Sober Hangover
 

I experienced this in 2013 when I first quit drinking after being drunk every night for 25 years and I am experiencing again now that I quit again.

Every morning when I wake up I feel awful - just like a hangover - and it takes several hours to feel ok again.

Anyone else experience this?

Too much sleep or restless sleep? I had this a few times... especially if I mainlined caffeine all day and then crashed hard. I also found out I sleepwalk sometimes, and that was eerily similar to the aftermath of a blackout, seeing evidence that I'd done things I couldn't remember doing.

I had that issue for a while if I ate too much sugar, or too many carbs the day before. After a few months I cut back on carbs.

Now I don't have that happen any more, even if do eat sugar/carbs. Whatever it was has gone back to normal. Early sobriety has all sorts of weird glitches. Hang on! It gets better.

Hope you figure it out.

If you aren't getting good sleep, morning can be like a hangover. Try approaching the bad sleep angle.

sorry you're having these issues. I felt weird for the first 5-6 months of getting sober. Eat good healthy food 3x a day, excercise even if it's walking for 30 minutes a day and sleep as much as possible!

I went to see my doctor and he put me on an SSRI for about a year and it really helped me. I drank drugged like a rock star for 25 years and I had to fry a few circuits in my brain!!

Keep up the good work!!

Oh, Let's not get into fried brain. Just solutions.

but that's what it is and dave posted the solutions.

your brain is trying to fix its self. help it out and be patient.

I still have this thing where I wake up feeling sick and heavy headed. Usually after not sleeping very well or enough. I also experience anxiety when waking up early sometimes, like I would feel anxious when waking up after drinking.

Loekken how long are you sober?

I'm just under 2 months and had exactly the same thing. I would go to bed feeling fine and wake up in hell. same thing every day.

first month was awful I couldn't get out of bed. it gets better. make sure youre drinking a gallon of water a day and supplementing Vitamin B. that's the easiest and most effective thing we can do to aid recovery. its makes a difference once youre In the routine.

Doug,

I had headaches in the am for weeks.

My eyes would be red as well. Toxins leaving.

No more now.

Never poisoning my body again.

New behavior. New lifestyle.

Coping as designed.

Obsessing is going away as well.

Stay clean.

Normalcy is just down the road a bit.

Thanks.

Hi Doug39 yes I get that too !! funny enough I was going to post about it also. I wake up feeling totally crap every day with anxiety and some tremor, I am 50 days clean now and hope it goes away soon. I also quit the cigs 3 weeks ago and dont drink coffee. Its a real bummer when you have to go to work and wake up feeling like this, I literately have to drag myself out off the bed and get moving, after up and moving a bit it goes away but still have a woolly head and slight disorientation and memory and cognitive issues which I put down to PAWS. Sorry I cannot give any advise but just think its the brain rewiring itself and it takes time. Best of Luck and happy Scary Halloween, this stuff is scary too but day by day :)

Hi Doug

sometimes I still wake up that way if I'm not drinking enough fluids. Stay hydrated :)

D

Sometimes I get a food hangover, usually from to much salt or sugar, terrible feeling:(

When I was drinking, I ate very little during the day. I usually started drinking around 4 pm everyday, would get drunk, eat a way too big dinner, and finally binge on some type of sugary food before passing out.

I am eating sensibly now; when I was drunk I didn't care about anything.

Over 10 months now. I have some very vivid drinking dreams these days where I feel what I perceive to be very real physical effects too.

The sleep will get better the more weeks/months you get under your belt. I get to sleep 8 hours straight which I rarely did previously over the course of a full decade. And that's a great feeling waking up in the morning, especially knowing you didn't drink the night before. It's really worth it, no matter how much you'd like a drink in the evenings. Wait, go to bed; it's worth it.

I kinda got over feeling hung over when I was drinking all the time. I'd have to seriously tie one one. On the typical stumbling, can't remember going to bed kind of nights I felt fine in the morning.

that said I'm totally felling like I'm a bit hung over in the morning.

For me, it took about a year for my body to readjust to my new "normal". What helped me a lot was keeping the focus on recovery and moving forward. I got a physical, started eating better, and put the focus on my PLAN. Executing my recovery PLAN helped me focus on taking action to get better instead of what I was "feeling" (physically/emotionally) at any given moment (because that changed constantly the first year). I think we tend to underestimate alcohol and how it affects every cell in our bodies. It took mine a long time to adapt to not having it.