maz09

but when does it all go back to normal, I know there's the post alcohol withdrawal that can come on after 3 months of being sober, does it get better after that. I'm still very much at the beginning of this journey, just feels like it's dragging on forever, taking each day at a time and living a new way can be a bit stressful at times. Maybe I need to have a bit more patience with it all. Honestly I just want to get through the days without having to deal with the anxiety that comes with it.

SillyBilly

Maz welcome I'm from SA and day 4 into sobriety. You are talking about cravings, not withdrawal. Withdrawal is the initial period when you suddenly stop drinking, and you body re-adjusts to not having alcohol everyday + toxin flushing hence why you feel like crap.

One day at a time is ALL you need to do. I freaked out hard today, massive anxiety attack. I called DASSA. She calmed me right down and allowed me to vent. I'm sure you've heard of DASSA, I'll PM you their number if you haven't. Trained drug & alcohol counsellors manning the phones 24/7 (for those who don't know).

What day are you currently on? have you spoken to you GP about medication? It's not for everybody, but some people respond really well to it and you might find it helps you through the withdrawal period and with cravings.

Good luck :ghug3

littlefish

That's interesting: I had horrid anxiety which was alcohol induced. Nightmares, waking up every morning in a state of dark, dark anxiety. That disappeared after only three weeks!
But, other things came along in the emotional department: anger. I was extremely angry the first 4 or 5 months after I quit. Once sober, I could see my problems clearly, and feel the emotional effects of them without having the aid of "comfortably numb" juice. It was hard. But, I kept reminding myself that I was finally on the same playing field as my problems, a state that non-drinkers experience all the time, and my challenge was to cope with problems without drinking.

I just went through a rough patch a couple of weeks ago where I felt like I was never going to feel really content. After a good discussion with my sponsor, we came to the conclusion I wasn't really using my program every day. I have a sponsor, go to meetings, have a therapist, but the days in between I wasn't doing anything. Sometimes, especially if I missed a meeting or didn't call my sponsor, I would have entire weeks with almost no involvement in my program.

Now I am reading my literature every morning and learning how to meditate. I'm trying to do something with my program every day, even if it is just 20 minutes of reading. Or, I go to the internet and listen to AA speakers.
It's helping....

Tazman53

Good post littlefish, I was pretty lucky, my conselor in detox gave me a suggestion which I followed to a tee, he told me to spend as much time on my recovery as I did drinking and I stood a really good chance of staying sober. Needless to say since I drank every day all the time except when at work I spent a great deal of time in meetings, talking to my sponsor and others in the program, reading, praying, & meditating.

I found that as long as I was working on my recovery things seemed okay, when I was doing nothing but sitting around doing nothing I got back up into my head, I got anxious, and irratable, I started to think about a drink, when I did that I either called some one in the program, I prayed, I read the BB, or if possible I went to a meeting.

I did not know about SR at the time, but I know that it would have helped until I could go to a meeting or talked to someone, I love SR, but there is no way SR alone could have possibly kept me sober, I needed other humans beings that I could look dead square in the eye and know that they had been right where I was at and when they told me what I was feeling and thinking was normal I beleived them and drew hope from them. They told me first hand how they had got through the feeling of early sobriety.

Hang tough, if you have not been to an AA meeting yet, I can tell you they made all the difference in the world, getting a sponsor and taking the steps were the real deal for me regaining my sanity and finding peace and freedom.

tommyk

For me, things never returned to 'normal'... because normal for me was drinking a lot.

Through NA/AA, the 12 steps, exercise, music, reading, and all of the things I do now, I have found a new, better life.

What are you doing differently aside from not drinking?

keithj

It doesn't go back to normal. Done properly, it goes to something far better than you have ever known. When I got sober, I just wanted to get my life back. Thankfully, I got a whole new life.

I don't know anything about PAWS. I'm sure you'll get lots of info from others. Maz, I'm not special. I didn't do anything heroic or wonderful. I just did what many other alcoholics have done in order to recover. In order to have that new life. At around 3 months sober, I was starting to make Step 9 amends and I was experiencing the freedom from doing so. My life was already being transformed into something unrecognizable.

It doesn't work that quickly for everyone. And for some it's more rapid. But that anxiety resolved itself when I had new direction and power in my life as the result of taking the 12 steps. You are given the freedom and dignity to figure out for yourself if that's something you want to do.

Anna

For me, things didn't return to 'normal' either. I was living with a lot of anxiety/depression long before I began drinking. Of course the drinking made it worse, and when I stopped I had to find a new way to live because I didn't want to go back to living in fear all the time. I always turn to books for my answers and "The Seat of the Soul" by Gary Zukav helped me to understand I needed to find my soul's purpose in life. I had been ignoring the quiet little voice all my life and striking out on my own in every different direction and always feeling lost. So, reconnecting to my spiritual self, helped me to find peace in my life.