Anodyne

Hey. I recently went my longest in years without a drink..a whopping (sic) 13 days. Then I slipped and went on a three day binge. I shook it off and dried out, and have not had a drink since early Saturday.

Nor have I been sleeping all that well for a while.

This morning, after about three hours sleep, I woke up and called in a little late to work to try and get some more sleep, but it felt like little bugs crawling on my skin, and every time I swiped or scratched, there was nothing there.

Now, tonight (it's 4 am) I was reluctant to try and sleep again for fear of it recurring..I thought I had tiny bugs in my bed. But when I sat in bed and read, it was fine, but as soon as I laid down, it started again.

I changed my sheets, searched extensivly for any kind of bug, and find nothing,
But now that my mind is on it, I can still feel it, a good half hour later, right now as I type this.

I've read some online that this is more common in women, especially ones going through menopause, but can also be caused by meth use.

I am a flat out drinker, no drugs.
Has this happened to anyone else?

It kind of scares me, because while one thing I saw said prolonged lack of decent sleep can cause this, others have said it is a sign of psychosis. :\

Any ideas? I've occassionally felt it before, but never badly or contiuously.

stone

It is a well known withdrawal symptom Anodyne.

I have had visual and hauditory hallucinations when withdrawing, if I googled that it would say psychosis too, but it wasnt that it was just withdrawals.

If you still have it in a day or so or if you are really worried then you should see a Doc in my opinion.

Rusty Zipper

ano, first off would like to say hello...

agreed with stone'y on this one.. when i did the house COW bit, had the same thing...

after a 38 year run.. yep... 38 years... OMG!

except mine felt like Rodan & Mothra on me...

also the sweats, chills, shakes, voices, heavy chest, and the fear of doom..!

if it persists... see a doc

good wishes ano...

xxoo, rz

Taking5

I definately experienced this. It will pass, you just have to make sure you don't drink anymore.

Withdrawal symptoms get worse everytime you sober up. Most people do not realize that a simple hangover IS alcohol withdrawal. If you wait long enough and drink enough, your W/D symptoms will be like mine were - last 10 or 12 days, scratchiness, shakes, seizures, auditory hallucinations, heart palpitations (could lead to cardiac arrest), high blood pressure (could lead to stroke), alternating sweats and chills, nausea and vomiting, etc.

Alcohol withdrawal are amongst the worst withdrawals of any drug, and if you progress to my condition, can be fatal if you do not have medical attention.

So please spare yourself any further pain. What do you plan to do to maintain your sobriety?

indigo

Welcome, I too would say go see your Doctor and that the withdrawls do end and your life begin's, it's great.

Anodyne

Thank you all very much for your input, and helping me feel less crazy. haha.

I did go to the doctor a few weeks ago and got some xanax (I had 14, for 7 days, still have four left, three weeks later, I don't want to get hooked on benzos, trade addictions) and some kind of anti seisure medicine to help me sleep.

Eventually last night I picked a spot on my hand, stared at it while it was feeling all crawly and just thought "ok, absolutely nothing there. So it feels crawly. SO what's the big deal?"

And as SOON as I stopped caring/worrying about it so much it dimished greatly. Didn't go away completely, but I was able to sleep...for all of an hour.

Fortunately I have a very understanding boss, who said this morning I can come in and do a few things that urgently need doing today, then go home and sleep.

And dgillz, some of that sounds horrible. I do remember that when I went to the doctor the first time, then again one week later, after being sober a total of 8 days, my blood pressure was dramatically lower than when I had gone in after 1 day of drying out.

I haven't experianced any real hallucinations, though for the first few days I do get some night terros and night sweats.

I do not want to go through this again. I'm not sure what I'm doing to stay sober except for 'not drinking' ...and we can see how well that worked. Made it a grand total of less than two weeks before saying to myself "ah, I've 'earned' it, I can drink one night"

That one night turned into three hazy days :|

Taking5

Anodyne,

Have you thought about AA?

GlassPrisoner

I always thought if I could just make it through de-tox, all would be OK. Sooner or later though (usually sooner) I'd pick up again and start the whole process over.

It wasn't until I got really desperate that I gave AA a fair chance, and it worked.

BTW, I'm another member of the de-tox from hell club.

Taking5

Yeah GP and I have hellacious detox stories. We are working on our AA stories as well. I like the AA stories a lot better.