sobercalmwishes

I'm new to this, so bear with me, I usually can't get past 7 days because of insomnia and irritability from it, and I give up, but I accidentally happened upon a few helpful things that are helping me greatly this time around (about my millionth I guess if I was counting.)

For starters I stay far away from ibuprofen, I discovered this a few weeks ago, that it causes me severe leg tingling and aches and depression. My friend suggested I eliminate it and see what happened and my leg, foot and pain and tingling that I've had for a few years went away. It may just be me, and allergy, but who knows? I was using it to curb the effects of withdrawal and it helped me sleep a few hours.

Also, and even better, the new essential oil craze interested me, so I did a lot of research on my own (not wanting to be a part of a multi level marketing company) and bought a few essential oils at my local health food chain. I was doing this research initially for a family member's bad back pain, and I ended up mixing fractionated coconut oil (2Tbs) with ten drops of Lavender essential oil (French pure distilled you have to read the label) and 8 drops of Eucalyptus essential oil (pure distilled....again read the label to be sure) and I tested it on myself first, putting it on the bottom of my feet before bedtime (the skin on your feet apparently absorbs things nicely) and I noticed ((while I was still drinking)) that I would sleep through the entire night, dreamlessly. This is a first for me. I am wakeful even when I'm drinking. So, I have two days now and I used my lavender eucalyptus concoction and I do seem wakeful in the early hours after midnight probably when my body is looking for the alcohol, but then I doze off over and over again peacefully. I feel rested and calm. I am only sharing this in case anyone else wants to try it for themselves. I am a terrible skeptic and I don't like taking meds at all, I'm addicted enough to Chardonnay without adding anything else. I didn't even take the pain meds they gave me after my two children were born. I was so easily hooked on booze at an early age that I feared what I may do with anything else.

All that to say, if you're having trouble sleeping, or trouble with anxiety like I have, this is well worth a try. If you don't have a local health food store you can order these things online. Please do not ever take essential oils internally. They are meant to be inhaled or absorbed, they are 700 or so times more potent than the actual plant itself because of the distillation process and the amount of plants used to produce a few drops of oil.

I hope what I have found can help somebody get through the tough nights and anxiety of being new at getting clean from all this stuff we have loved for so long that doesn't work anymore.

Glad I found you all.
Have a blessed day!

PurpleKnight

Welcome to the Forum sobercalmwishes!!

Sounds like some really good tips, sleeping and anxiety are common causes of people going back to drinking, so if people can get over those hurdles it's worth it!!