The Bumps and Bruises of Life
 

So, as I assume everyone here can relate to, when I was drinking, I was fairly oblivious to pain and injury. So now that I'm closing in on two months sober, I am increasingly aware of how much injuries actually hurt. And also, I am discovering that my 40 year old body just doesn't bounce back that quickly anymore. I am still struggling with the last injury from my final bender. My foot is fractured from stumbling over a chunk of concrete that was out in the courtyard where I take my dog at night. I was on day two of my taper when the pain pf that injury crept up on me. But I also have a few injuries from other equally uninteresting accidents. Has anyone else discovered in sobriety that they are suddenly borderline overwhelmed by the physical pain that they hadn't been feeling?

Not physical pain. But I was def overwhelmed by emotional pain and shame that I hadn't been feeling for years, so I can well imagine what you're going through.

Please get to the doctor so they can check your foot again. That pain could be your body trying to tell you something isn't healing right. One of my AA friends at about 18 months sober got massive back pains. Because he was sober he went to the doctors and discovered that he needed an urgent operation, and went and had it. He said he knows that if he was still drinking he'd have just self medicated through it, been to scared to visit a doctor in case they picked up on his drinking, and he would have ended up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. You can imagine how grateful he is now for his sobriety and the fact that he WAS overwhelmed by that pain, so he could address the problem. (And I'm equally grateful now that I was able to be overwhelmed by the emotional pain so that I would sort the underlying issues from that out, although it was fairly horrific for a while).

Pain isn't always bad. It's certainly not pleasant, but it is often the one thing that can spur us into action.

I have some pain connected to trauma injuries through alcohol and can manage that bit alright.

It's the clarity of realising how many bullets I've dodged and how many dangerous situations I've found myself. Very scary and sobering.

Like Bekky it is the overwhelming emotions and memories that I am finding hard. Keep telling myself that this is a necessary and healthy part of recovery. Sounds right.

Hope you find a way of working through this Steely. For me it was working a 12-step program that got me through, along with the support of other alcoholics in recovery (on here and in AA). I work on my program daily (doesn't take long, and the rewards make every minute worthwhile ) as I'm determined to not go back to that place where I'd eventually got your the stage that I didn't want to be alive any more.

Yes!
I feel like I'm aware of every single pain in my body - physical and emotional!
My teeth are the worst - I am ashamed to admit that because I drank every single night until I passed out I rarely brushed my teeth before bed!
So now my 41 year old teeth are suffering!
I have been in agony and have paid out hundreds of pounds over the last week!
I have only been sober 10 days.
I'm too afraid to go to a doctor - I haven't been in years!

I have a few reminders that cause some pain from time to time, age also plays a factor.....53 next month.

For me it's a stark reminder as are the scars why I will not go back to drinking again.

Andrew

I can think of a few situations where I'm lucky I lived, literally!

The biggest pain is that I know realize I led a less than mediocre life thanks to alcohol and other substances.

Well Jsm, my life sure wasn't mediocre, it has been an absurd mess. Some things I wouldn't want to miss, had some great fun at the beginning, but it turned bad pretty quickly. So now I'll go for mediocre in a heartbeat.

Pains, yes. Sometimes my lower back still hurts like hell because I cracked my pelvis in a drunk driving accident. Could've easily died. Sore wrists from getting my cuffed hands from my back to the front while in the drunk tank. Cops were surprised I managed to do that. Still hurts all because I wanted to scratch my nose. Huge scar on my leg because I was careless with a trash bag full of glass when I worked in a bar. Doesn't hurt but I won't wear skirts or shorts anymore. Some false teeth at 33 and that's so embarrassing (I had to look up how to spell that, google images are weirdly comforting. At least I never ended up as a meme, well, not that I know of.).

Like Beccy and Steely said. A lot of memories (I kept on drinking to forget the things I did while drunk, and now they're flooding me from time to time) are more painful than any physical pain I ever endured.

I did notice that and I had quite a few injuries all sustained while under the influence

The best thing was in sobriety I continued to sort through my health issues

I had the usual busted shins and knees when I sobered up. I always tended to fall quite often after a particularly strenuous bender. But the foot injury probably would have happened to me had I been sober. It was completely dark and there was a chunk of concrete block out in the middle of the courtyard. The kids in thos apartment complex like to play with the rocks in the landscaping, so consequently, there are always big rocks out where they shouldn't be. But yes, I am calling my doctor tomorrow morning to see when I can get in to get my foot looked at. It was so swollen around the fracture that the bone wasn't moving, so I thought it was just a nasty bone bruise. It is pretty well healed, but still painful from time to time, so I have a feeling that physical therapy is what I need to get it past the stage of limited mobility.

The short answer to your OP is, yes. Also, as I'm sure you know, alcohol is a great painkiller, but it is also an inflammatory. When I was drinking on the weekends, Sunday and Monday my joints would hurt very bad. I have arthritis pretty much everywhere (I'm only 48) and it would flare up real bad. Now that I don't drink the only time it seems to flare up is changes in the weather.