Newbie : liver pain and jaundice of the eyes
Left the bottle behind 4/16/2015
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: NC
Posts: 1,416
Hi Dark Blue. Glad it sounds like you're on the mend. Sobriety works miracles sometimes, doesn't it?
I totally relate to anxiety and self-medicating. It was the first thing that attracted me to alcohol as well, and often what kept drawing me back to it.
I totally relate to anxiety and self-medicating. It was the first thing that attracted me to alcohol as well, and often what kept drawing me back to it.
Still I rise.
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Oh Canada!
Posts: 1,121
Originally Posted by Darkblue 
Just wanted to give an update after about a month now.
Second tests came back perfectly normal.
Totally off all drink and don't ever intend to drink again
Changed my diet and started exercising.
I have much more energy, stable moods and overall I'm just happier.
I'm not being smug or self righteous. I want people to know that it's not only possible to turn things around, but it feels great too.
I have anxiety but always have. I think it's what made me self medicate.
I start counselling next week.
To all those starting the journey, push through. It gets better every day
Second tests came back perfectly normal.
Totally off all drink and don't ever intend to drink again
Changed my diet and started exercising.
I have much more energy, stable moods and overall I'm just happier.
I'm not being smug or self righteous. I want people to know that it's not only possible to turn things around, but it feels great too.
I have anxiety but always have. I think it's what made me self medicate.
I start counselling next week.
To all those starting the journey, push through. It gets better every day
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 24
It has been almost a year.
I do not miss alcohol at all. I haven't even seriously been close to drinking in the last year. I've been out to pubs and clubs with drinking and drunk friends, and never had a temptation.
I signed up for university and am 6 months into my first year towards a degree in Environmental Science.
I know that I didn't have alcoholism, but I was a binge drinker on the edge of tipping my life in the wrong direction. My father and his father were alcoholics, so I gave myself the scare and wake up call I needed to get of drink before it ruined my life.
I do not miss alcohol at all. I haven't even seriously been close to drinking in the last year. I've been out to pubs and clubs with drinking and drunk friends, and never had a temptation.
I signed up for university and am 6 months into my first year towards a degree in Environmental Science.
I know that I didn't have alcoholism, but I was a binge drinker on the edge of tipping my life in the wrong direction. My father and his father were alcoholics, so I gave myself the scare and wake up call I needed to get of drink before it ruined my life.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 24
I actually got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in September last year, but that's obviously nothing to do with drinking or not drinking. Bad luck/genetics.
But I am well, fit and healthy. I'm on the best kind of drugs available.
What has changed is my outlook and mental health. I had no idea how much alcohol was such a depressant. I was on SSRI drugs for years for depression and anxiety, but without booze, it's not an issue.
But I am well, fit and healthy. I'm on the best kind of drugs available.
What has changed is my outlook and mental health. I had no idea how much alcohol was such a depressant. I was on SSRI drugs for years for depression and anxiety, but without booze, it's not an issue.
Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: UK
Posts: 2,057
Originally Posted by Purpleknight
That's great news, the body will repair itself now given the chance!!
hmmm I have never thought about the gender of my liver!!
hmmm I have never thought about the gender of my liver!!
Dark blue I hope you are on the mend
Sounds like you can have a healthy future ahead of you if you take care of yourself 
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 24
I hope that me revisiting this page every now and then filters through to people, maybe at the start of their journey to sobriety.
I haven't checked the exact dates (they don't really matter to me) but I quit drinking right after my 25th birthday and I'm now almost 27 (1 month off). So I've been sober for 2 years now. It's not something I think about often, because it's just not part of my life.
I was on a path that's very close too home for me. My father was an alcoholic from a young age and died at 42, when I was 13 and my younger brother 8.
I always knew exactly what I was doing. I don't think I ever pretended my drinking was normal.
I always used to say that I didn't drink socially; I would drink to get drunk.
There are some, like me, who assume that alcohol becomes a problem when you can't function without it. It conjures images of the homeless and desperate. Maybe some enlightened few realise the existence of functioning alcoholics - office staff and school teachers and the like might be able to keep a constant level without showing effects.
What most people don't expect is the section of alcohol dependant people who haven't leaped the chasm between problem and addiction. They may be abstinent for weeks or longer, but then they have that drink, or that episode, and a binge ensues.
My drinking was mostly alone and always to excess. It progressed to 'hair of the dogs' before I'd just have black out weekends but, in the early days, always fine for work. Then my work closed down and the binges could grow in length - and consumption.
But I always knew that it was a problem. I never tried to justify it or pass it off. They'd happen maybe once or twice a month, then I'd be fine. Then the cycle repeated.
Eventually you have to find a point where you say enough. For me, it was fear.
I no longer think about alcohol. But hindsight is forgiving. It was difficult initially, and it gets easier each day until eventually you're firm in your reasoning and self.
Reading back my very first post makes me realise how close I came to falling down a hole.
I haven't checked the exact dates (they don't really matter to me) but I quit drinking right after my 25th birthday and I'm now almost 27 (1 month off). So I've been sober for 2 years now. It's not something I think about often, because it's just not part of my life.
I was on a path that's very close too home for me. My father was an alcoholic from a young age and died at 42, when I was 13 and my younger brother 8.
I always knew exactly what I was doing. I don't think I ever pretended my drinking was normal.
I always used to say that I didn't drink socially; I would drink to get drunk.
There are some, like me, who assume that alcohol becomes a problem when you can't function without it. It conjures images of the homeless and desperate. Maybe some enlightened few realise the existence of functioning alcoholics - office staff and school teachers and the like might be able to keep a constant level without showing effects.
What most people don't expect is the section of alcohol dependant people who haven't leaped the chasm between problem and addiction. They may be abstinent for weeks or longer, but then they have that drink, or that episode, and a binge ensues.
My drinking was mostly alone and always to excess. It progressed to 'hair of the dogs' before I'd just have black out weekends but, in the early days, always fine for work. Then my work closed down and the binges could grow in length - and consumption.
But I always knew that it was a problem. I never tried to justify it or pass it off. They'd happen maybe once or twice a month, then I'd be fine. Then the cycle repeated.
Eventually you have to find a point where you say enough. For me, it was fear.
I no longer think about alcohol. But hindsight is forgiving. It was difficult initially, and it gets easier each day until eventually you're firm in your reasoning and self.
Reading back my very first post makes me realise how close I came to falling down a hole.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 3,550
I've been where you are. And I was scared too. Checked myself into a rehab. Liver was not painful but I did have a feeling of toxicity and a sense that I was in deep trouble. The docs found the liver enzymes were very high and were surprised when they recovered back in about two weeks. I too had panic attacks in the middle of the night, and some eye jaundice. These panic attacks are difficult to describe but are very unpleasant indeed, a sense of something about happen.
The treatment for this is medical, stabilize the bodily fluids, maybe with an IV,, remove all access to alcohol, prescribe other medications. Get the appetite back, The rehab environment works best but is not foolproof. There is a need for aftercare and random urine and blood testing. Then a long term program of either AA or something which offers some type of collective support. Don't give up if there is a relapse. Learn from that and get back on the wagon. Good luck.
Just read the whole thread. Congratulations! Seems you're well out of the woods now and I feel a little foolish about this post but what I've said and what you've said may be a help to others. It's a very tough journey and many, many people don't make it back. We are lucky indeed!
W.
The treatment for this is medical, stabilize the bodily fluids, maybe with an IV,, remove all access to alcohol, prescribe other medications. Get the appetite back, The rehab environment works best but is not foolproof. There is a need for aftercare and random urine and blood testing. Then a long term program of either AA or something which offers some type of collective support. Don't give up if there is a relapse. Learn from that and get back on the wagon. Good luck.
Just read the whole thread. Congratulations! Seems you're well out of the woods now and I feel a little foolish about this post but what I've said and what you've said may be a help to others. It's a very tough journey and many, many people don't make it back. We are lucky indeed!
W.
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
