bexs

hey all

not sure how to say all thins without sounding whingy. I know this site isnt for medical questions i am just after advise and support i guess.

since joining this site i have been doing a lot of research about the effects of drinking, to be perectly honest i wish i hadnt.
I am a hypercondriact to start with but i have pretty much convinced myself i am going to die.
I have been heavy drinking for about 8 - 10 years. probably upto 50 units a week sometimes more.
I have read about people getting cirhosis after a few months of heavy drinking. Would i know if i had a liver problem? what are the symptoms? I am not yellow but i am really scared about it. Also i read somewhere that you can develop vericos veins in you throat and it can kill you. Would you know if you had annything like that?

Again sorry for being whinny I am just so scared and as I have tendancies to obsess about things like this anything anyone can tell me would be good.

Please help me.

Thanks
Bexs

Anna

Hi Bexs,

As hard as it will be to do, you really need to talk to your dr about your health concerns.

Are you trying to stop drinking? If so, there is lots of support here.

DecBaby

I would see your Dr to check out anything ur worried about. Then maybe you'll feel at ease.

Ghostly

Hey Bexs,

See a Dr. and quit drinking if you haven't. If you haven't quit drinking yet, hopefully these concerns will get you to consider it.

If / when you quit don't spend too much time worryin about this stuff. You can't take back what ya did, but you can go forward. I'm certainly not an expert, but from what I'm aware of a lot of the negative effects of drinking are reversible when you quit. Although of course some things may be permanent.

This site alone has enough members that should show you when someone quits and makes healthy choices they can have productive lives. Important thing is to start those healthy choices now.

Dee74

See a Dr Bexs - it really is the best way...it's scary - but so is trawling the 'net and thinking about what might possibly go wrong with you, right?

Like Ghostly said many of the effects of alcohol abuse can often be reversed...what is clear is that the sooner you stop, the better your chance of a full recovery Bexs....

D

ConfusedNC

surfing the internet to try to diagnose yourself will drive you nuts!
Making tomorrow better and healthier is way more important than what you did yesterday or last year.

smacked

From what my doctor told me, by the time symptoms of liver issues are felt, it often indicates a pretty dire problem. Head over to the alcoholism forum and read the post "it can go bad fast" (might have worded it wrong), a new member provided us with a very detailed and personal look at how bad things can get.

Also from what I understand the esophageal (sp?) Hemmoraging (sp..) often happens suddenly, without warning and is most often fatal.

lauraandersen4

Don't overreact. Definitely see your doctor about your concern. Only 10-20% of women end up with cirrhosis after 10 yrs of heavy drinking. You can palpate your liver (if you feel it under your ribcage, it is enlarged)... if you had severe liver problems, you would likely notice jaundice as well as bruising very easily.

If you don't have these things, you may still have liver damage -- fatty liver or alcohol induced hepatitis, but as stated above, until it progresses to scarring (cirrhosis) most is reversible.