APT

Well I made it through the weekend, however I did have a terrible night sleep. I have read about issues sleeping but this is the first time it actually happened to me. I don't remember what I was dreaming about but it was unsettling. I actually woke up wide awake. Once I was getting settled back in bed I thought I heard the door bell ring. I dismissed that and tried to sleep again but quickly panicked when I thought something was touching my arm. When I finally woke up later I felt like I just got out of a pool. Also the last few days I have been getting headaches for no reason. I am well hydrated since all I drink now is water.


I did manage an stay out of situations I may have wanted to have a drink. For example the rest of my family had dinner with the in-laws. I stayed home alone and resisted having a drink.

Question:
How long did it take for you stop having side effects from drinking?

Alcohol savings $118.05

Smokes savings $53.69

Resting heart rate 60

Alphabet

Nice job, APT! For me the first week was always the hardest part. That was the time I needed to be physically removed from alcohol, or else I would for sure relapse.

I can only speak for myself, but after that week point, I started to see improvement in my physical symptoms as well as my anxiety. Everyone is different, we won't all have the same response to withdrawal, but I started to feel like a human again after a solid 6 or 7 days.

Keep coming back, and keep it up!

Poppy79

60 resting heart rate is fit sounds like you have great health that will only get better the longer you abstain from booze and smokes.
I'm just over 4 months sober and I found it took me a few weeks to stop getting random headaches. I sleep much better than the first couple of weeks but I still have some nights where I am wide awake at 2.30am. I read a book which usually puts me right back to sleep.
My mood swings seemed to settle in month 2-3. I'm female though so they can flare up once a month lol, that's normal though.
So far I have saved over $3500 just from drinking.
I believe the first 30 days are the toughest, both mentally and physically.
Nowadays I don't think about drinking much, obviously I do when I am on this site but it's not that I want to drink, this site reinforces why I stopped and to keep up my momentum.
Have you got any plans in place like therapy, journaling, AA, exercise etc to keep you focused and sober?
I haven't tried AA, but I have lots of other tools for my sober tool box and have found them to be very important.
Coming to this site regularly is one of them

APT

Right now what is keeping me on track is a journal I keep to myself. Being a numbers guy I track everything. I can see by quitting I am better off. I have been going to the gym more and playing tennis again. For the most part I am staying away from the temptation as best as I can. I tried AA but I don't know if its right for me. Religion and addiction don't seem to mix for me. I commend anyone and know several that have gone into recovery as a result.

Temptation is everywhere in the world. I will try and pull strength anyway I can. This is why in only a week I really appreciate SR.

Alphabet

Those are all great things, no question - but from one analytical thinker to another, I have to say that there is no rationalizing away this affliction. For me, it continued to convince me otherwise, that I had this down, even though all the research I was doing to stay sober proved otherwise. I relapsed countless times because I thought I could outsmart my own illness. I never could, and I never want to fall for the delusion that I'll ever be able to.

Personally, the only thing that ended up helping me get and stay sober was AA. I fought it tooth and nail, tried everything under the sun to stay sober, but in the end it was the only thing that worked. I was happy to realize, too, that it is not a religious program, either, but a spiritual one. In fact, I myself am begrudgingly agnostic, leaning more towards atheist, and know of a few atheistic meetings around my area that fit the bill for a host of people I know that don't like the idea of religion in recovery, either.

There's also SMART recovery, which I found to be really helpful, precisely because they have largely analytical conversations about addiction and recovery in their meetings. So while AA keeps me grounded and honest, SMART keeps the analytical side of me engaged.

Whatever path to recovery you find is right for you, the key is to stick with it!

PurpleKnight

1 Week is fantastic APT!! Keep it going!!

Dee74

Well done on your week APT

D

Delizadee

Great job on one week! I always found the first week and a half hard.
I refused to go to AA for a couple years for the same reasons you do. However when I finally opened my mind up to and and all possibilities of recovery programs, I understood it differently than I first had. It's not a program based on religion, but rather spirituality. There are many non-religious and atheists in AA, when I first went to the rooms, I went the Good Orderly Direction route and did a lot of listening and contemplating on the ideas before the important points hit home for me.
However, like others have said there is more than one way to do sobriety, AA is not the only way. Check out all the links to resources SR has, there are many. Making a recovery plan is a great starting place too.
Keep on going!

Maudcat

Well done!

CarrieBradshaw

Congrats on one week! It's eerie how much I can relate to your post. When I'm detoxing I hear stuff that isn't there as soon as I lay down. I think I hear someone knocking on the door or a TV playing from the living room. I also have really lucid dreams once I do fall asleep. I tend to literally jolt out of sleep once I'm relaxed. Hang in there, this will be over soon. Try listening to sleep talkdowns or meditation on YouTube before bed (through earbuds) and practice deep breathing. Wearing a sleep mask and laying on a heating pad works well too.