anonchick

I am beginning to think the shaky feeling I had earlier was simply a combination of nerves and not eating. I ate lunch and feel absolutely better. I cannot drink tonight, though. My kids don't want me to anymore. My son is 14 and daughter is 12 and they are tired of it, I know. I've let them down.

C23

The best thing about deciding to recover from drinking problems is that after you go a few months without drinking, your children won't even remember that you used to. You have to oppurtunity to look amazing in their eyes by beating alcohol. Good Luck

Chris

zandre

It is very important to eat and eat on a consistant basis to keep your blood sugar up because as it begins to dip that is when you start to crave that first drink that turns into another and then another well you know how it goes. Also make sure you aren't eating crap. Make all your meals as nutrient rich as possible. Get yourself a good multi-vitamin and some extra B-Vitamins as drinking heavily depletes these.

I'm new here like yourself. The first week is definitely the hardest but I'm on Day 15 now and each day gets a little easier. You've taken the first and most important step of realizing you have a problem and you want to stop.

Also I will echo what everyone else here has said to see a doctor if at all possible if only just once. I have what they call "Urgent Care" centers by my house that don't require an appointment that I've gone to in the past if my doctor was unavailable, vacation, etc. Yeah the bill will be steep but in my opinion its worth it. Honestly I doubt you'll get severe withdraws if you've only drank heavily for the past year but they can at least tell you what to watch for as well as perscribe you somethings to help with cravings, increased BP, etc.

Welcome to SR, good luck, and keep posting.

bstt03

You can do it! Look at me, almost 6 months so far. I never thought I would get this far. I thought - how can I live without my booze. But it can be done and you will appreciate the time you spend sober with your kids so much. Trust me. Just remember that the withdrawl will not last forever - the only way out of it is through it. Stay close here and post alot. Read read read too!

least

Drink lots of water and juice. Take B vitamins. Chamomile tea will help any anxiety from withdrawals. (sold as Sleepytime tea by one company and Sweet Dreams by another) The worst part of withdrawals for me was the terrible anxiety, but that went away after a few days.

Just don't drink,no matter what. And one day at a time you CAN stay sober. Love to you and your kids.

Welcome to the SR family!:ghug3

Jayne2

I am glad you're feeling better. For me it began anywhere between 4-12 hours after my last drink, but I was a big binger, not a daily drinker.

If you are scared of withdrawals and detoxing it can definitely make you feel more anxious and make everything worse. If you are unable to get medical help, is there another adult who you can trust to stay with you and keep you company until you feel you are out of the woods?

I was too ashamed to get medical help many times, and I found having a responsible adult just to keep me company (my husband) alleviated a lot of the anxiety. I knew that if something happened or I got worse suddenly he'd take care of me, and that helped a lot with the worry.

With all that said, I've withdrawn cold turkey and with the help of ativan and the latter was soooooooo much better. If you can get some medical help I'd highly recommend it.

Best of luck to you. You'll get through it and then you never have to feel like this again.

Jayne

anonchick

Thanks so much. I actually feel a little better right now. I think maybe I'm worrying too much--which I'm good at. No alcohol!! I can do this!!

flutter

the longer you're away from that last drink, the better you'll feel.. and that's true

micwush

You can do it! I'm on day 7 now. I think nerves, guilt, shame, fear of the unknown, and fear of coping without a BIG crutch can be part of the withdrawls, or at least make them worse. I didn't suffer any significant symptoms besides sleeplessness and nervousness but I think that was more because of the above things.

Hang in there, drink lots of water and keep telling yourself you can do it and you are worth it! Because you are!

Rusty Zipper

AC, you can do this...

theres many ways to acomplish sobriety and recovery, read around...

one thing that worked for me, was to do it...

one day at a time...

good wishes AC

karenbg

I'm new here too and I too am scared. I've been addicted to pain killers for 7 yrs. I've tried to quit before but I guess I was never serious enough...i always relapsed rather quickly. My daughter left for the Air Force on March 9th of this year. We avoided talking about it for weeks before her leave date...it was too painful for both of us. But the morning she left, she came to me and said some things that really hit home. She mostly was concerned about my health and wanted me to take care of myself. I found my strength in that. I felt like I'd been lying to her all along...for years. That morning i dumped all of my pills and I've not turned back since.
Strange thing is, it's been a month. I thought I was good...ya know? I didn't really have any withdrawal and I felt really good about it. But now, a month later I feel like crap. I can only assume it's withdrawal, only I didn't know it can happen so long after quitting. I feel like I want to crawl out of my own body right now. Been like this for three days. I'm just stressed and tired. All I want to do is sleep and I'm scared to death.
I can't sit still and I'm so uncomfortable! I want to take something so bad. I won't...but I really want to.

Fubarcdn

You can do this AC. You will become more confident in yourself with every passing day. You just have to want to be free.

Welcome to SR Karen.
It sounds like you know when your addictive voice is talking to you and are taking the right steps to silence it. It is going to be hard but you can control it. You must be proud of your daughter.

OZboy

Anonchick,
"You may feel you're the only person in the world,but you are the world to many"
1 day at a time,good luck

anonchick

I made it!! Day 2. Still a little shaky, but overall, ok. I slept pretty well last night. I am a bit depressed and irritable. I can do this!!

Let me share something with all of you--especially Karen since her post hit home. I was addicted to Lortabs from 1997-2001. Addiction is apparently part of my family as my dad is an alcoholic, my sister addicted to pain pills, my uncle addict, etc. Anyway, I have endometriosis. I was diagnosed at age 23 and everytime I went to the doc, he gave me pain pills. I didn't get hooked then and had my son in 1994. I had my daughter in 1996. I had 5 surgeries in 2 years for this--plus tons of pain pills. My doctor cut me off after feeding them to me all that time. I would doc shop, steal my mom's, you name it. Finally, i began forging scripts. I got away with it almost 3 years and got caught and arrested and went thru drug court and got clean. That is until 2005, when I did it again. This time I got caught within months and since I had already gone thru drug court, I couldn't again and now have a felony possession conviction. Funny thing is I haven't even thought about a Lortab. My withdrawals were pretty mild--yawning and insomnia for about a week.

I started drinking after my ex husband/fiance split last year. We were married from 2003-2006, divorced, apart for 3 months, back together, apart for 6 months, back together. In this time period is when I started drinking.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I beat Lortabs and I can beat this. Karen, hang in there.

Fubarcdn

Good to see you on day 2 and back here posting. Come here everyday.
I know it real helps keep me focused.
It helps me to read my first post and relive that experience also.
Sounds like you are on your way to beating this. Keep up the good work and positive attitude.

dedubya

welcome-
glad you are recognizing this early enough that I think the wd's may not be so bad. uncomfortable of course but tolerable. talk to your dr. they are in the business of helping people and mine certainly did but to be honest i was hesitant in really telling the full story- but I did and it felt great- do it.
but you have to be committed....that is the most important thing. I didnt read all of the responses so apologies for any dupe info.
Have a good one-
DW

karenbg

thank you AC..also Fubarcdn. This place seems to give me comfort and that's a good thing for me right now.
AC...i'm sorry for your emotional pain. And you're right, you CAN do this. We all can, together.
I feel a little better today than yesterday. Although, I didn't really start feeling bad until around 5:30 pm. I got some decent sleep last night and woke up this morning feeling good. I actually made (and enjoyed) some coffee and caught up on some of my shows. I miss them when I'm working. That made me feel a little more normal. The past three days I haven't watched TV, cleaned, done laundry...etc. But today I caught up on that. I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortable and irritable but I'll be going to work soon so that should help. It seems as long as I'm busy I don't feel as bad. It's just when I sit and start to unwind, that's when I feel like I'm having bad anxiety. Well, like you've all said, one day at a time.
take care.

anonchick

I bet i have sent my fiance 50 text messages today asking for encouragement. He's gonna stay with me all week in case I need the ER. I did ask my dad about withdrawals he went thru and he said his were not so bad--but he WAS in a treatment center.