Day 13 and anxiety....
 

Today is day 13 for me, which I am happy about. Still not feeling like drinking which is good. I've been sleeping pretty well the past few nights too. I'm still experiencing fatigue and some anxiety. This morning I had something of an anxiety attack, a moderate one. I decided to start exercising again, figured it would be safe at this point since the most significant withdrawal is behind me...I don't know if I worked out too hard or if it's because I had a cup of coffee this morning (I quite caffeine some months back but still occasionally have a small amount) but I felt really anxious, was a little shaky, my chest felt tight and I could feel my BP going up. I did about 10 minutes of breathing exercises and am now eating some lunch, starting to feel better. I'm scared that the anxiety attacks are never going to go away. Has anyone had experience with this? Do they subside? I really don't want to go on medication for them. I saw my Dr. last Friday and was honest about my alcohol use and my decision to quit. I had lab draw on Tuesday and have a follow-up appt. next Tuesday to evaluate. My Dr. did not seem concerned at all about withdrawal given my level of use....any advice or support would be appreciated. Am I going crazy?

No, you're not crazy. Remember to breath :)

Most of my really bad panic attacks went away when I quit drinking. There have been moments when I have felt some pretty scary anxiety coming on but the great thing about it is that my solution isn't to go home and start drinking. Basically anything I try to help my anxiety is going to be better than that, and even if it never goes away completely at least I won't be compounding the issue by drinking on it. The thing is anxiety is a totally normal thing to experience, so much so that there are tons of techniques to help deal with it. You don't have to go onto medication. I have been having a tough time at work recently and that was where I used to have my worst panic attacks so the association isn't good, but I have been listening to some really good podcasts on various relaxation and NLP techniques and it really calms me down, even if I don't get to complete the exercises properly. Just knowing that is something which is manageable makes things so much better, because I had no amount of control over my anxiety when I was drinking. Well done on day 13 :)