Renvate

8th day in today and I think I have hit withdrawal. All week I've been fine.

I have:
-Extreme craving to drink to numb myself (I guess this is my body screaming for its fix)

- Racing heart rate
- slight muscles twitching
- Strange bubble feeling in my chest
- lack of motivation for anything, feel like a zombie
- very irritable and snappy
- very tight
- very depressed, but this will pass.

Also just realised I've been doing strenuous exercise for all 7 days, I think I have overtrained, because exercise is making me feel worse.

goodbyeevan

Usually i got physical withdrawals during the first hours alcohol left my system and the subsequent 36 hours. Cravings lasted for a week or so. I bet they are related to the strenuous activity. You can get through it though. Take it easy, do lots of self care, hydrate, watch caffiene intake and whatever you do DO NOT DRINK. that is the top priority over all else. You are doing so amazing so far!

Renvate

Hmm must be from both. No iam no way going to drink, there's no question about it.

goodbyeevan

Definitely both, especially that emotional stuff. Definitely post alcohol withdrawal symptoms stuff. I am feeling depressed myself tonight but a sober depressed is much better and easily handled as opposed to my messy fruitless drunk depressions that led to more alcohol and more depression. Drunk me would tell myself at 2am that tomorrow was a new day, I'd be a different better person, but then afternoon would roll around and I'd go to the same store again and again. Now tomorrow really is a new day! I wont have a dark cloud above my head the instant i awake. Think I might try to get this mediation habit up and going when I wake up. Was going to try for a sunrise hike but insomnia strikes again.

SO glad you are not going to drink. That is just the best. One day, hour, minute at a time.

DuhDave

Renvate, how is your sleep? You should be getting plenty (as in as much as time allows). Sleep is very important when working out at the the rate you are. Sleep gives your body the time to rebuild the damage to the muscle.

Also drinking water helps as well, LOTS of water all through the day. You would'nt believe how good ice water tastes and it keeps your hands busy. I recommend you give it a try.

Find someone knowledgeable on nutrition and then eat!...it will smooth out the bumps along the way

Good luck Renvate ! I'am rooting for you !

DD

sobersolstice

A week in is physically and mentally trickiest bit for me to surpass. I think it's more of a weekend thing for me, but I feel it no less. My physical cravings increase during the weekend because my drinking patterns had boosted weekend intake levels.

I crave more early if I work out too hard too early. As an active person, I had to know that I'd have to let my body rest as all the CNS connections rewire to figure out what to do sans ethanol. I'm at day 60, and starting to do more lifting, but overexerting is hard on your Central Nervous System, and I'll still get cravings if I exert to where I'm shaking, so I'll avoid going 100% for a while. I find a protein shake to drop cravings a bit too (I drink them with coconut milk).

Renvate

Hmm sleep is solid, but iam waking up exhausted and angry.

I have no problem with water but I definitely need to drink more as I am definitely dehydrated. I completely forgot that I used to compensate with lots and lots of beer to keep up body fluids. Now that's gone iam obviously not drinking enough.

Kejun

Renvate, when I first gave up, I was smashing fitness and I felt pretty ordinary even with that. What I look back on is how stoked I am I persisted, I look 1,000 times better and feel it too. Sure, I am three n half months sober which is great if not a massive amount of time but I know that had I not kept up with the fitness, I would have felt and feel much worse off.

Keep at it, it is one part of my life I really look forward to now.

I have run, swam and would be doing crossfit today but it is on when a meeting is on and that takes priority over literally everything for me (until 90 in 90 is hit - which isnt far off).

But yea, keep the water intake high!!! I was smashing the h2o hard, its levelled off as my body has adjusted.

Really well done for where you are at - keep it up!

thomas11

In the past I have tried to strenuously exercise myself through withdrawals. I almost killed myself. Our bodies are already in a weakened state and working out breaks it down further. That's been my experience. I recommend eating a ton of food.

ProfessorD

On a podcast I heard someone say they took advantage of the withdrawals to write a long, detailed letter to their future sober self about how horrible it feels like in the moment...a strategy for avoiding relapse later on and distracting yourself now?

CreativeThinker

I agree with Kejun...working out helped/helps me immensely.

CT

Horn95

Sounds like fatigue and PAWS. 8 days at er quitting sounds like a long time for withdrawals to hit.

AnvilheadII

well, by day 8, the alcohol is pretty much out of your system, so you a passed any initial w/d phase. however your body is still going thru a lot with detoxing and sugar imbalance, dehydration, etc etc. you sound like someone whose blood sugars are going bonkers.....i say this from experience with my other half. he has a physically demanding job, hasn't gained 3 pounds in the 16 years i've known him, and if he goes too long without food, he's starts getting super sketchy. i swear i can hear his synapses firing like a bug zapper on a hot august night.

yes your body is craving.....but alcohol is not the only thing it craves....it's just that alcohol was the GO TO.

7 days working out, with an already taxed system, is likely going to backfire a bit. you mention your sleep is off. eating now is really important. good healthy stuff. at regular intervals. take a couple days off the work regimen, let your body REST. restore. recover.

babycat

I agree with this, definitely.

Verdantia

Hey, Renvate. Your symptoms this late in detox sound more to me like PAWS rather than withdrawal.
I had a very rough quit in 2011; within 12 hours of stopping drink I began having full-blown hallucinations (audio and visual) and it was horrifying in every way you could imagine. I had seizures in county detox and then spent 8 days in hospital.
I think that seven days of strenuous exercise has something to do with how you are feeling--you're new in sobriety and your body has undergone a lot of stress and insult. Maybe take it a little easy until you feel better--and you certainly will.
I'm fanatic about cycling and I also practice yoga and that has been an integral part of my recovery. Wishing you all the best--I hope you feel better very soon.

Renvate

Must be a mix of everything.

Lack of: food, Sugar, water, alcohol

Ontop mental stress and the the exercising stress.

It did go away by evening, feeling much better this morning as i got alot of sleep.

Off to work and 9 days

Berrybean

There are a couple of very simple things that helped me a lot.

1) Being very careful around HALT
H is Hungry & Thirsty (may be esp pertinent to you with all that exercise)
A is Angry
L is Lonely
T is tired (besides, its commonly thought that when training physically the rest days are just as important as the exercise days if you want the exercise to pay off and not end up with injuries. )

2) Breathing exercises. I know it sounds very simple, but anxiety building (as it does in early recovery, very quickly) can leave us with a lot of the symptoms you describe. There were times when I really needed to take myself to one side for a few minutes and focus on my breathing. It might help you as well, and isn't difficult or time consuming, and doesn't cost a penny. There is nothing to lose in giving it a go.

In the longer term I needed to think about recovery for my whole self rather than just my physical body. And there are various ways that this can be done. Dees thread about making a plan of recovery is worth investigating.. http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...y-plans-1.html

Wishing you all the best for your sobriety and recovery.

BB

WritingFromLife

Ren-may be a good idea to have your doctor check out your blood sugar levels. Until they stabilize, heavy work-outs can be very dangerous. Congratulations on all your hard work!!