tryingtolive

So after you guys quit did you look better physically? I mean probably you did because you cared more but I mean did you...oh, I don't know have better skin, hair, ect. because after you quit drinking having no alcohol in your system made you look better? I consider myself to be attractive but since drinking my looks haven't been all that good (red splotches on face, acne). Now that I quit can I expect to look better? I sure hope so.

Kellye C

I was bloated before I quit drinking because my kidneys could not filter all the poison I was dumping in there. I also had an unhealthy color. In sobriety I lost that bloated look and my color is nice and healthy now. After a couple of months is when people started telling me I was looking healthier. I have seen it in other people as well.

Hang in there, don't drink, it DOES get better! Drink lots of water to help your body flush out the toxins and eat a healthy diet. Take lots of B vitamins and a good multi vitamin. Take good care of your body and it will respond.

Hugs,
Kellye

2dayzmuse

I looked a fright when I was drinking. I too was bloated, always had dark puffy bags under my eyes and was drained from any color in my face. I also let my roots go. Dear lord I had about 2 inch of grey showing. For shame...

Kellye C

Oh hell Muze, I still in sobriety tend to let my roots go ROFLMAO!!!!!! We won't even go into how much grey I have for a 40 year old fun and foxy lady!

Sorry, couldn't resist!
Kellye

earlybird

I looked awful. I had pasty white skin. Down to about 117 lbs. (at 5ft 6"). People said I looked like Mr Burns from The Simpsons. Acne and red blotches. When I quit,...yes, my appearance did get better, but, I made a promise to myself to make my health one of my top priorities. I joined the gym, and have been weight training for two years every day. I probably can count on one hand the number of days Ive missed going to the gym in two years. I now weigh 160 lbs. My skin looks very healthy and I eat well. So,..yes, quitting drinking, alone, made me look better almost immediately, but it also, gave me the motivation to take it further.

tryingtolive

sweet, thanks for the hope!! I am happy with my body, but my hair is not a smooth silky as it used to be (alcohol???) and my skin on my face has a little redness (splotches) and I have ocasional pimples, some of of which are just huge.

As far as my hair. I seems like it is dried out or something. That is the best I can describe it. Kinda has me puzzled.

aasharon90

Hi Im Sharon and I'm an Alcoholic.

For me my looks decieved eveyone. No one ever thought i had a drinking problem. Boy did i conceal that but good. Even fooled myself so i thought. : ) I guess it was the way i was raised esp. with so much disfunction in my family. So I thought. My mom, had that Dr. Jeckle Mr. Hyde personality that when she was went to work she was very elegant and stylish looking. The best of everything so i thought. Appearance wise. But unveil the lady then there was the monster. Anyway...i was brought up to act appropriately, and where children should be seen and not heard. Becareful for what u do or say because people will talk. Or what will the neighbors say. So i was and still am always worried what people say and think of me. When i went into treatment, i always went to group made up. Dressed nice. make-up etc. They strongely encouraged me to come back to group for a day with out all the fru fru. I tried and was sooooo into self and just new i was the ugliest one in group. They eventually laughed with me as i tried to cover up my feelings, but they could tell i was wearing a "mask". Im still a work in progress right now as i hope some of those layers of vanity are slowly peeling away. I still think we should strive to look our best inside and out. A smile most of all is worth more than words can say. Anyway....u probably won't catch me at the grocery store working without make-up or lipstick. : )

Thanks for letting me share here.

Peter

Physical appearance was never high on my agenda as an alcoholic.

Have you ever tried tying your shoelaces or combing your hair with a hangover?

Not only will your physical appearance start to improve but a sparkle will return to your eyes and you will smile more. You will find renewed pride in your attire and begin to take joy in treating your body with respect.

rose petals

hey trying to live--
im laura, alcoholic--definately my appearance was in the whole while drinking --my hair was falling out--lack of vitamins--i was sortof pale grey my eyes were dull --dark circles under my eyes--my teeth were falling apart from throwing up all the time and there is so much sugar in alcohol--i am 5'9'' tall and got down to 120 lbs--i went to treatment in 2002 and when i walked up people actually shuddered--i looked and basically was at deaths door--(this is how i looked after some yrs off daily drinking--when i was 17 i won a beauty pageant--and ended up like this--now--i have thick strong hair --healthy weight--take a multi and calcium vitamins--eat well--try to do tae bo each day--rest plenty my eyes-- are bright--my skin is bright--working on teeth--i get dental this year so that will be taken care of--i feel healthy--life is good--the altrernative is truly horrifying for a million reasons not just appearance wise--take care and please hang in there--write us if you need us
Laura

Orion

Either I look a lot better since I quit or it's the spring air, because I get a lot more of those "looks" from the ladies than I did a few months ago. I like to think it's the former. Whatever the case, losing 25 pounds, dropping from a 37 inch to 34 inch waist, and being able to wear a t-shirt without feeling embarrassed couldn't have hurt. If this keeps up for another three months, I think I might get a job as a male exotic dancer

The only problem at this point is that the pants I got around Christmas are too big for me now.

j'ade d'arcy

When I was using, my physical appearance reflected the abuse I was doing to my body....I was bloated in the face, but malnourished in the body. I had blotchy red skin and often a red nose and always red eyes. Acne breakouts on my face and some sort of undiagnosed skin rash on my upper arms...doctor thinks it was from alcohol "seeping" out of the skin. Dry hair that fell out in clumps and teeth were in trouble from vomiting and neglect.

Not to mention the unexplained bruises, cuts and other minor injuries that seemed to go hand in hand with my blackouts.

I look at two pictures quite frequently in recovery..one was taken while on a bender and I was blacked out in it....the other one was taken a little over a year into sobriety...it's true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Even though I despise the black out picture, I will not throw it away..it is a good reminder.

Pick-a-name

OT,a bit--j'ade d'arcy: Glad you are doing so much better! You got me thinking. I was looking thru some old photos the other day and what struck me was the calm, peaceful look on AH. I found a more recent one, and put it on our refrigerator...........to remind me that THIS is how he is now, not the guy I have in my mind. (we have been married 27yr) He isn't living with us and I forget what he has become.........the anger,anxiety, temper,etc,etc......you can see it in his eyes when he drank in the past and in this picture. I can always see a switch flip in the eyes; the "other" personality is back.....I do not like that one, nor so I want to be around him. Guess that must be why that picture is still up. Thanks for causing me to think about this.

AH still drinking; looking less and less healthy all the time and in actuality IS having health problems now for the first time. Surprisingly since he has moved out, the rest of us have all three been much,much healthier and have not even needed to see a doctor in months and months. We used to be there all the time. hmm.

NoMoBeer

I went from the Sta-Puft Marshmallow man to Triathlete.

No kidding, I was so puffy and bloated, at my highest weighed 252 lbs. I had huge bags under my eyes, and was just sluggish...

Now I weigh around 185 -- I still have bags under my eyes, but that's a family inheritance, and not due to drinking ...

No doubt we look better when not drinking -- most people I haven't seen in a few years don't recognize me... But more importantly, I feel better mentally, physically and spiritually.

Ken

Kellye C

I don't know if this is the appropriate topic to share this on but I thought of it as I was reading through the responses. I had occasion to go to a beer joint last month to pick up some rodeo tickets from my dad. I went to the beer joint because his gf owns and runs it and that is where he spends all his free time. This was the first time I had seen my dad in two years and the first time since I got sober. Last time we were together both of us were shaking like leaves because we hadn't had our daily drink. Only difference was he had a beer and felt better yet I couldn't because I had to go back to work. I don't have a super close relationship with him so I don't see him all that often. When I do I am always taken aback at how different he looks. Now some of it is due to age because neither one of us is getting any younger (I'm 40 he's 61) but some of it I know is because of the drinking. He has gained a lot of weight, he is puffy and has bad color and a LOT of broken capillaries on his face. That scares the hell out of me because I have quite a few of those myself and I KNOW it was from the violent throwing up I did when drinking.

Anyway, sitting on a barstool in a bar in sobriety, sipping on a Diet Coke I realized that that could have been my future, my life, sitting down at the neighborhood bar daily. The women there, the older ones, have such a "hard" look about them and that could have been me. Thank God I quit after 3.5 years of abuse and still look younger than my age.

I couldn't get out of that place fast enough. My disease was going beserk and my sober self was struggling for control. I got out and ran like my *ss was on fire to a meeting.

Thank God I don't have to live like that today!
Kellye

jmhs002

I didn't think that I looked that bad, but I can't count how many times people have mentioned "you look good" since I stopped boozin - coincidence? I don't think so. I feel like a different person too.
JMHS

midgetcop

I hope that I'll eventually start to look a little better....I'm only on day 2 though, so I'm not expecting any miracles yet.

I find that I'm very pale, my complexion always goes back and forth between clear and acne-ridden, and the areas under my eyes are dark. Luckily, I've managed to keep the weight fairly normal with cardio and weight training.

All in all I'll happier when I start feeling better on the inside, and hopefully the physical appearance will follow!

Little Missy

I agree with Peter. It's that sparkle that returns to our eyes!! The rest of it does get better too, but I am more happy with the way I feel inside!!

Sugasnaps

I have always had a care about putting on makeup and wearing the right clothes. It was all part of my masquerade in keeping my problem hidden. No one guessed I had an alcohol problem. I still care about my general hygene and appearance but now I do it for me and not for keep up appearances. My sparkle is back in my soul.

I feel TONS better - mentally and physically. Some days I look in the mirror now and I think "bleh" but that's normal. Some days I look in the mirror now and I think "Lose some weight Fat-so" but that's normal. Somedays I look in the mirror and I like who I am and what I see. That is a miracle.

Hang in there cuz your own miracles are just around the corner!

Suga

daisy_j

I once had a co-worker tell me, in front of my boss, that I looked like I was about to keel over. Of course, I was so horribly hungover that I could barely stand up but most people pretended not to notice.

I went to get a facial once a few years ago and the aestitician (?) scraped off all of my makeup and asked me what had happened to my poor skin. Why was it so red? Well, of course I was hungover and still had that alcoholic flush from the night before. I didn't fess up to it, but she did advise me to stop using "any products that contain alcohol" so my face would not get so irritated. Did I listen? Of course not!

I know that when I first got married, I was a size 3 at best and after more than five years of drinking (mainly beer) almost every single night, I can barely squeeze myself in to a 10 and that's on a good day. My husband also drinks and has gained over 50 pounds. Whenever we see pictures of ourselves from not so many years ago, we both go absolutely quiet. It's really quite sad.

Seeing as how I have never made it 3 days without drinking (before this week) I am not really sure what physical changes occur, but I would imagine that it can only get better from here!

GJ

Cathy31

OMG, it's amazing how great we can look when we look after ourselves!!

Me too, bloated, tired, dark circles, overweight, etc etc

Now (even if I do say so myself! ) I've never looked better...everything eyes, hair, weight loss, skin, etc etc Literally my mom says that I 'glow ' - and I feel like it is coming from inside cause I am so grateful and blessed to be sober!

Cathy31
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