losteverything

the worst I had was extreme shakiness that I couldn't even lift a glass up to my lips anymore without spilling all its contents, shaking in my body like hypothermia, restlessness and extreme anxiety, those night sweats were absolutely terrible with soaked sheets every few hours... Thanks for reminding me what would be instore if I ever went back out again...

josi

I had gone to the ER thinking I was having a severe panic attack. I couldn't catch my breath, my whole body was violently shaking, the muscles in my arms and legs cramped up and hurt, my heart was pounding, my blood pressure was dangerously high, I was sweating profusely. That's all I remember because I had gone through the dt's. Two days in the ICU and three more days in detox, hardly remember anything. Other times in detox, had terrible day and night sweats, insomnia, couldn't eat anything or keep anything down, shakiness, twitching, weakness, and feeling like I was on my death bed.

Nighthawk8820

My biggest fear was a seizure, but I was lucky enough not to have one. I did however have insomnia, really bad anxiety, the shakes, facial flushing along with hot and cold sweats or flashes. I also saw black dots out of the corner of my eyes, and when I turned to look, they went away, but it was scary to experience. I had stomach upset, and we will leave it at that, lol. I felt scared and really nervous. This all lasted a week or so, then I moved into PAWS around the 90 day marker. Its a shaky start, but its worth it and you can really feel better than you ever imagined. You get stronger each week, and I wont lie, there are some down times, when it feels overwhelming or you start to look back and wonder if it was really as bad as you thought or perhaps people said. Thats a trick your mind plays, due to the addiction. The trick is to never get to comfortable or to let your guard down. Welcome to your new life.

ontherightpath

My worst withdrawals symptoms were insomnia, shaking, like shaking inside, complete restlessness, and weird cramping of my hands. I tried to stay completely hydrated, and take melatonin to help sleep. But It didn't really work. The physical withdrawal for me, was scary, but much more manageable than the emotional hangovers..... I am my worst enemy and biggest crtiic.

Brian316

I have actually ended up in the hospital twice due to alcohol withdrawls. One of the most messed up things about that is the two times were within probably a month or so of each other. For me, this seemed to be brought on by not eating anything (I've heard that can make a person more likely to get worse symptoms don't know if that's true), and having a beer in my hand every waking hour for weeks at a time. This may have been partly alcohol poisoning I don't know. But worst symptoms were hyperventelating, extreme nausea, unbearable anxiety, weakness, hot and cold sweats, shakes, and panic. I remember being in the ER and hearing medical staff talking to other patients that had bad injuries (like had been in auto accidents and soforth) and thinking "you stupid selfish SOB......here you are taking the bed of someone who may be sick or seriously injured through no fault of their own because you wanted to drink all the time." It was horrible. I never want to go through that again.

alphaomega

Hmmmm. Where do I start ? Which time ? About 10 years ago, more than once (three times I think) I wound up at the doctors office getting IV's because I could not stop vomiting. Everyone thought I had a real bad case of the flu.

Two years ago (what prompted me to do my longest stretch of sobriety yet) was a result of two bottles of wine. Vomiting in a garbage can while yellow bile and slime were pouring out the other end (you asked for it while urinating on myself. That was an "ah ha" moment that scared me straight. For 80 days. Then I went to a wine tasting and threw it all away for what ? Because I thought I could control it. Needless to say, two bottles no longer even affected me like that by the time I quit 2 weeks ago. I was dabbling with opening a third.

BabyJane

With alcohol, the worst thing I ever had were muscle seizures from dehydration and extreme vomiting... We are talking throwing up until I almost passed out because I couldn't breathe between the puking (tmi but yea...) and general mental fog, depression, anxiety. I thought it was pretty bad. It was bad, however, when I got into opiates I found out how awful a detox can be at it WORST. Kicking heroin I felt like my blood was literally at boiling point pumping through my veins all day and night for 6-7 days, no sleep, sweats, crying out in pain, legs wouldn't work at all, worst muscle and joint pain of my life (even in my bones, honestly... it felt like I broke every single one) worst depression and anxiety I clearly remember having. Minutes seemed to last hours. No physical strength or desire to do anything. Almost NO sleep for weeks and I thought I was going insane by day 3. Basically if someone had come to kill me, I would have begged them to do it. Wrecked my whole body and mind for a good month and then PAWS set in (thats an ongoing battle even today, many months later) NEVER AGAIN. EVER.