YEM

I am new to this site but not brand new to being in recovery. I have put a few 24 hours together and have gotten clean/sober and have stayed clean/sober since I made the choice to put it all down for good. I just wanted to weigh in on something that I did during my "I really need to stop all this" period as I am seeing many people doing the same thing in many posts here in the Newcomers forum.

When I first wanted to stop I would get online and read site after site and post after post about what I should expect during withdraws. I would read about how awful it was going to be and then I would search and search for a way to make it easier. This was mostly before I really started to withdraw and during the time when I did finally start to. This practice means that I was sitting inside, certainly by myself, staring at a computer for long hours, with my mind racing and brewing fear of every single possible bad feeling that the internet can list about withdrawing. This essentially created a placebo effect for me. Any twinge of aches or chills or sweats or yawns or sleeplessness made me revert back to all the crap I read and I thought surely each of these things were happening to me. I really wished I would have just checked to make sure what I was WDing from wasnt life threatening and that I would have had someone tell me up front a few simple things that would make it more bearable without me having to read through tons and tons of possible symptoms and all kinds of crazy remedies.

Most importantly, I would alert a medical professional of your intentions to stop using whatever you were using as a couple substances (benzodiazepines and alcohol) can be life threatening to come off of. Be wary of Dr.'s who would prescribe you one drug to come off another (it's not always bad just be wary).

Do your best to stay hydrated and make yourself eat. Its hard to do but try and find some things you can eat or nutrient/calorie rich smoothies. Carry around a water bottle or gatorade or green tea, stay away from caffeine.

Get out of your own head and misery. You will want to lay around and feel bad. This only made it worse for me. The more I laid up, the worse I got. Getting out and going for a walk or if you can push yourself to do some light exercise, it truly works wonders.

Support of loved ones- If you still have people that care about you, I would let them know up front that you are not going to be yourself for a little while and that your love for them (if it is, don't lie) is one of the reasons you want to turn your life around and any positivity from them will help immensely.

Try and be as positive as you can and stay away from trying to fix things you have messed up or anything except making yourself better at first.

Find some outside support groups. There are plenty of fellowships around to choose from, find one that fits you, others will offer their experience, strength and hope.

Bottom line is dont get bogged down in all the information about how your withdraw experience can possibly go. Focus on the positive aspects that recovery will surely bring you and treat your mind and body like the beautiful gift that it is. It is rough changing the way you live but with some work, your new way of life can far exceed anything you have dreamed up for yourself. The chance to recover is a gift and not everyone gets the chance to do so. You deserve it and you deserve to be loved.

Windancer

Thanks for the post YEM! I appreciate the great advice and wisdom .