Stayingsassy

Forget workouts. Forget AA. 40oz coffee just to get through the morning of the workday, another 20oz at noon to get through the rest of the workday, bed. Lying in bed, coffee, employment: my life this week. Just today and tomorrow....and I will be off six days. I’ll probs be in bed if anyone needs to find me....

Typical one month in, i don’t need an explanation I’ve been to this rodeo.

Here’s a thing: did you know there appears to be no easily found medical research on physical changes in sobriety, that is completely lame. There are a bunch of *****s like me spouting ideas about it “oh you’re healing, oh it’s b vitamins, oh you’re sleep deprived.” Wtf? Does anyone really know wth they are even talking about? How about physicians? Researchers? Is PAWS even a medically viable diagnosis, this is unbelievable, there should be treatment for this garbage.

I’m off to work.

Stayingsassy

“*****s” was edited out? Hm

biminiblue

Ha! This too will pass, lovely.

I won't say anything else, I remember those days.

Stayingsassy

Here’s a fun thing:

Explain to non alcoholics that you’re too tired to function after a month of sobriety: “what? You’ve been sober a month! You should be bopping around with energy!”

Explain the same thing to an alcoholic: “oooh yeah, no wonder, you are a month in. You must be exhausted. Take baths and get tons of sleep.”

biminiblue

Everyone has their $.02, right?

Sometimes I think it's better to never say a word out loud. As a matter of fact, I went the entire day yesterday without saying a word out loud and it was so nice to not get "advice" from anyone.






That I don't need and didn't ask for. :-|

ScottFromWI

I felt the same way at times, but the bottom line is that even if there were more research the solution would likely be the same - give it time. As addicts we want instant gratification by nature, but that's not the way the "real world" works. Accepting that we need to give things time and enjoying small victories along the way can certainly help.

zjw

ya know I try to do this and someone always comes buggin me whats wrong and its like nothing just leave me TF alone is all everyone please!

i need time to decompress and with 6 kids i really dont get it. I feel like i'm being picked apart by vultures 24 / 7 generally.

Maudcat

It takes time.
I felt better, more like myself pre-overdrinking, about 3 months in.
Try to stay hydrated, eat when you are hungry, rest when you can.
This shall pass.
Hang in there, SS.

Stayingsassy

It’s ridiculous to me that a phenomenon (alcoholics quitting drinking)which often throws people into hypothyroidism, causes wild sleeping patterns affecting quality of life, heavy fatigue, food cravings and a slowdown in metabolism, high blood pressure: just to name a FEW, has not been properly studied and treated it’s no freaking wonder the relapse rate is 78%. This could be better supported and better treated. Instead people are tossed into group therapy and told “give it time,” not having a clue what those people are really going through for the next six months.

shortstop81

I'm in the same boat as you are right now, Sassy. I have a pretty full schedule these days, and it's almost all I can do to get through the day. Just one foot in front of the other.....I can't seem to stay up much later than 9pm, even when I try.

I'm trying to slow myself down, relax when I can. So lots of bubble baths, lots of Netflix in between all the crap I have to do.

But I agree, PAWS seems little understood, and it's hard to differentiate from a myriad of other possible issues.

Stayingsassy

I understand that, and in my case I have the rest of my life cause my drinking career has ended so I have all the time in the world to feel better, but in folks who drink dangerously but have wobbly thinking, shouldn’t the basics of protracted withdrawal be better understood? There are scores of people drinking themselves to death because they’ve gone through some wonky withdrawal, figured “sober life sucks” so relapsed without a thought (I’ve read such people here) and I doubt their family physician was able to tell them factually why it is happening physiologically and what exactly to do about it: at least to avoid relapse. Family doc knows when it’s a cold vs the flu or pneumonia, why in the face of an epidemic of alcoholism and no doubt scores of people going to the doc begging for help does family doc not understand paws?

columbus

Do a thorough search on alcoholism and hypoglycemia.
Tons of info out there.

Extreme tiredness (worsened by caffeine and sweets)
is a symptom of the latter.

It's a a blood sugar thang...

;-)

Stayingsassy

I’m recently keto to try to reverse my rapid weight gain since quitting. About a week into keto, could still be transitioning to different fuel souce. Takes up to two weeks sometimes....thanks for your input.

...except for the caffeine part. I’m not thanking you for that. 😖

Stayingsassy

Hey shortstop. Thanks for commiserating. It helps! Hey how much sober time do you have?

Stayingsassy

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3911810

Here’s a study done on 312 abstinent alcoholics.

Stayingsassy

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18365930

And another.

Stayingsassy

https://www.thefix.com/content/paws

This one’s quite good. Now I will stop and get back to my work.

ScottFromWI

There actually is a lot of research out there as you are already finding. But that doesn't mean there's a magic cure. Just as there is no magic cure for viruses, cancer, neurological diseases, etc. And there are many effective treatments for the aftermath of drinking, both psychological and medical.

But all of them take time. I know you'd like a quick cure, all of us would have. But acceptance and patence is needed.

Outonthetiles

There's no magic cure. Some of this stuff I just have to gut out. Walk it off sport.

shortstop81

About 5 weeks. This also isn'y my first time 'round this merry-go-round, so I'm at least familiar with the symptoms.

I remember about 2 years ago I had also gotten sober and was experiencing extreme dizziness for the first few weeks. I saw my family physician, I saw an ENT, neurologist, I even made a trip to the ER. I mentioned to all the doctors that I had recently quit drinking, but all of them were perplexed by my symptoms.

Long story short, everything else was ruled out so likely it's a PAWS symptom. But yes, not many doctors seemed to have any real clue about it.

These days I tend to also have headaches, which are uncommon for me. It feels like the front of my head between my eyes is filled with a sandbag. Then there are the blessed day where that feeling lifts, and I realize how awesome it feels to feel 'normal'. Thankfully, I'm getting more of those days as time slowly marches on.