7months sober, anxiety, overwhelmed. Life/Sobriety
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 82
7months sober, anxiety, overwhelmed. Life/Sobriety
Hi guys,
I hope everyone is well. I wanted to ping something off some peeps with some time under their belts. I have just over 7 months sober and the last three days have been a fu**ing nightmare with anxiety and just being overwhelmed i guess. As you can see from my early posts, i am beyond grateful to have made it this far and very much intend on continuing the journey. I have found that now that I have eliminated booze from my life. I am replacing that addiction with others, surfing, golf, fishing, and work. All of which can be healthy addictions but i feel like i cant not not do anything and I am beginning to burn out. My wife even complains that i cant just sit still and I know she is right. All that i can figure out and hopefully find a healthy balance between. The last three days though I have been riddled with the gnarliest anxiety its a joke. For instance, i went to get my haircut yesterday and the wait was pretty long and i committed to sitting and waiting. Just sitting there i felt like my skin was crawling and that everyone there could visibly tell i was uncomfortable. I faked a phone call and left. I have bouts where i feel amazing and no anxiety and then for a couple weeks here and there its an all day thing and it dictates a lot of my day. I have no doubt i have anxiety as it is and i am sure thats why i drank but i feel like it gets better and goes away and then comes back. I know there may be a bit of PAWS in play here and my whole life as dramatically changed in the last 7 months and i simply and just overwhelmed. Either way, i wanted to hear from some of you who have been down this road and if it gets better or you had to suck down some happy pills etc.. Appreciate ya.
I hope everyone is well. I wanted to ping something off some peeps with some time under their belts. I have just over 7 months sober and the last three days have been a fu**ing nightmare with anxiety and just being overwhelmed i guess. As you can see from my early posts, i am beyond grateful to have made it this far and very much intend on continuing the journey. I have found that now that I have eliminated booze from my life. I am replacing that addiction with others, surfing, golf, fishing, and work. All of which can be healthy addictions but i feel like i cant not not do anything and I am beginning to burn out. My wife even complains that i cant just sit still and I know she is right. All that i can figure out and hopefully find a healthy balance between. The last three days though I have been riddled with the gnarliest anxiety its a joke. For instance, i went to get my haircut yesterday and the wait was pretty long and i committed to sitting and waiting. Just sitting there i felt like my skin was crawling and that everyone there could visibly tell i was uncomfortable. I faked a phone call and left. I have bouts where i feel amazing and no anxiety and then for a couple weeks here and there its an all day thing and it dictates a lot of my day. I have no doubt i have anxiety as it is and i am sure thats why i drank but i feel like it gets better and goes away and then comes back. I know there may be a bit of PAWS in play here and my whole life as dramatically changed in the last 7 months and i simply and just overwhelmed. Either way, i wanted to hear from some of you who have been down this road and if it gets better or you had to suck down some happy pills etc.. Appreciate ya.
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Dancing in the Light
Posts: 61,499
Congratulations on 7 months of recovery!
Hmm, I don't think medication prescribed by your dr for anxiety should be referred to as 'happy pills'. I take an anti-depressant, not a happy pill, which levels the playing field for me. I still have to work at staying positive.
One thing to do when you are feeling really anxious is to focus on your 5 senses. This really works. Immediately start to think of things you can see or smell or taste or hear. Focus on those things and you will likely feel your anxiety diminishing.
Hmm, I don't think medication prescribed by your dr for anxiety should be referred to as 'happy pills'. I take an anti-depressant, not a happy pill, which levels the playing field for me. I still have to work at staying positive.
One thing to do when you are feeling really anxious is to focus on your 5 senses. This really works. Immediately start to think of things you can see or smell or taste or hear. Focus on those things and you will likely feel your anxiety diminishing.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 142
Cobber,
If only they were happy pills!!
In a similar boat to you at 5 months, anxiety has probably gotten worse since I've stopped drinking which is s kick in the guts.
Exercise
Diet
Chatting to someone
Medication
^you need to find the right combo in the above, either all or some .
If only they were happy pills!!
In a similar boat to you at 5 months, anxiety has probably gotten worse since I've stopped drinking which is s kick in the guts.
Exercise
Diet
Chatting to someone
Medication
^you need to find the right combo in the above, either all or some .
Member
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: London
Posts: 172
Hi, your post really resonated with me and I was excatly the same at month 4 my anxiety was off the scale I was house bound practically and small things that once never bothered me turned into huge obstacles things like getting My haircut or just a simple everyday things like eating food become full of panic attacks.
After 3 months of really suffering I decided to get some CBT therapy and that along with all the other tools I picked up ( yoga & meditation) things started to get better. After 1 year sober things got a lot better iam now 19 months sober and the anxiety hardly bothers me and when it does it’s short lived.
I really think that for some of us that when our safety net alcohol is taken away the body goes in to panic mode I also believe that the brain takes awhile to heal.
Keep marching on and it will get so much better.
Onwards
Herc
After 3 months of really suffering I decided to get some CBT therapy and that along with all the other tools I picked up ( yoga & meditation) things started to get better. After 1 year sober things got a lot better iam now 19 months sober and the anxiety hardly bothers me and when it does it’s short lived.
I really think that for some of us that when our safety net alcohol is taken away the body goes in to panic mode I also believe that the brain takes awhile to heal.
Keep marching on and it will get so much better.
Onwards
Herc
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 82
Originally Posted by Hercules 
Hi, your post really resonated with me and I was excatly the same at month 4 my anxiety was off the scale I was house bound practically and small things that once never bothered me turned into huge obstacles things like getting My haircut or just a simple everyday things like eating food become full of panic attacks.
After 3 months of really suffering I decided to get some CBT therapy and that along with all the other tools I picked up ( yoga & meditation) things started to get better. After 1 year sober things got a lot better iam now 19 months sober and the anxiety hardly bothers me and when it does it’s short lived.
I really think that for some of us that when our safety net alcohol is taken away the body goes in to panic mode I also believe that the brain takes awhile to heal.
Keep marching on and it will get so much better.
Onwards
Herc
After 3 months of really suffering I decided to get some CBT therapy and that along with all the other tools I picked up ( yoga & meditation) things started to get better. After 1 year sober things got a lot better iam now 19 months sober and the anxiety hardly bothers me and when it does it’s short lived.
I really think that for some of us that when our safety net alcohol is taken away the body goes in to panic mode I also believe that the brain takes awhile to heal.
Keep marching on and it will get so much better.
Onwards
Herc
Thanks Herc. I actually came across your post before posting this. Glad to hear from you.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Posts: 348
Hello, Cobber3
I've been sober 20 years, 10 months. Still, going to a restaurant and sitting through a meal, waiting for the check to come is mostly out of my reach. I'm a fast eater, my husband's a slow eater, and you know how long it can take to get a check sometimes in a restaurant. So I ask my husband if it's okay with him that I go ahead and go to the car. He understands now and says, yes, go and I'll be out in a minute.
I went to my mother's funeral a few years back and had to leave the cemetery because a guy got up and decided to preach instead of conducting a respectful little service with dignity. So I know where you're coming from. I'd been sober eight years.
I had one of those fears pop up today with a neighbor. I just knew she didn't want me in her yard. I came back home and started all the self talk about not being good enough, not belonging, how she had more money than I did, and on and on and on. I had to go back over there for a minute. I did some self examination in the meantime and realized what I was thinking had no basis or foundation for my feelings of being restless, irritable, and discontent. I don't know what or where my thoughts come from sometime, but I certainly can identify. It gets better, it really does, but I think I'm just alcoholic and it's the way I am. I'm grateful I didn't come home and drink "at" that woman or over my feelings because in the past that's just exactly what I did, or even worse, I'd have gone over there and ask her why she was looking at me that way and she wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about. Thank you for sharing.
I've been sober 20 years, 10 months. Still, going to a restaurant and sitting through a meal, waiting for the check to come is mostly out of my reach. I'm a fast eater, my husband's a slow eater, and you know how long it can take to get a check sometimes in a restaurant. So I ask my husband if it's okay with him that I go ahead and go to the car. He understands now and says, yes, go and I'll be out in a minute.
I went to my mother's funeral a few years back and had to leave the cemetery because a guy got up and decided to preach instead of conducting a respectful little service with dignity. So I know where you're coming from. I'd been sober eight years.
I had one of those fears pop up today with a neighbor. I just knew she didn't want me in her yard. I came back home and started all the self talk about not being good enough, not belonging, how she had more money than I did, and on and on and on. I had to go back over there for a minute. I did some self examination in the meantime and realized what I was thinking had no basis or foundation for my feelings of being restless, irritable, and discontent. I don't know what or where my thoughts come from sometime, but I certainly can identify. It gets better, it really does, but I think I'm just alcoholic and it's the way I am. I'm grateful I didn't come home and drink "at" that woman or over my feelings because in the past that's just exactly what I did, or even worse, I'd have gone over there and ask her why she was looking at me that way and she wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about. Thank you for sharing.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 3,027
I have weird times at nine months also. I see it as "learning the long term sobriety pattern."
I always returned to drinking before, when my pms got crazy or I felt depressed or I had burned myself out with work or life. This "not drinking in response to anything, ever" is still new.
Yes, I'm still healing. I'm still figuring how how to eat, how much to do without getting overwhelmed, how to socialize, how to relax.
I don't have anxiety but I do have anhedonia sometimes, and my number one job is to cope with it. Not drink with it, but cope with it.
It helps me tremendously to cut myself a break. If you don't have a year then you haven't even gone through all the seasons consecutively sober. Even pregnancy doesn't get me through a year. I tell myself I am still newly sober. I am still healing. I am still figuring out my life. I will be sad sometimes. I will be lonely sometimes. I won't care about anything sometimes. that's just life, but without alcohol it's "just life magnified x 100" until my brain adjusts to what life is like living this way.
I always returned to drinking before, when my pms got crazy or I felt depressed or I had burned myself out with work or life. This "not drinking in response to anything, ever" is still new.
Yes, I'm still healing. I'm still figuring how how to eat, how much to do without getting overwhelmed, how to socialize, how to relax.
I don't have anxiety but I do have anhedonia sometimes, and my number one job is to cope with it. Not drink with it, but cope with it.
It helps me tremendously to cut myself a break. If you don't have a year then you haven't even gone through all the seasons consecutively sober. Even pregnancy doesn't get me through a year. I tell myself I am still newly sober. I am still healing. I am still figuring out my life. I will be sad sometimes. I will be lonely sometimes. I won't care about anything sometimes. that's just life, but without alcohol it's "just life magnified x 100" until my brain adjusts to what life is like living this way.
Life Health Prosperity
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Louisana
Posts: 6,752
Cobber3, 7 months sober is so FANTASTIC, congratulations. In July I'll be 8 years sober. I'm now beginning to believe the biggest mistake I'm making is thinking that all my other problems are related to and associated with my substance abuse problems. I don't have a substance abuse problem anymore but have an S-load of emotional problems, just sayin. Rootin for ya. 
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