PennyLane76

Hi all, wondering if you have gone through this? I had a nasty initial withdrawal in July. Had a 17 day sober stint since, 32 days, lots of 5 days and now its been 16 days and I feel this time it will stick. Each slip was one day only.

All of a sudden a few of my initial withdrawal symptoms have popped up. Wakening at 3 am in complete panic vs. awakening with anxiety. Extreme fatigue and headaches. None of the serious symptoms of initial withdrawal of course. Does PAWS appear all of a sudden like this awhile after withdrawal?

Any advise or "I've been there" appreciated. Thanks guys!

strategery

I had some similar symptoms pop up briefly when I was close to 5 months of sobriety that were similar to what I experienced my first month. I was really scared too, but they went away after a few days.

I generally found that after the first 2 weeks, I had massive tiredness and was super hungry. The tiredness went away around 5 weeks of sobriety.

Keep on hanging in there. Give it some time. They will go away.

Dime

I found that my body was really sensitive to my taking care of it. Eating 3 good meals a day and getting enough rest was very important in my recovery. I had a doctor carrying for me during my recovery and found it very helpful to keep him informed.

Just remember that the longer you are sober the better you will feel.

Hang in there!!

Anna

I don't think I had that happen, but I know that I began paying more attention to my body talking to me after more or less ignoring any physical issues for a few years.

Bitchcraft

I had strange occurrences of symptoms at later stages

Andante

Definitely "been there." Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS) symptoms come and go, sometimes quite suddenly, in my experience.

Hang in there and they will go away eventually -- but only as long as you don't drink again.

The problem with short stints of abstinence alternating with short periods of drinking is that it tends to exacerbate withdrawals -- both acute and post-acute. Google "alcoholic kindling" for more information. There's a good thread on SR about kindling, too, but I'm not sure how to link it.

Dee74

It's sometimes difficult in early recovery to differentiate between things like Paws and simply being run down or unwell.

If this link rings a bell, there's some great info on managing PAWS here Sadie:

PAWS | Digital Dharma

D

SereneEdition

Hi Sadie -

Yes, I experienced this. I had never had an 'anxiety' episode before either!

Knowing that it was PAWS - it was my body doing long term healing/rewiring - helped me have patience to get through it.

I found that if I focused on giving my body the right things it needed to heal (sleep, eating well, cut back on the caffeine, get physical activity, keeping my workload down) that it helped.

I suggest experimenting a bit and doing a journal to know what helps you feel better. It helped me to see that the episodes were significantly decreasing when I cut out the caffeine (I really didn't want to do that one!)

I also visited the dr. to get checked out. Turns out I was depleted on some vitamins and by getting the right building blocks, I believe I got through PAWS a little faster.