alwayssober1

Hi guys, I'm 88 days sober and PAWS is doing my head in! A few days ago I felt pretty good, if somewhat hyperactive, frustrated. Today woke up feeling depressed, flat, sad....!!!???

Its going to be a struggle getting to 6 months, not even knowing if I will still be dealing with this? I'm sort of used to feeling out of whack for awhile now, like a confused, dull trip, alcohol has really messed with my brain!

When will I see the light!

sobersovereign

Congrats on 88 days!! The thing I have had to learn about PAWS is it's not linear. You'll have periods of feeling totally great and then potentially cycle back into the fog. I am at 7 months and feel generally much clearer about things, but The Fog sucks me back in from time to time. I find for me too the key is to make sure I am eating as well as possible and ideally sneaking some exercise in there too, it seems to even things out a lot for me and the incredible fatigue and lethargy lifts considerably.

alwayssober1

Thanks, it would be accurate to say I'm in the thick of it!

Its like i have got myself into a mess (alcohol abuse) but to recover, get better, you have to spend a year going through one long depressing, confusing, boring, dull, fog, with good days as your brain recalibrates!

The temptation is there to drink, to feel "normal" again, but you have to keep going, there is no way back, you have to keep strong willed, the good(ish) days give you a taste of the good life, be it a brief taste...lol.

shakeel

I, too, still get PAWS here and there. But I get introspective and tell myself, wait, you don't drink anymore, so you better find another way to deal with these symptoms.
It seems as if once I tell my addictive voice that I don't drink anymore, the symptoms start to fade away.

Stoogy

Hey AlwaysSober, good too catch up with you again, dealing with the whole PAWS thing is a major obstacle isn't it? I'm just a little bit in front of you at around 110 day mark I think, don't like to count too often but I will after this post just to check, and the others guys are saying the fatigue and lethargy is the killer for many months and can sneak up and flatten you at any given time on any given day, what I have just done to fight this is I figured I spent around 100gbp a week on beer so I spent about a weeks worth of "would be" beer money and bought an exercise bike, really really helps lift the spirits when feeling low and tired just hop on and do 10kms while chugging down a cool Gatorade.☀️☀️ Come off feeling good. Keep it up buddy. Stuart.

Hawkeye13

Days of depression and lethargy are also part of "Normie's" lives

It the cycle of living. We get so used to medicating it away we forget feeling
crappy sometimes helps us appreciate feeling good.
I also have had several serious bouts of PAWS, but now I'm getting past them and realizing
I just don't feel great every day--just like a nondrinker.

Sometimes I just listen to my body and mind and slow down. Get in bed, take a walk,
don't talk, and just not have any expectations. It passes and I feel better.

If it persists, I agree that exercise and sometimes other steps are needed.
I also found cutting out sugar, reducing coffee / tea etc. and keeping protein in
my body fairly often really kept things more "steady" over time