Stomach issues, heres my story(26 year old alcoholic for 4 years)
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Join Date: Jun 2019
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Stomach issues, heres my story(26 year old alcoholic for 4 years)
My story is long so if you dont want to read I posted my question in the second paragraph.
So my alcoholism developed about 4 years ago when i was 22 years old. I deal with some pretty bad anxiety and depression and I am a hypochondriac which is the reason this nightmare I call life all started. I'm not gonna get into what exactly wss the disease i thought I had but I started drinking very heavily because of it. We are talking about a half gallon of cheap vodka every other day mixed in drinks. I went down hill very quickly. The only reason i got away with it was because I,worked at a liquor store (go figure) and I was able,to keep my buzz going there. Fast forward a few months and i ended up in the hospital due to withdraws then an outpatient program at the hospital. I think I quit drinking for a period of about a few months then got right back to it but instead of drinking all day turned into just heavily aftet work, something like a pint of vodka every day after work. Eventually I got into another dark place (depression) sometime in 2016 and decided to start drinking around the clock again. Something like a fith per day starting when I wake up. This time straight liquor because it was easiest and quickest and I could hide it. Fast forward to the end of 2016 and I ended up in rehab this time as my mother made me go. Rehab was good for me. 3 weeks total, got completely sober and felt fantastic. Got out around the Christmas holiday and started drinking heavely again because alcohol was apart of me by this point and I didnt want to live without it. By april I went to the beach with my GF who had stuck by me through all this, bless her heart. She ended up dumping me there and I went on a serious binder for about 5 days jumping from hotel room to hotel room crying my days away and drinking myself to oblivion. Ended up making it home somehow and also somehow was able to make it through the withdraws and sustained my job as I had a decent job at this point that I could not drink all day at(still drank after work of course). I then moved out of my mothers house in april of 2017 as I got a promotion (somehow) and was finacially able to do so. I rented a room from a guy who lived on the water and I continued to drink very heavily as I had some young roommates who were also alcoholics. So I continued drink very heavily, mostly pounding beers mixed with my new go to jim beam fire(5.99 a pint, what a deal). By this point around may of 2017 I started to develope consistent acid reflux. So I would chomp on tums just about every day. This all continued until about September when i decided to get to the gym and decided to take that very swriously and miraculously quit drinking all together. I did however take on a pretty serious bulking diet and was eating constant food around the clock, some of it healthy abd some of it not so healthy. The acid reflux reduced but did not go away completely. This lasted about 3 months until I got injured and had to stop working out. So back to the booze I went around December of 2017. Started drinking heavely after work again. Usually a pint and 1 or 2 tall boys of malt liquor in the span of like 5 hours. Acid reflux continued and got progressivly worse and back to the tums I went. Now into 2018 sometime around may I developed some dull stomach pain and that scared me. I think by that point I quit drinking completely again and it went away within a month. Then of course back to drinking I went. By this point I cut out liquor and only drank malt liquor beer at night. In august same deal I developed stomach issues again and quit drinking again and started working out. Another injury later and back to drinking. Been drinking only malt liquor since then up until a 6 weeks ago when pain came back and I decided to quit. Got about 3 weeks sobriety and good diet. I also decided to take a OTC PPI and that helped for the first couple weeks. Stopped taking it as the directions said it was only advised to take it for 2 weeks. Pain came back and after about a month of good diet and no drinking the dull pain and burping continued. Now here I am a couple weeks since then and I still seem to have some pain usually in the evening and some infrequent belching.
My question is, and i know you guys cant give doctor advice but my question is did any of you guys take longer than a month of quiting alcohol and dieting for the symptoms to completely go away? Most people ive seen say their symptoms vanish after about 3 weeks to a month. Some earlier than that. I'm starting to think I have H Pylori so I'm gonna go get tested for that next week. Also how important is dieting with gastritis? Ive heard some say as long as you quit alcohol you shouldnt have to worry about a diet even though from my experience the diet affects me even when abstaining from alcohol.
Cliff notes of my life story: I've abused alcohol HEAVILY off and on for the past 4 years. I am now 26 years old with stomach issues that dont seem to want to go away.
So my alcoholism developed about 4 years ago when i was 22 years old. I deal with some pretty bad anxiety and depression and I am a hypochondriac which is the reason this nightmare I call life all started. I'm not gonna get into what exactly wss the disease i thought I had but I started drinking very heavily because of it. We are talking about a half gallon of cheap vodka every other day mixed in drinks. I went down hill very quickly. The only reason i got away with it was because I,worked at a liquor store (go figure) and I was able,to keep my buzz going there. Fast forward a few months and i ended up in the hospital due to withdraws then an outpatient program at the hospital. I think I quit drinking for a period of about a few months then got right back to it but instead of drinking all day turned into just heavily aftet work, something like a pint of vodka every day after work. Eventually I got into another dark place (depression) sometime in 2016 and decided to start drinking around the clock again. Something like a fith per day starting when I wake up. This time straight liquor because it was easiest and quickest and I could hide it. Fast forward to the end of 2016 and I ended up in rehab this time as my mother made me go. Rehab was good for me. 3 weeks total, got completely sober and felt fantastic. Got out around the Christmas holiday and started drinking heavely again because alcohol was apart of me by this point and I didnt want to live without it. By april I went to the beach with my GF who had stuck by me through all this, bless her heart. She ended up dumping me there and I went on a serious binder for about 5 days jumping from hotel room to hotel room crying my days away and drinking myself to oblivion. Ended up making it home somehow and also somehow was able to make it through the withdraws and sustained my job as I had a decent job at this point that I could not drink all day at(still drank after work of course). I then moved out of my mothers house in april of 2017 as I got a promotion (somehow) and was finacially able to do so. I rented a room from a guy who lived on the water and I continued to drink very heavily as I had some young roommates who were also alcoholics. So I continued drink very heavily, mostly pounding beers mixed with my new go to jim beam fire(5.99 a pint, what a deal). By this point around may of 2017 I started to develope consistent acid reflux. So I would chomp on tums just about every day. This all continued until about September when i decided to get to the gym and decided to take that very swriously and miraculously quit drinking all together. I did however take on a pretty serious bulking diet and was eating constant food around the clock, some of it healthy abd some of it not so healthy. The acid reflux reduced but did not go away completely. This lasted about 3 months until I got injured and had to stop working out. So back to the booze I went around December of 2017. Started drinking heavely after work again. Usually a pint and 1 or 2 tall boys of malt liquor in the span of like 5 hours. Acid reflux continued and got progressivly worse and back to the tums I went. Now into 2018 sometime around may I developed some dull stomach pain and that scared me. I think by that point I quit drinking completely again and it went away within a month. Then of course back to drinking I went. By this point I cut out liquor and only drank malt liquor beer at night. In august same deal I developed stomach issues again and quit drinking again and started working out. Another injury later and back to drinking. Been drinking only malt liquor since then up until a 6 weeks ago when pain came back and I decided to quit. Got about 3 weeks sobriety and good diet. I also decided to take a OTC PPI and that helped for the first couple weeks. Stopped taking it as the directions said it was only advised to take it for 2 weeks. Pain came back and after about a month of good diet and no drinking the dull pain and burping continued. Now here I am a couple weeks since then and I still seem to have some pain usually in the evening and some infrequent belching.
My question is, and i know you guys cant give doctor advice but my question is did any of you guys take longer than a month of quiting alcohol and dieting for the symptoms to completely go away? Most people ive seen say their symptoms vanish after about 3 weeks to a month. Some earlier than that. I'm starting to think I have H Pylori so I'm gonna go get tested for that next week. Also how important is dieting with gastritis? Ive heard some say as long as you quit alcohol you shouldnt have to worry about a diet even though from my experience the diet affects me even when abstaining from alcohol.
Cliff notes of my life story: I've abused alcohol HEAVILY off and on for the past 4 years. I am now 26 years old with stomach issues that dont seem to want to go away.
Last edited by ToughLife19; 06-26-2019 at 04:46 PM. Reason: Forgot a detail in the title
Forum Leader
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 16,945
Welcome to SR toughlife. I had some pretty severe GI issues in my last years of drinking and also after quitting. I couldn't give you an exact number of days as to how long it took me to recover in that area, but it was defintely several months. If you haven't seen a doctor or a GI specialist I'd recommend it. Your issues could be due to your drinking or they could be completely unrelated - but only a medical doctor can tell you for sure.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 5
Wow thank you for the quick reply! I am without insurance at the moment so any medical help I get needs to be calculated and I need to go the cheap routes first. I am gonna get an H Pylori test first that will cost me about $160. Wether it comes up negative or not I still might schedule an apointment with a GI doctor and give him my full story. As an endoscopy isnt exactly out of the question its gonna have to be a last resort as it will cost me around $2500 out of pocket which i don't exactly have at the moment but could probably come up with within the next month or 2.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 1,312
Wow, that’s quite a long time dealing with GI issues. I would second Scott that a medical workup would be in order. Perhaps the cheapest route would be a check up with the dr and go from there?
I have GI and Liver issues, exacerbated by alcoholism. Not sure if they were caused by the drinking but it doesn’t really matter anymore. I have to follow my doctors advice to keep symptoms at bay now.
Good of luck to you.
I have GI and Liver issues, exacerbated by alcoholism. Not sure if they were caused by the drinking but it doesn’t really matter anymore. I have to follow my doctors advice to keep symptoms at bay now.
Good of luck to you.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,380
Hey again TR,
I understand the expense but if I was dealing with GI issues for that long I'd want to know whats causing it?
As far as diet goes these days I can't eat some foods I was always able to as a younger guy - excessive oil or spice can really mess me up internally.
hope you get some answers soon,
D
I understand the expense but if I was dealing with GI issues for that long I'd want to know whats causing it?
As far as diet goes these days I can't eat some foods I was always able to as a younger guy - excessive oil or spice can really mess me up internally.
hope you get some answers soon,
D
Member
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 3,027
Hi toughlife,
I was reading through your story and so many memories of my constant, unrelenting GI distress came back to me. Heavy beers and whiskey, especially would cause severe acid reflux, liver pain, sometimes vomiting, so much that in the morning on my heavy use weekends you would find a bottle of Liquid antacid (tums and other chewables stopped working) next to my empties or liquor bottles because I would binge drink and then down a bunch of the antacid. I still remember the chalky taste...
It’s been awhile, because I haven’t needed to buy antacid for a long time now.
I lived with the hell of upper GI pain daily for a long, long, long time. Sobriety healed it. It took months. My liver pain and reflux went away after a couple months, 2-3 months maybe. Chances are sobriety will heal you, if you are ready to do what it takes to commit to a sober lifestyle.
You can and should get a workup, but you may not need those meds anymore after enough sobriety.
You also mention bodybuilding diets which I’ve also done. It’s a lot of meals, and a lot of what feels like force feeding sometimes. The amount of carbohydrate and large amounts of protein 5-6 times a day can worsen reflux also. Being on a more natural eating schedule dictated by hunger and lack of GI distress, rather than routine meals can allow for those natural fasting periods: the night of sleep, the hours between meals, etc; can help calm things.
It’s one of those situations that is so helped by sobriety: removing a daily gastric irritant, that you will have to find out once you get sober if meds are needed.
If you said “I keep pouring gasoline down my throat and man I have so much reflux” the first thing people will say is “stop pouring gasoline down your throat.”
I was reading through your story and so many memories of my constant, unrelenting GI distress came back to me. Heavy beers and whiskey, especially would cause severe acid reflux, liver pain, sometimes vomiting, so much that in the morning on my heavy use weekends you would find a bottle of Liquid antacid (tums and other chewables stopped working) next to my empties or liquor bottles because I would binge drink and then down a bunch of the antacid. I still remember the chalky taste...
It’s been awhile, because I haven’t needed to buy antacid for a long time now.
I lived with the hell of upper GI pain daily for a long, long, long time. Sobriety healed it. It took months. My liver pain and reflux went away after a couple months, 2-3 months maybe. Chances are sobriety will heal you, if you are ready to do what it takes to commit to a sober lifestyle.
You can and should get a workup, but you may not need those meds anymore after enough sobriety.
You also mention bodybuilding diets which I’ve also done. It’s a lot of meals, and a lot of what feels like force feeding sometimes. The amount of carbohydrate and large amounts of protein 5-6 times a day can worsen reflux also. Being on a more natural eating schedule dictated by hunger and lack of GI distress, rather than routine meals can allow for those natural fasting periods: the night of sleep, the hours between meals, etc; can help calm things.
It’s one of those situations that is so helped by sobriety: removing a daily gastric irritant, that you will have to find out once you get sober if meds are needed.
If you said “I keep pouring gasoline down my throat and man I have so much reflux” the first thing people will say is “stop pouring gasoline down your throat.”
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 5
Wow thank you for reading my story, I know it was kind of long Lol. Its nice to be able to relate with another persons situation. One thing I can say is I need to get serious about my sobriety. This every time I start feeling ok then celebrating with a night of heavy drinking is not working. Ive honestly only had 2 nights of drinking in the past 2 months but they were both 14-16 beers deep in an 8 hour window. Obviously one night of drinking is all it takes to set me back. So now I am only about 10 days sober since my last night of binge drinking and I will have a true test on the 3rd as my father throws a big party for family and friends. Being that I seem to have social anxiety this will be tough but for my bodies sake I will abstain or i will leave the party if I have to.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 3,027
How long do you have reflux after a big drinking day? Days or weeks? I noticed my reflux most during abstinence. At times it was unbearable and nothing worked.
That can help provide motivation to avoid it.
I have social anxiety also. It took a long period of sobriety to get comfortable not using alcohol to cope with social situations. Since getting sober I don’t look people in the eye as well. People have noticed it and commented on that, I don’t make good eye contact anymore. Sobriety is a journey and a process, not an immediate fix. One thing we do know is if people are noticing problems that may be related to drinking, there’s no way to know if it’s drinking related if you do not quit drinking. Throwing meds at a problem: antidepressants, anti anxiety meds, proton pump inhibitors, antacids, etc...will never fix what ails a person if they do not stop binge drinking.
That can help provide motivation to avoid it.
I have social anxiety also. It took a long period of sobriety to get comfortable not using alcohol to cope with social situations. Since getting sober I don’t look people in the eye as well. People have noticed it and commented on that, I don’t make good eye contact anymore. Sobriety is a journey and a process, not an immediate fix. One thing we do know is if people are noticing problems that may be related to drinking, there’s no way to know if it’s drinking related if you do not quit drinking. Throwing meds at a problem: antidepressants, anti anxiety meds, proton pump inhibitors, antacids, etc...will never fix what ails a person if they do not stop binge drinking.
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
Wow, you started drinking at the same age I stopped. I should have had a sign tattooed on my forehead, "Instant Lunatic, just add Alcohol"!
My physical damage was malnutrition and brain damage. Teenagers with developing brains don't do well with alcoholism. On top of that I was somewhat emotionally ********, and just a tiny bit crazy, or so I am told.
I drank because booze made me feel like I could handle life, gave me courage and confidence, until it turned on me. Sounds like you drank for slightly different reasons, but the solution would be the same for us, that is finding a way to live that is both satisfactory to us, and does not require alcohol. It is like find a new solution to the problem of life.
It can be done. At 26 the best years of you life are ahead of you. That is what they told me, and it was the truth.
My physical damage was malnutrition and brain damage. Teenagers with developing brains don't do well with alcoholism. On top of that I was somewhat emotionally ********, and just a tiny bit crazy, or so I am told.
I drank because booze made me feel like I could handle life, gave me courage and confidence, until it turned on me. Sounds like you drank for slightly different reasons, but the solution would be the same for us, that is finding a way to live that is both satisfactory to us, and does not require alcohol. It is like find a new solution to the problem of life.
It can be done. At 26 the best years of you life are ahead of you. That is what they told me, and it was the truth.
~sb
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: MD
Posts: 15,960
I had serious issues and named my stomach (digestive tract) Igor. Igor hated when I drank alcohol. He wouldn't tolerate spicy food at all. I can eat spicy food today with no problems!
Getting sober was not easy, but I did it (8 years now) and I can tell you that Igor is happy today. All of him. It took me several months to feel better since I didn't get there in one night!
Give time time and heal well. Do not pick up any drinks at all and heal!!! See your doctor for a full work-up to make sure you didn't damage yourself.
hugs
Getting sober was not easy, but I did it (8 years now) and I can tell you that Igor is happy today. All of him. It took me several months to feel better since I didn't get there in one night!
Give time time and heal well. Do not pick up any drinks at all and heal!!! See your doctor for a full work-up to make sure you didn't damage yourself.
hugs
Member
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 363
The advice sounds so easy I know;
1) Stop drinking
2) Diet and exercise
3) Hydrate
4) Take care of yourself mentally
Without giving medical advice, I will strongly emphasize that alcohol is the silent contributor to MANY problems. Stop. You will be better off. If it's hard to stop then look at avenues to change your life. It might require a complete 180 degree turn in your lifestyle, I don't know. But you can do it. If you're 26 and posting medical questions on a forum worried about alcohol, it's time to change things up. I mean that.
Your story sounds familiar to mine, and without giving medical advice...the things you are worried about are treatable and the cure is eliminating alcohol. I know I'm being harsh, but it's because I can see your path because I was on it. I believe if you focus on the root problem things will work out. You have great insight in your posting and show true promise. You got this.
1) Stop drinking
2) Diet and exercise
3) Hydrate
4) Take care of yourself mentally
Without giving medical advice, I will strongly emphasize that alcohol is the silent contributor to MANY problems. Stop. You will be better off. If it's hard to stop then look at avenues to change your life. It might require a complete 180 degree turn in your lifestyle, I don't know. But you can do it. If you're 26 and posting medical questions on a forum worried about alcohol, it's time to change things up. I mean that.
Your story sounds familiar to mine, and without giving medical advice...the things you are worried about are treatable and the cure is eliminating alcohol. I know I'm being harsh, but it's because I can see your path because I was on it. I believe if you focus on the root problem things will work out. You have great insight in your posting and show true promise. You got this.
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