justinJustQuit

This post is intended to highlight the withdrawal symptoms based on the amount and duration I've been drinking. I tried googling this when I was making the decision to get sober and was frustrated that I couldn't find any info. Plus in the future when I think I want to drink, I can go back and look at this post. This detox is with Librium and instructions by my doctor. Keep in mind, this detox is approved by a doctor. If in doubt, always use a doctor.

I was drinking a fifth of 46% rum/night with Coke for roughly a year. The math: that's 2,573 calories a night not counting food. I literally could not get drunk off beer. Think about the repercussions of the calories alone. (Let alone the sheer amount of alcohol the esophagus, liver, kidneys had to deal with.)

Physical Symptoms: Shaky sweaty hands, confusion, mild anxiety, (Librium helps) pale skin, restlessness. Generalized pain in abdomen. (not chest pains)

Mental Symptoms: Positive. Get through the withdrawal, begin an exercise regimen, lose the weight. Be sober, be healthy.

Please post away whatever you want. I know a lot of newcomers want to know what amount you were up to when you quit. (I know it's probably annoying, so feel free to say/not say)

Leana

I really don't remember most of my first days sober. I do remember a lot of night sweats, inability to sleep, and irritability.

Inca

For the first week I was very tired, anxious, over reactive, and flighty. I've always been kind of flighty but it was amplified times ten at first.

I had trouble sleeping for about the first month and now I'm in a routine and sleep soundly. Mentally, all I could think about (besides how bad I felt physically) is that I really wanted a drink to make the ickiness go away. Everything reminded me of drinking because I used it to deal with any negative emotions or at certain times of the day. What helped was to be aware of when I wanted to drink and why and then do something else. Once I got used to doing other things when I felt twitchy, it started to become habit and my mind stopped automatically jumping to wanting that drink.

Mikie9

I drank 8-12 beers a night, every night. When I was really having "fun" I had a couple of joints too. I never really ate much, always had to force myself just because I was starving and then passed out from the food. Woke up the next morning wondering what I may have said online or in texts and some mornings, it was a stressful realization of what babble i spewed out the night before.

When I quit last month I went through minimal physical withdrawals. The joints went away a long time ago. My biggest issue has been spending my time lost without a buzz to occupy me.

Sleep was the worst. It was hard to fall asleep the first week or so. I spent lot of time watching tv on the couch about to pass out needing to sleep until late in the wee hours. But as soon as I laid in bed I would wake up and my mind would start into over drive. It didn't understand laying down in bed to go to sleep without being drunk.

Not sure my post is relevant to the thread, but this is what I went through in the beginning. Today I just deal with the boredom and trying to rebuild a new life. When I get down about this, I remind myself I am getting the chance to rebuild my life and that helps.

Ruby2

I drank two bottles of wine or a bottle of wine and a six pack of dark beer every night. Or one "big" bottle of wine. On weekends it was more like 18 beers. And I am a small woman, 5'3" and 120 pounds, even less when i was drinking because i hardly ate. That was before I went into detox and treatment last year. I detoxed in the hospital and the withdrawal symptoms were pretty minimal but they were giving me I don't know what. I slept a lot the first day and a half.

I relapsed in August this year and was back up to close to what I was consuming last year but not every night. I stopped again in November. I had night sweats, anxiety the first few days, some but not a lot of trouble sleeping. Stomach was a little messed up so I had to make myself eat. I have to add that I went to my doctor before stopping this time, explained to her that I had picked up drinking again and wanted a limited prescription of clonazepam to help out with the anxiety associated with the initial quitting. This helped out a lot. But mind, I took the clonazapam as directed and not to facilitate my continued drinking. Before detox and treatment last year I had the benzos for anxiety and went through the stupid cycle of drinking, going through withdrawal, taking the benzos to function during the day and drinking again at night. Incredibly stupid. This time I didn't do that and I have pills still left in the bottle. Don't know if this helps. Mixing benzos with alcohol is never a good idea. I also never developed an addiction for the clonazapam.