WaterOx

Hi everyone.

Well I haven't exactly quit drinking but thus far I've reduced my intake by quite a bit. Maybe 75%. It's been about a week now and the last day or so I have felt unusually depressed.

Not just depressed like a little sad or bored but a much deeper depression. Like the existential depression where you're left wondering what it's all about. I've been feeling like I'm just not very good of a person, lately. Like some kind of strange paranoia where people just don't like me. Naturally, I'm probably projecting. But the feeling seems so real.

When I think about it, I have little (if any) cause to feel this way. I kind of suspect it's the process of becoming less numb- and maybe not getting as much to drink as I have been used to for many years now.

Has anyone else felt this way as a process of stopping/cutting down?

Alwyshope12

Right there with you Waterox. I felt like that at the end of my time drinking, and it was through trying to figure out why my mental world was spinning out of control that I came to the conclusion that it was the alcohol that was doing it to me.

The feelings are because your brain chemistry is so out of whack that your brain is swimming in the chemical imbalance created by onslaught of alcohol. When you remove the alcohol or cut down from it, your brain now gets more out of whack because the chemicals that your have been regulating your mood with are absent, and your brain doesn't know what to do.

The great news is that you can recover by stopping drinking. Probable best to consult your doctor before going cold turkey to make sure you detox safely.

You can do this, keep coming back here, join AA. But if you want to fix this problem, and change your life to make it be a wonderful experience, you must stop all drinking all together otherwise you can not recover.

Never loose hope and keep posting.

Ghostly

I totally get what you mean. However I felt like that before I drank, when I drank and after I quit. For me anyway, drinking was not the cause.

oldsoul1122

If not the cause, then the symptom. I had the perfect setup necessary for being a problem drinker. Drinking masked the bad thoughts and feelings for years and put them on hold. Don't expect them not to be there when you quit. Some damages like a drunk driving and other wreckage can be fixed but the long term damage you handle bit by bit. Be easy on yourself.

OklaBH

I never could cut down for long. It always turned into a full blown bender. Once I quit drinking the depression & anxiety symptoms dissipated. Mondays used to be like swimming in mud...now its just another day...easy peasy! If you can cut back you can quit. Good luck!

MelindaFlowers

Yes. I was very sad and cried often in the first month. I felt like I was living outside of my body, watching from the sidelines. I was immensely sad but I knew that it was for the best. I was also mourning the loss of alcohol, plain and simple.

It takes awhile to get clarity, up to a few months I'd say if you were a seriously heavy alcoholic because alcohol in huge doses really damages our body and brain. It's true that it doesn't matter how much you drank to make you an alcoholic, but I had drank so much (like many others) that I was physically injured. My brain and body had some serious healing to do.

I had to take my emotions out of it and view it like I was healing from a terrible disease. I had to take everyone's word for it here that it gets better because I didn't always believe them. Well, take my word that it gets much better. I am five months from alcohol and life is so much more pleasant. My emotions have really evened out. The daily soap opera that was in my head when drinking everyday is pretty much gone.

I am not the type that does cartwheels and cheers about how stupendous sobriety is. Life can still have ups and downs. I never had a pink cloud but I do have a deep and immense appreciation for getting my life back.

Nonsensical

Actually, you do. Chronic alcohol consumption changes brain chemistry. In response to the persistent effects of alcohol the brain produces extra anxiety-inducing chemicals. Mother Nature decided it was bad for survival to be lethargic and complacent all the time. When you're still drinking what you notice is that it takes more and more alcohol to produce the calm, relaxed, happy feeling we crave. The additional anxiety has to be overcome to get to that state.

When you quit/cut back, the brain is still over-producing the anxiety chemicals for a while - and now you're REALLY feeling them.

Give it a few months and your brain will return to it's natural balance.

Google 'addiction and hedonic setpoint' for more info.

GracieLou

It is difficult learning to live without something that you have come to depend on and I say learning because that what it was for me.

I had no idea how to live without alcohol, I had to learn.

The AA program taught me how to do that. It gets better but it does take time. After the sadness came anger. I had many resentments and I had to feel them all. It is hard to sit in the pain sober just as it is hard to sit in the sadness. It is form of grief. I was used to drowning it on a regular basis.

That is why so many say "One day at a time". Not everyday is going to be bad but there are some that are and you just have to get through that one day. The next may be bad again but it may be a tiny bit better. You may catch yourself laughing and that felt so strange to me sober. You never know what tomorrow holds so why worry about it today?

This to shall pass, hang in there. Keep tapering until you do not drink one day and then rinse and repeat. Those one day a time's can add up to a week or a month.

trachemys

Exactly my situation. See your doctor. A mild anti-depressant helped me immensely.