Graybo

Hello everyone, this is my first post. I have been out of detox for almost two months now and I still don't feel right. I'm only 21 and went on an insane drinking binge everyday from the moment I turned 21. I got pretty drunk everyday for 6 months, with the last 2 months starting early in the day. I noticed I would start to get the shakes around 1-3pm and that my memory/cognitive ability was off sober or drunk. This is what prompted me to seek help. My doc told me I had to go to a detox center to wean off safely, and I did. The problem is I feel so weird even at 2 months sober. I have feelings of being detached from reality, can't remember things well short or long term, can't organize thoughts or focus at all, and can't really have an in depth conversation. Sometimes I find it hard to to even talk or think up words. I feel like I'm going crazy. It makes it even worse when I talk to sober people who drank for over 20 years and they never had these types of problems, I have read about PAWS but I was only a 6 month everyday heavy drinker. I think it's also important to note that I have been binge drinking since I was 17 on the weekends but never became an everyday thing I till I turned 21. Is this effects from the alcohol?

walktheline1

None of us can say for sure if it's the booze or something else. That being said, I know I went through the Delirium Tremens at 20 and it took me 6 months to feel normal back then. A decade later and I'm still dealing with my alcoholism; and I don't heal nearly as quickly as I used too. Nip it in the bud while you can. Your binges and that anxiety and shakiness will only get worse if you keep drinking.

Soberwolf

Welcome Graybo congrats on 2 months stick around its a great place of recovery & information

sleepie

Many moons ago I came across an article in the NY Times that said something about the affects of binge drinking in your teens, because the brain is still growing or developing in some way, I think.

ScottFromWI

Congrats on 2 months of sobriety, that's a heck of an accomplishment!

We all recover on a different timeline, and how much we drank/how long we did it doesn't always translate into how long recovery lasts. The mental side of things can take months, even years to fully heal. Many of the symtoms you list like he brain fog are very common and get better with time, but of course see your doctor if you have concerns.

Dame

Hi Graybo,
I drank for 3 yrs. 2 and a half of them daily. It's been 72 days for me, and I still don't feel "right" in too many ways. I too am amazed by stories of folks who have drank 10, 20, even30 yrs. and are now living their best lives. Maybe some of us just take longer. I never had much of a tolerance anyways

Che

Could be lots of things. Talk to a doctor again if you are concerned, they will ask questions about your diet and activity that might help figure out the problem.

Cognitive difficulties could easily be from not getting enough sleep from being stressed about your drinking and its effects on your health. Alcoholics have a way of becoming hypochondriacs the moment they decide to sober up.

I think when I had been drinking every night for a year or two in university, it took a few months before I felt normal again. I was very paranoid my brain was not going to go back to normal. There was this kind of fog to my thinking. One of the things that probably made it better was getting into intellectual exercises again, doing things that made me think hard, learning new skills etc. Even for old people whose mental fitness is simply declining from age, the most important factor is continuing to do intellectually stimulating and challenging things.

My advice to you, since you are so young and your drinking career relatively short, is to realise you are at real risk for this problem to continue in your life, and you need to make absolutely certain you never hide alcohol or how much you're drinking, you never drink alone, you never binge, etc. It's a good idea to just stop completely forever and let this scary lesson sink in, but the likelihood is you'll think of it as a one off mistake, and I know it won't be if you do any of those things. 6 months of daily excessive drinking... You might be scared for your health and your mental ability right now, but I am more scared for your future, because that is definitely a foray into alcoholism territory that has done permanent damage to your ability to deal with alcohol in a healthy way.

Gottalife

I had a similar thing. Got sober at 22, but felt like my IQ had been redced to my shoe size. Couldn't make simple decisions, couldn't remember thinngs, no concentration, found it almost impossible to read a book as I always seemed to forget the page I had just read.

Brain damage is what it was. I drank for longer than you, but at your age the brain is still developing and high alcohol consumption is now proven to do a lot of damage to developing bodies. I n my case I also had malnutrition which didn't help.

My head eventually cleared as other undamaged cells took over I guess, but it was not a quick process.

The other side of it was dealing with my alcoholism. My attitudes and way of thinking were all screwed up, which just added to the confusion. I had to get that sorted in order to live happily.

trachemys

I don't know why no one has said this: Don't Panic.

It's only been two months. You're nowhere near normal yet. You will be OK if you stay off the booze.

Hang in there.

Graybo

Thanks everyone for the replies, it makes me feel ALOT better. I don't ever want to touch that poison drink ever again.

zjw

I had that detached from reality stuff when I sobered up it was like de personalization derealization it was bizarre and scary at first in my case I started to like it in hindsite I think my mind was just in overdrive keeping me from going totally insane anyway it could.

Good job on the 2 months

Delizadee

I felt that way for about 2 months after tapering myself off. Give yourself a year and treat yourself kindly inside and out and see how you feel then. In the mean time... pat yourself on the back my friend. You deserve it. Breathe easy for awhile

Graybo

How long would you say it took before you were "normal"? Class started for me and I think I can't do it, or like I can do anything for that matter.

Gottalife

I am not sure I know what normal is. The first thing was to recover from alcoholism. The constant cycle drink,sick,drink, sick etc obviously destroyed all opportunity in my life. To recove in AA terms, took about three months. At that point the obsession to drink was gone and it has never come back. I was working step nine by that stage.

My life since then has been one of constant growth, emotional, spiritual, intellectual. With alcohol out of the way it was possible for me to begin growing like a normal human being though I had a late start, having an emotional age of 13 when I started.

Initially I had trouble meeting basic obligations in life like turning up for work everyday. I had landed a job with understanding employers who helped me a lot. After maybe two years I was functioning reasonably well and took a leap into the corporate world. After a foggy few months, it was thought because I could not use alcoholism as an excuse with these employers, I suddenly came out of the fog and my career took off. I started as a trainee, but by four or five years sober I was one of the top three executives, and functioning pretty well.

It was important for me to look after my spritual condition through all this and I spent time, still do, helping other alcoholics.

I never got anywhere in conventional education. I was chucked out of school for something I did whe I was drunk. My feeling is you could handle class if you break it down to one day at a time. That approach helped me a lot. I could handle for a day what looked impossible for a week or a month.

I got a little discipline in my day too. Work (class) was a priority, but the other vital things were eating well, sleeping, keeping clean, and each day I made sure I had some contact with other alcoholics, usually going to meetings or working on the steps with my sponsor. This has proved to be a recipe for a successful life. Not bad for a hopeless case.

sg1970

My second and third months were my worst and similar to what you describe. Then things started to improve and were still improving after a year sober. Hang in there.