ya well we all have the greatest intentions in the world. But if we do nothing about it, then nothing changes. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is insanity. I have relapsed countless times, every time I swore to myself I will never drink again because I have good reason. Health, inprisonment, crashed cars, lost license, lost house, lost wife, lost kids. These things in themselves do not scare us into sobriety. There is work to be done, to change the way we think. If we do not change the way we think then nothing changes. When we have worked all 12 steps of AA we have changed the way we think, we have a HP, we have had a spiritual expirience, we help others. These things keeps us sober. No amount of meetings alone in the world keeps no one sober. I have learned this, along with countless others have learned the hard way. I come from the school of hard knocks, from the street. "Con College".

skg

I love the way a spiritual life soaks through in recovery. It's an inside job, for sure, and no amount of pleading, black-mailing, deception or incarceration can achieve these results. For those who are willing, honest, and open, there is a chance to get better than simply well. Connection and awareness. I love seeing it in others.