LaFemme

Y'all may know, I've been complaining about a nasty bug this past week. I am on the mend, thanks:-)

A lot of other people have commented on getting sick in early recovery, so I am trying to find out just how common it is. I didn't see anything on it on the web.

Thanks!

lildawg

This may not count, but, after I had been sober a few months, I got stomach flu that lasted an entire weekend. It was weird because I hadn't had stomach flu for about 20 years. I used to get it every year when I was a kid still in school. After I became an adult (in years, at least), I never had it again . . . until the year I quit drinking. However, I haven't been sick at all since the first year of my sobriety.

Wilde10

Not me... Not with alcohol. I have got badly sick with colds (which I normally never have) every time I have quitted smoking... I have not had one of those in months tough but sitll getting at least 4 nicotine lozenges a day.

It is very frustrating to quit something for health reasons and this feeling that your health is actually getting worse...

jamdls

I didn't get sick in early recovery either but every time I quit smoking (I'm a serial quitter...) I get sick with colds/flu/ you name it

Fandy

I decided to stop drinking while I was home sick with this lower GI virus.....(I work in surgery with med. students, they infect me regularly as they are exposed to lots of patient contact)...

I rolled my illness and withdrawal all together back in February. a very vivid nasty picture i try to remember when I want to drink.

Anna

I was fine, except for withdrawls.

myliberty

No sickness or withdrawals. Contrary to what many have experienced, I have slept like a baby from day. I was very fatigued, which is getting better closing in on 2 months.

Taking5

A lot of the sicknesses immediately after your main withdrawal period are still withdrawals, or so my Dr. told me.

Mat

Whenever I stop drinking I get TERRIBLE heartburn/indigestion. I think it has something to do with the way I tend to binge eat alongside my drinking, perhaps my stomach is used to an overproduction of digestive fluids? Colds and the flu have always helped me stay sober in the past; nothing feels worse than a hangover tacked onto a virus.

LaFemme

Hey Mat! Well I definitely think my digestion takes a little while to get over the hell I put it through when I drank.

The first day I was sick I wanted briefly to drink, because that's what I always did when I got sick in the past, twisted but true.

While I can certainly see that there can be extended withdrawal symptoms, I have a hard time believing that an ear infection is a withdrawal symptom, with the exception being that my body is probably spending all it's energy trying to figure out what the heck is going on with out me no longer trying to destroy it every day, that it can't figure out what to do with a simple virus:-)_

CarolD

Ear infection? Ouch....

Glad to know you are now de bugged LF

Dee74

I was ill after I stopped, but who wouldn't be subsisting on a diet of cheap wine, one meal a day of junk food, and cigarettes?

D

soberbythesea

I did but you know that already But my husband got sick too and he's not in recovery, so I think that may have just been something genuinely going around.

thirtybubba

Repeatedly... I know I said it in th other thread but I think I need to remind myself of why it's a bad idea to drink so I'll say it again.

Every time I got sober for more than about 2 weeks, I'd end up down for the count with something. Flu a couple times, and I haven't had the flu since I don't know when. And I got a whole lot of food poisoning it seemed, or possibly something else that resembled food poisoning (who gets food poisoning at random restaurants 5-6 times in a couple months?). This last time, I got some kind of withdrawal echo (seemed like).

Might be that my body was not only not sterilized by whiskey, but also weakened by the shock of not having whiskey in it. That's my theory, at least. I've thought about it a lot, seeing as I've been sick plenty. All those years I drank, sick maybe once every 3-4 years. The longer I'm being sober, the less I'm being sick though.

/babble

Take care,
TB

Kmber2010

Nothing really here other then the sniffles since the weather back then was snowy and cold....eeek. Of course I had all the usual withdrawals. Had to putter through like everyone else.

LaFemme

Well, tomorrow will be 4 weeks and my rotten head cold seems to be breaking up. While researching whether there might be a correlation between early recovery and susceptability to illness, I read a lot about the damage alcohol does to our bodies, joy. If I ever even think o drinking again I grant anyone the right to just go ahead and shoot me for stupidity!

soberbythesea

yay for 4 weeks lafemme