Void

Here's an odd one for you...

During periods of alcoholism (I don't necessarily mean while drunk, just while the brain is dogged by addiction) has anyone here lost the ability to recognise words and sentences?

I know I have. I've lost track of how many times I'd glance at, say, a newspaper headline and think - 'What?!' - before looking at it again and realising it said something completely different to what I first thought.

Not just newspapers either - books, stuff online, even road signs.

I've been sober a while now and it's getting better, but I'm still not back to how I was before. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Another common one is the feeling that when I parked my car and opened the door to get out, the car was rolling backwards as if the handbrake hadn't been applied. And this was while sober, as I didn't drive drunk.

This has also stopped since I last had a drink. 25 days today.

FBL

I imagined all kinds of weird stuff during my drinking "career" (and not when I was actually drinking). Alcohol does weird things to the brain.

Marissa41

Congrats for 25 days!! It takes time for our bodies to heal. I can't even begin to tell all the bad physical stuff that's happened to me. One day I was driving and completely forgot where I was and I was sober! Scary stuff! Stay on board and it will get better!

REsoberALITY

Not exactly but some things similar. For instance.... I've lived in this house 13 yrs and I'll open a door in the dark and reach for the lightswitch on the wrong wall!? Not just once, multiple times. I also turn around at least twice a week to see if I shut the garage door before I'm a block down the road. Some things have gotten better though..... Crazy.

Mklove

I've always thought I was just a space shot but since I stopped drinking I've noticed less ability to read long books, jittery, maybe alcohol numbed me even when's was not actually drinking. Hardly ever drank during the day but started after 5 until sleep,whenever that was. But used to read so much more.

D122y

I didn't have reading issues...I had paranoia for the first several months clean.

My heart would start racing, I would get an adrenaline release, sweaty hands.

I was living in a nightmare several times a day.

It is all but gone now except for periods of craving throughout the day. I drank any time, just not all the time.

I was a booze hound, now I am a gym rat.

Much better lifestyle.

Thanks.

Purpleskye

Definitely. I've found that it was worse forty days in or so, and I'm still finding conversation - normally a very natural and easy process for me - to be difficult. I can't find words, or I suddenly second guess whether I know the correct meaning of the word I want to use, or adrenaline issues and suddenly I'm a stuttering mess. While it still plagues at times, I've seen it lighten up a little here and there while currently riding out day 76.
Even just reading posts on here, I've noticed I'll read something and skip entire sentences without registering. Which has happened to me while being lost in thought, but never before have I consciously read something and then immediately lost any memory of it.

And same about the reaching for the light switch on the wrong side of the wall...this, entirely! I've posted previously about putting my phone in my purse, putting my purse on my shoulder, and then having a panic attack through the house looking for my phone. It's very frustrating, but will get better! One day at a time.

Dee74

Like FBL said alcohol did weird stuff to my brain.

25 days sober is great but still early enough for your mind to still be a little 'foggy'.

I hope you'll continue to see improvement now you're sober

Zeebs

I review reports for a living. While I was drinking, I remember looking at words on the computer screen that I've probably seen at least a hundred thousand times and thinking they were misspelled. Even simple four- and five-letter words.

I also used to drop things all the time, which turned out to be another symptom of alcoholic polyneuropathy.

LBrain

I was experiencing those kinds of things for the first six months after i got sober...

August252015

YES. Yes. Yes. The word "thing" was huge for me, and very scary. I am an exceedingly verbal person- and I write, and my way of understanding the world is largely in what I think of as word pictures- and I went through something similar to what you describe.

Toward the end of my drinking- I am 235 days sober today- I often felt like I couldn't quite grasp the word I wanted and I would (usually quickly) substitute another, not quite right one. No one noticed because it was a matter of me being precise with what I actually wanted to say and still generally getting a synonym out, but I noticed it. It gradually went away as my brain cleared and my word reflexes came back. I was so worried about my conversational ability and skill at getting thoughts out at the level I was used to being forever trashed.

I was drinking very heavily for a long time and I went through serious PAWS. It probably took till 60,70 days for this to really heal. It was somewhere around 100 days that my physical symptoms were "passed through and out" of my whole body. This particular one is one of the things I am so glad wasn't permanently damaged.

blackened83

This started happening to me after i quit drinking. Maybe i was forgetting the words before but i didn`t care.. i am not sure exactly

LBrain

and another thing...

maybe 3 or 4 months after I quit, I would find myself driving down the highway and forget where I was going... my brain had a lot of adjustments to make