ScottFromWI

Have you discussed your drinking with your therapist? If you are being treated for these other issues he/she might have some good insight as to how to proceed.

TheNatural

If you only had 6 beers yesterday, and none the day before, and are experiencing no physical symptoms you can stop right now without issue. This isn't medical advice, just speaking from experience. Stop now, make a GP appointment for early next week, and spend your time this weekend making a plan.

The mental symptoms are not withdrawl, they are just part of the process when leaving alcoholism in your rear-view mirror. Read others' posts and threads, everyone goes through one thing or another, and often many things simultaneously when first attempting to quit.

It is beginning to sound like you have resources that you aren't using, like your therapist. They can help tremendously with the mental side of getting sober, but only if you are completely honest, if you try and ignore this gorilla on your back and omit the details of what is clearly an issue in your life, then on your back it will remain.

Occam's Razor applies here, and it is represented by something I hear a lot in the rooms:

Do the next right thing.

Make an appointment with a Dr. Make a plan to get through the weekend. If one day at a time doesn't work for you, take it one hour at a time, just don't rationalize and end up drunk again. You can do it, you just have to try.

KAD

That's not necessarily true. We all have different tolerance levels. I drank a 5th of vodka/day which amounts to about 17 drinks and I had horrible withdrawals. I got to the point where I could not stop without medical help.

TheNatural

I think he was exaggerating. But your point still stands.

Dave36

Yeah. I didn't mean exactly 20 drinks. I don't think she's drinking that heavily from what she posted. 17 is pretty close. Come on.

Dave36

I didn't mean if you stick to 19 a day you'd be fine.

KAD

No problem. Just making sure no one else might have taken it differently than you intended. Some of us can be quite literal when it comes to drinking and how much is too much.

Dave36

No worries. I was drinking about that much too and it was painful to quit. I was more referring to seizures and death which I think are more common and higher consumption rates.

KAD

I never had seizures, I just started having numbness and tingling pretty much down the entire length of the left side of my body, including my face. I have high blood pressure already, so the risk of heart attack and stroke was my main concern. My heart rate and blood pressure go into orbit!

TheNatural

This last time I was recovering, and probably still technically going through withdrawls, I took my blood pressure at a local pharmacy and blood pressure was at an average of 180/115. Two days later at the doc, it was 144/88, and now it's 125/83. My heart rate was at about 125 BPM for about 4 or 5 days.

Sunday will be two weeks since my last drink, a terrible binge/relapse that lasted a while. I feel about ten times better than I did last friday. It's uncanny. The body is remarkable.

KAD

The last time I attempted to quit on my own, on the second day of detox, my bp was 198/120. I looked in the mirror and there was a big vein bulging on the side of my head! Scared the crap out of me! I take 2 meds to control my bp already so it's definitely not something for me to play around with.

Dave36

I've detoxed in a hospital before and had the crazy high blood pressure. What gets me is the intense anxiety and feeling of dread. Gets so bad it's like a bad acid trip. My brain just screaming for alcohol. can't over state how bad that part is for me. Probably scaring lion here with our horror stories.

KAD

It's a nightmare. I had strange visual anomalies, too, and dizziness. It was like everything was moving in quick jerks. Every step I took felt like the ground was shaking. That was the last time I attempted to quit on my own. I caved and went out and bought more alcohol. I was both relieved and depressed when everything instantly returned to what I'd come to know as "normal."

TheNatural

I used to not have much anxiety when detoxing, even though I would have bowel movements that I knew meant I was bleeding in my stomach, and was peeing coca-cola colored fluid, I always just "Toughed it out"

I had no idea what the dangers were. I thought it was all just my body's way of getting back to normal so I could drink again.

I actually remember a time, a couple years before I quit trying to reach out to the doctors and nurses at my Doctor's office. It was about 5 days after my last binge and I was still feeling awful. I went in, and my blood pressure was crazy high, even after that long, and I remember trying to tell the nurses, "I drink a LOT"

She responded like it was no big deal, "Plenty of people your age drink a lot, it's normal"

"You don't understand, I really drink a lot, I think something needs to change"

She basically shrugged it off like it was normal, as did the doctor.

They made me sit in the room and checked my blood pressure every 5 minutes until I calmed down enough to get it to around 150-160/100 and they just let me leave. I kept up my pace, and got even worse for about a year and a half before I finally went to rehab.

Dave36

It sucks. I'm 67 days and still don't feel completely myself. Been a lot of just wishing time would pass so my brain and body would heal and return to normal. Takes a lot longer than I thought it would.

Dave36

I'm surprised how uniformed many Dr. Are about addiction. I've encountered a lot of ignorance along with some very helpful medical professionals but a lot of the time we are left alone to deal with it ourselves. I've heard people on here say they went for help detoxing and were turned away. Seems more prevalent in the UK. Drs don't seem to want to get involved even tho it's a big problem there.

KAD

I'm at 54 days and I know the feeling. Lots of brain fog and poor memory for me. As I've heard it put before, we didn't become drunks overnight, so we won't return to normal any faster. It was easier to become drunks because we weren't always conscious of how much time was passing us by! Just have to stay the course. If we go back to drinking, it will eventually kill us. Of that, I'm 100% convinced.

Dave36

I keep hearing 90 days is a big milestone and things level out a little then. Here's hoping

LionOfJudah

I was able to see the doctor today. She gave me valium.... and I am also getting.. Kudzu Root Extract , Melatonin, L-Glutamine, multi-vitamin, magnesium, omega-3, Kava Kava, 5Htp, B-complex, Inositol and Glycine. to help me in my first month of sobriety and beyond.

LionOfJudah

I'm going to be drinking 3 liters of water a day. that's what she suggested... and rest.