Why does alcohol withdrawels make you feel anxious!
 

Just wondering whether anyone knows the medical reason why when you stop drinking some people get bad anxiety for a period.

Thanks

your nerves aren't being numbed......

Highly scientific here. You brain is becoming unpickeled

I'm no scientist but I believe it's because routine has changed and you feel different. This is interpreted by your body as highly suspicious and results in anxiety!

Whatever the reason, it happens. It also diminishes with time. Just go with it.
S x

The anxiety was one of the reasons I began drinking in the first place.

Quit drinking and it returns.....


All the best.

Bob R

Unpickeled brain hey lol... I'll remember to tell the doctor that one!!!

I believe a LOT of it has to do with depleted nutrients. Magnesium, calcium, essestial fatty acids and vit b and c all get severely depleted when alcohol is abused....especially over prolonged periods. All those nutrients (and there are more that the ones I listed) play a HUGE role in keeping those natural happy chemicals in the brain functioning properly. Anyhow, this is my understanding as belief. I began a nutritional program tailered to alcoholics and I cannot believe what a difference it made in stabilizing my mood and lowering my anxiety....not only that, I can sleep! I wouldnt have believed it if I hadnt done it myself. I did it with my doctors approval from the advice of a great book.

I took a class from an MD specializing in addiction and said one thing was the brain starts seeing the DOC like oxygen, something you can not live without and when withdrawn the mind feels like its air supply is cut of until it reprograms. Made some sense to me.

.....also that nutritional program reduced my alcohol cravings to a large extent as well. I found it ever so valuable in my recovery process.

Fitz, I believe that too. Your body adapts to having the DOC all the time and it almost goes into "shock" when it is taken away and it has to adapt to funtion normally again.

I think that your brain and body are fighting this constant consumption of a central nervous system depressant and get accustomed to the load it places on the whole system. When you quit drinking, that load is removed and the engine tends to over speed for a while. Everything does get back into whack in short order.

My anxiety was awful yesterday. Today was better, I have 40 days sober, I have always been a worrier, even as a kid. I do have medication for anxiety, and always take it correctly. I am hoping the longer I am sober the less anxious I will be.

I hate that panicky feeling, especially when I can't quite pin down what is making me anxious!!!

Windancer - that nutrition program sounds great, is it something I could find out more about online or did you go through a Dr?

Lionhearted - I have anxiety issues, it runs in my family. I think that everything already said here is probably true also. But as time goes on and your system grows back to health you'll probably notice changes in your well being. I have been. Spirituality helps me a lot too, for me it's Buddhism, meditation and walking. I hope you begin to feel better soon.

I do nutrient drinks, healthy foods and exercize made all the difference in the world. Also vitamens and B12 just what I do.

Freshstart is on the right track.
Since alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, if you are physically addicted, when you stop, you will get a rebound effect, which is the opposite.
Instead of relaxed, and sedated, you will experience anxiety, racing thoughts, fast heart rate, mental and physical tension, etc.
Takes a while for your body to normalize.

I had that panicky feeling at work yesterday. It was alcohol withdrawal. I have to stand on my feet all day and my balance was off because I didn't have my pacifier. I was afraid I was going to stumble from vertigo, and that was a real cause for concern. I wasn't hungover at all. I wasn't feeling after effects of alcohol. More specifically I was feeling the absence of alcohol. I had some intermittent stuttering problems as well and had a hard time concentrating on what people were saying on occasion.

I'm working part time with days off in between work days. That's all that's available at the moment. On my days off I feel "normal."

I suppose you could call it free-floating anxiety as a result of being without what I'm used to. Truth be told, I don't drink to have fun so much these days as much as just quelling the jones to enable me to feel comfortable in my skin.

I wouldn't say that I have social phobia per se, but I do enjoy my alone time for the most part. Being alone is OK with me. I have no plans for the holidays and haven't had for years. Does that make me an isolationist?

I work in a mall handing out food samples with repeating Christmas music blaring all day long. I'll be perfectly content to spend quiet time at home on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

There is a good book that goes into the brain chemistry called "Healing the Addicted Brain"