gr8t2bme

Hi,

I've been 39 days alcohol free and I feel great. I have been having haunting thoughts and I don't like them. Visions of horrible experiences I've had when I was drinking would just pop up out of nowhere and stop me in my tracks where I become so consumed by them and get a haunting feeling that comes over me. Is this normal? AM I finally seeing the dark side of drinking?
Has anyone else experienced this?
Thank you all for your support

Theresa

least

I too used to get horrible unpleasant thoughts out of nowhere. Visions of what I'd done or was doing when drinking. Mostly it was thoughts of how much I hated what I'd become from drinking.

I'm glad to say that those thoughts went away after a few months and rarely bother me any more. Give it time. You are still healing and learning to live 'normally'. It will get better.

Anna

Yes, definitely!

I was plagued with thoughts like that for a long time. They would keep popping into my head as I was going about my day. It was really hard. But, it will get better. I found that journalling helped me a lot.

LawMama

That happened to me and still does from time to time (I have about 77 days). I found myself repeating the serenity prayer a lot because, well, we can't change the past. It gets better~!

DayTrader

Sure it is. Not everyone views them as visions......some will call it the re-awakening of their consciousness to reality while others will say it's just "the disease" trying to drag you back to a drink.

Whatever it IS it's not fun. I found they didn't go away on their own. I had to be proactive to deal with that stuff or I knew what was going to come next.... I'd be back in a bottle.

Check out Caribbean's post: http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-my-story.html There are some comments in there about "restless, irritable, & discontent" that you might be able to identify.

handyandy

yeah! i had those feeling heaps in early recovery. i used to get so stressed about the things I had done in the past, they occasionally still pop into my head, but they don't hold strong emotions anymore.

those thoughts are just the product of anxiety. i know they're uncomfortable but they're nothing to be fearful of, they're just thoughts, and everytime you have them, remind yourself of this.

SSIL75

I was actually going to make a post about this very thing! I am having the same issue. I think I thought I was such a 'functioning' alcoholic but now that I'm sober all the dysfunction is really flooding into my brain and I'm seeing it for what it was.