1 year sober PAWS
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 2
1 year sober PAWS
A few weeks before my 1 year anniversary my PAWS symptoms really came back for vengeance! They have been as bad as when they started a couple of weeks before my 3 month sobriety point. I have had intense anxiety just like at the beginning it has been terrifying. I know it occurs around 3,6 and 9 months 1 and 2 year sobriety dates are when these symptoms can peak and so far my experiences of PAWS has matched the timeline.
The first 2 months into sobriety I never felt better, so motivated and happy my mental health was so much better. After that first episode of PAWS I haven't had the same continuity of feeling good and seem to have low level PAWS a lot of the time until it hits these dates and it sky rockets.
please tell me it gets better 😭 it seems hardly worth the effort to stay sober if my mental health feels worse than when I was drinking!
Anyone else have PAWS at around the 1 year mark?
The first 2 months into sobriety I never felt better, so motivated and happy my mental health was so much better. After that first episode of PAWS I haven't had the same continuity of feeling good and seem to have low level PAWS a lot of the time until it hits these dates and it sky rockets.
please tell me it gets better 😭 it seems hardly worth the effort to stay sober if my mental health feels worse than when I was drinking!
Anyone else have PAWS at around the 1 year mark?
Member
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 3,027
One year mark and two year mark were just beasts.
Depression, brain fog, the “what if’s,” weariness with sobriety, romancing the drink, desperate thoughts popping in, you name it.
Didn’t drink though, so here I sit at just over two years. It just isn’t what I do any more. It’s been a long long time since I’ve used alcohol. At this point, sobriety is normal, and drinking is abnormal; and I still identify as an alcoholic who cannot drink like most people I know can.
I don’t know what to tell you...because basically, I just ride the strugglebus, and hope it either passes or I get some momentary relief here and there. All those self care things they tell you to do actually work, you know. Exercise, avoiding cross addiction, tending to diet, sleep hygiene, reduce contact with toxic people, reduce stress, change your schedule. It all helps, it’s just that sometimes it’s hard to get off the strugglebus long enough to do the self care. So sometimes, I just go and hide for awhile.
Good luck. Drinking isn’t the answer, whatever the question. Drinking lands you right back to day one needing to start all over again, and it’s not worth it.
Depression, brain fog, the “what if’s,” weariness with sobriety, romancing the drink, desperate thoughts popping in, you name it.
Didn’t drink though, so here I sit at just over two years. It just isn’t what I do any more. It’s been a long long time since I’ve used alcohol. At this point, sobriety is normal, and drinking is abnormal; and I still identify as an alcoholic who cannot drink like most people I know can.
I don’t know what to tell you...because basically, I just ride the strugglebus, and hope it either passes or I get some momentary relief here and there. All those self care things they tell you to do actually work, you know. Exercise, avoiding cross addiction, tending to diet, sleep hygiene, reduce contact with toxic people, reduce stress, change your schedule. It all helps, it’s just that sometimes it’s hard to get off the strugglebus long enough to do the self care. So sometimes, I just go and hide for awhile.
Good luck. Drinking isn’t the answer, whatever the question. Drinking lands you right back to day one needing to start all over again, and it’s not worth it.
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 8,674
Sassy describes my experience too. Here's an article on PAWS that Dee shared when I was in my first yr and it described my experience and explained so much -
https://digital-dharma.net/post-acut...r-immediately/
Not drinking, working my AA program, support from IRL and people here...the path forward that I took which continues to be a great life today.
Great job on heading to the 1 yr mark- such an accomplishment. I definitely had to take it one day at a time then, and I considered myself in early recovery til roughly the 2 yr mark. This is a lifetime "thing" for me so at 3 yr 7+ mo I consider my next significant marker 5 yrs.
Keep going. Glad you are here.
https://digital-dharma.net/post-acut...r-immediately/
Not drinking, working my AA program, support from IRL and people here...the path forward that I took which continues to be a great life today.
Great job on heading to the 1 yr mark- such an accomplishment. I definitely had to take it one day at a time then, and I considered myself in early recovery til roughly the 2 yr mark. This is a lifetime "thing" for me so at 3 yr 7+ mo I consider my next significant marker 5 yrs.
Keep going. Glad you are here.
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