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Almost One Year and PAWS?

Old 01-22-2017, 07:21 PM
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Almost One Year and PAWS?

I am less than two weeks from my one year and have been mostly feeling good.

Now, over the past weekend, I've had fairly intense anxiety, fatigue, fogginess, and clumsiness. Classic PAWS symptoms right? I knew that it could last for a long time, and have heard a lot of people say that it seemed to come in waves at certain times of the year, but I generally haven't had feelings like this in a long time now and had read that it is typically the worst around the 6 month mark.

Anyone else feel good for a long time and get an intense reminder of what early recovery felt like again?

I'm going to keep drinking plenty of water and trying to get more quality sleep, avoiding caffeine, doing my breathing exercises, but willing to hear what helps you too.
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:07 PM
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Good work on one year sober that is a really big deal. Everyone's recovery is different. I quit drinking in December 2015.
The rough patches for me came in. increments of 3's. 3 weeks in started questioning my sanity. Leveled out. Then at 3 months had another meltdown. At 6 months in started to feel confidence and an overall feeling of well being. At 9 months, started to get a little shaky again. At the 1 year mark started feeling really good and looking at not drinking as a tremendous freedom and a great burden had been lifted off of me. Also realized that the healing can't be forced and to be patient, things have a way of working themselves out and all I need to do is be greatfull for all my blessings and get up each day and do the best that I can. It takes dedication for sure but there is nothing better than inner peace that comes from being sober.
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:17 PM
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I think it's normal for PAWS symptoms to come and go a bit. They can be triggered by stress, fatigue, and low blood sugar too.

I've heard that it can take up to 2 years for it to disappear entirely, depending on how much damage you did.

Personally I found it eased up by about 6 months and was 95% better at 1 year. At the time, I thought it was all better, but I didn't have a real normal to compare it to and was just relieved to be feeling so much better. But at the end of 2 years I was even better.

I think you're on the right track focusing on healthy habits. Nutritious food and exercise helped me a lot too.
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Old 01-23-2017, 03:50 AM
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I am only at 91 days sober and I have ups and downs.

I felt really good, confident and somewhat normal the last few days - today I feel like I am back to early recovery.

Like the others said we can't force it - it will all come naturally. Just move forward and try not to dwell on it.
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Old 01-23-2017, 04:13 AM
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The week or two leading up to my one year mark I got a lot of anxiety and overall discontent. The thought of drinking didn't enter into my mind but I couldn't understand my anxiety. I was hitting meetings, doing my prayers and meditations. Then at a meeting someone suggested that it was common feelings for someone coming up on a special occasion. So, I added the anxiety to my gratitude list because it was reminding me that I was close to a full year of complete sobriety. Many prayers for all!
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Old 01-23-2017, 08:17 AM
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I always dismissed the talk of PAWS symptoms flaring up around anniversaries as old wives' tales -- your central nervous system doesn't keep a calendar, after all -- until it happened to me. Sure enough, around one year, I had a bout of shakiness, brain fog, poor memory, insomnia, and anxiety that made me feel like it was Day One again.

This too shall pass.
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Old 01-23-2017, 08:24 AM
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I personally feel that while we can certainly have these types of symptoms at periods over time ( I did! ), that "PAWS" is sort of a catch-all when we don't really know what's going on. Kind of like when you have a runny nose, cough or just feel down and chalk it up to a random "bug"

For the most part PAWS is just a term, it's not a diagnosable medical or psychological condition. There is no known cause or solution either. However, it's very possible to be proactive on the symptoms. If you are feeling depressed, you can absolutely seek help for depression. Same for anxiety or any other psychological ailment. If you are feeling physically sick, you can seek medical help.
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Old 01-23-2017, 02:41 PM
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If you think it could be PAWs this is a good link about what it is and what you can do about it

https://digital-dharma.net/post-acut...r-immediately/

D
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Old 01-23-2017, 03:07 PM
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In my experience many people feel a big off as an anniversary approaches. I did for the first few years. Just try to enjoy the big anniversary, for me it was the most important in recovery. Congrats!
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Old 01-23-2017, 03:18 PM
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I had symptoms of PAWS for a little more than a year. But it seemed to come in waves and then subside for a while.

Congrats on the first of many sober years.
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Old 01-23-2017, 06:56 PM
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I had exactly what you're describing happen right before I hit 11 months. Very intense anxiety and I had been feeling great for at least five months prior. I rode it out and it passed after four or five days. Haven't had any episodes since.

Congrats on your upcoming one-year milestone!
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Old 01-23-2017, 08:23 PM
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It would seem you would be free of PAWS now...
Could it be: lack of vit.D (seasonal affective disorder), lack of exercise, poor diet, poor sleep, garden variety dep./anx.?
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Old 01-23-2017, 11:58 PM
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Maybe PAWS coming up stronger when you NOT working on your recovery? Of course this excludes the first time of sobriety, when PAWS are a given anways. I got that impression with myself.

Maybe there are triggers and its not only about periods of time into sobriety.
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Old 01-24-2017, 08:28 AM
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Originally Posted by ThomPom View Post
Maybe PAWS coming up stronger when you NOT working on your recovery? Of course this excludes the first time of sobriety, when PAWS are a given anways. I got that impression with myself.

Maybe there are triggers and its not only about periods of time into sobriety.
Just to point out that PAWS, by definition, is not a "given." Acute withdrawal symptoms are a given if you're addicted to alcohol, but for most people they clear up after a few days of abstinence. PAWS refers to symptoms that persist or recur well beyond the typical period for acute withdrawal. As has been pointed out, there is no precise definition. It's just a convenient way to label withdrawal-type symptoms that linger or recur long after the initial period for acute withdrawal is over.
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Old 01-25-2017, 01:02 AM
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Originally Posted by Andante View Post
Just to point out that PAWS, by definition, is not a "given." Acute withdrawal symptoms are a given if you're addicted to alcohol, but for most people they clear up after a few days of abstinence. PAWS refers to symptoms that persist or recur well beyond the typical period for acute withdrawal. As has been pointed out, there is no precise definition. It's just a convenient way to label withdrawal-type symptoms that linger or recur long after the initial period for acute withdrawal is over.
Well OK, but my question was, if there could exist bahviour patterns that trigger such?
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Old 01-25-2017, 02:38 AM
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Been avoiding caffeine the past couple of days and feeling a bit better, still tired and getting headaches (though that could just be caffeine withdrawal, oh the irony).

Today I am up a bit earlier than I need to be, but no sense in tossing and turning for a half an hour to sleep an extra half an hour after that. I'm honestly scared to get a coffee for fear of feeling like I did on Saturday.
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Old 01-25-2017, 03:05 AM
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I have to agree with those who are suspecting it's not PAWS. I had a similar thing happen at 4 weeks, and it was more related to a horrible supplement regimen / poor diet rather than PAWS, even though the symptoms seemed to line up identically.

Other things can definitely cause those symptoms, even just anxiety itself. When my GABA bottoms out, I feel the same way regardless of how many days it's been.

Maybe a doctor could point you in the right direction, too.
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Old 01-26-2017, 07:02 PM
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I've had anxiety for a long time (and depression even longer), but I never had anxiety as bad as I felt over the weekend except when I was sobering up after periods of heavy drinking. That sort of near-panic attack with strong physical symptoms definitely took me off guard and it is not normal for me.

I haven't been taking great care of myself the past month and a half, but I never felt anything like this either. Now that the caffeine withdrawal wore off and I can now tolerate the caffeine from tea without issue, I am feeling back to baseline, but it was a good few days of feeling pretty off.

Thank you all for your thoughts. I really just needed to hear that my understanding of what was going on was reasonable.
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Old 10-09-2019, 03:42 AM
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Originally Posted by Andante View Post
I always dismissed the talk of PAWS symptoms flaring up around anniversaries as old wives' tales -- your central nervous system doesn't keep a calendar, after all -- until it happened to me. Sure enough, around one year, I had a bout of shakiness, brain fog, poor memory, insomnia, and anxiety that made me feel like it was Day One again.
This too shall pass.
I am coming up to my one year anniversary and I have experienced intense symptoms mainly anxiety. I have read these bad episodes can occur around 3,6&9 months and 1 & 2 year sobriety dates. Every bad episode I've had I write down and it matches up with this it's so strange. I feel awful and I'm so tired of fighting I just hope it does pass this one has been a long one for me lasted weeks already but does through stages of different symptoms.
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Old 10-09-2019, 03:53 AM
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Glad this got bumped.

Lots of good points above- perhaps most salient is that everyone has different experiences.

Dee posted that digital dharma article that struck me like lightening when I read it- it described the up and down path I took for 2 yrs. I'm a life or death case of quitting. To the behavioral things- I worked a very strong AA program from the beginning so for me that definitely wasn't the overall root of the experience.

Louise- points in time marked similar experiences for me like you share. I recall 10 mo being rough and 13 great....some kind of feeling of mixed something on the 2 yr....and diff up and down in between. As I became more like a regular person I grew more accepting of life's ups and downs that weren't weird.

Keep sober and thanks for sharing.
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