sherlockholmes2

Coming up to 4 weeks this weekend, thing is I'm not feeling as well as I thought I would.

Little energy, little enthusiasm for anything, like everything is just a lot of effort for little reward.

How well should I expect to feel after 4 weeks, am I expecting too much to think I'll be full of beans by now?!

ScottFromWI

Very hard to say Sherlock - there's so many factors that add up to how we should "feel". The acute withdrawal is usually over in a week or 2, so if you are still feeling an of those effects you might want to get a basic checkup. Sometimes we get very malnourished when drinking as we don't eat well and consume a lot of empty calories, so you could be experiencing that too. Our diet and excercise also needs to be checked into.

The mental healing, which can also affect us physically, can take quite a bit longer. Some suffer from underlying issues like depression, anxiety, etc - which are completely separate things that may need to be treated individually.

Another area to look at is your work towards recovery in general. Just quitting drinking without looking at all the above factors is not a cure for "feeling down" in itself. Are you following a recovery plan of any kind by chance?

DreamCatcher17

Congrats on almost 4 weeks!!!

I wasn't feeling "normal" until about 3 months. I still have little fog moments, but they are far and few in between now. Keep working on sobriety, it'll get better!

totfit

Quitting drinking will only do so much. How well you feel depends more over time as to what you are doing for yourself. Healthy diet, exercise and proper rest are the keystone to "feeling better". It does take a while for our brain Chemistry to re-adjust, but the above things will speed the process.

fini

there really is no "this is how i should feel/ be by now".
there are some very generalized "stages".
it's best to accept how you ARE in fact feeling right now/ where you are at, and go from there.

fini

https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...ml#post3836936 ("stages" of recovery)

waynetheking

You should be feeling great, your not 6 feet under!
Congrats on 4 weeks. That's AWESOME.
Keep going, give it time. Your healing. It's that simple. Nothing else.

Dave42001

Nice job on 30 days this weekend!!! Kudos to you! Keep up the great work!

Nesta0601

Congrats on going on 4 weeks, and like everyone else said we're all different. The important thing is to stay the course as that is what is important and the rest will fall in place when its ready to fall in place

smithjr

Absolutely agree!!!

Rar

This was very helpful to me. Thanks.

Dee74

Hi Sherlock - I was pretty ill my first 30 days. I figured I'd really battered my body around.

My next thirty days were a lot better, and by the 30 after that (90 days) I felt pretty good - hope thats the case for you too

D

Stayingsassy

I didn't feel good until my 4th month. I knew I was done with alcohol on my first day though, so it was just riding out a rough storm. Suddenly I was going about my day and realized I was better. It takes time. But you'll get there.

Berrybean

I felt bloomin terrible at a month in. Thankfully that led me to giving AA a go and the experience, strength and hope I found there have me some relief. Later I started to feel rubbish again, about 5 months in and I'd say my rock bottom came at about 6 months. That pushed me to actually start working on my recovery aside from showing up to meetings and waiting to feel better. That's when the magic really started to happen.

I don't think time is so important as what we're willing to actually DO in recovery. Stopping drinking is all very well, but if nothing aside from that changes we are selling ourselves short.

BB

Maudcat

Yah, felt better after a month, took around 3 months for me to feel normal again.
Cravings lasted quite a bit longer, but I’m okay now, almost 5 years in.

dybehfar

Hi Sherlock,

I felt physically fine after 1 month, but definitely had periods of extreme lethargy and lack of motivation. I would experience days where I was on top of my game at work, and the next day I would not be. Emotions ran all over the place. Brain fog would creep in every 2-3 days. It got better progressively. Around 4 months I was getting a bit frustrated that I was not consistently feeling better at least mentally. Someone here posted a timeline (I will try and find it) that pointed out that I would still be experiencing some protracted withdrawal symptoms between months 5-6 so I kept on going. It did get better in this time period, so I kept going.

So now I just keep going and it gets better every single week that goes by. Life is still filled with challenges and I suffer from bouts of anxiety but they are less and my response to them has smoothed out a great deal.

So long story short. Have faith and just keep on going.

Outonthetiles

Congrats on four weeks!
I STILL had brain fog for months and months after I got sober, particularly with driving directions. It really took a long time to mentally recover.

FeelingGreat

I concentrated on the feeling of waking up with no regrets from the night before (hence my SR name). I suggest you spend a moment reflecting on how well you're doing and how every day will see you closer to your goals.

Apart from that, you may be feeling down because you no longer have alcohol as a mask for your emotions or stress. This does pass if you stick to it. I suggest you look at your nutrition and exercise, find something that relaxes you like yoga, and if you still feel flat after another 4 weeks, talk to your doctor.

You really can congratulate yourself and consider this as part of the journey.

CreativeThinker

A month in I still wasn't 100%. I know it's hard right now but patience is key. I found that setting goals outside of staying sober helped a lot. For instance, I began a workout routine again. The exercise not only helped me feel relaxed and focused, but getting into shape was a wonderful reward. Staying busy and keeping my mind active was truly helpful.

SnazzyDresser

You should feel like you're saving your own life and are off to a great start by not drinking for a month.