Horn95

As of last Friday, I really thought I was turning a corner. I was a few days shy of a couple of weeks sober. I felt physically great. But emotionally, it has been hard, bad mood swings,and explosive temper. I really think it was affecting my perceptions of my wife.

So Friday I was leaving the office and I called her to see if she wanted me to get some take out for dinner. Well, as it was about 7 p.m., she had already cooked and fed her Mom and daughter. I flipped.

For some reason I snapped. I unloaded on her and well, she unloaded back. I said some really harsh stuff in response.

And what did I do ? I went for solace in a bottle of scotch. And then back to it, Saturday, Sunday, and yesterday. The last few days primarily I was having terrible anxiety.

I think I need to see a psychiatrist about these mood swings. It was not the first time I blew up over something really minor. I want to avoid scrips if I can, but these mood swings have been terrible to deal with.

So I am back to Day One. I should have signed into SR. I also need to apologize to my wife.

I feel like this right now:

DarkestHour

I can sympathize, Horn95. I relapsed in June and it lasted until last Sunday. I'm seeing a psychiatrist this week. I think it's a good idea. I have bad anxiety and depression. Alcohol makes it worse but was not the sole cause for me. Good luck with your visit and hang in there.

doggonecarl

Early recovery is an emotional roller coaster. That doesn't mean we take our loved ones on the ride with us.

If you think a psychiatrist can help, by all means, see one. But in my own experience, sustained sobriety did more for my moods than anything else.

Keep working on your recovery. This time you drank because of anger, a result of flipping out. The next time it will be something else if you don't find a way to take alcohol out of the equation.

Misc72

I went to a psychiatrist and I HATED the meds they prescribed me. So be careful not to replace dealing with life on lifes terms with a magical pill. Stopping drinking is a bitch. It's only natural to have mood swings. At least you only wasted a few days and no real damage was done. Work a plan... Work on your anger issues. Most of these things can be done without the use of meds.

nez

What are you doing to work on or deal with the mood swings?

rainyengland

No words of wisdom from me

I'm exactly the same,116 days in and my dark mood is terrible.Im just waiting for a confrontation with someone ..it will always be someone I care about as well

I have a run of weeks where I'm on cloud 9 then few days of mental torture feeling people are wronging me and taking advantage

Hate this feeling

Good luck

Horn95

I don't know what to do. That's why I'm going to see a doc.

Tidytemper

Just to be clear, I'm not advising you to get a prescription for anything - just giving you my experience.

I too suffered from a very bad temper and often exploding at some of the simplest things. I was given an antidepressant to try by my doctor. Initially I was quite against it as I didn't consider myself to be depressed, however a surprising side effect is that it has completely levelled my mood out and even my blood pressure has dropped back to normal.

It also made me realise I'd been suffering from moderate anxiety too which it has helped with.

Just my two cents.

Jules714

What Carl said.
A couple of weeks is great!
BUT it took about a month to feel like I was a quarter of the way through the roller coaster. I'm still on it on day 48, but I can anticipate it more, handle it more.
Also diet and exercise play a part. I act /react better when I've got at least a half hour of exercise under my belt and if I ate fruit/veg rather than pizza and sugar.
Carbs/sugar cause that crash that *I find all encompassing. Tired and cranky takes over.
Be gentle with yourself and certainly others. Sometimes I have to hit pause on things when I feel off. Usually when I walk the dog.
Drinking never fixes things. It only makes it worse in every and all ways, always.
GL,
Jules

nez

What worked for me was establishing what my beliefs on the cosmos were. Then I explored what my deep seated philosophies, morals, and convictions were. I then decided to live by those to the best of my abilities. Next, I did a thorough accounting of where I had not done a good job of that in the past. I then did repair work on those situations that cropped up in my accounting process. I continue to assess my behavior on a daily basis to see where I might not have lived up to my philosophies, morals, and convictions and take appropriate corrective action. Doing this has done wonders as far as my mood swings go.

loulou1981

Firstly u gotta say sorry to the wife⚘⚘⚘⚘its normal to feel emotional & all over the place. Would u consider therapy?? Try that b4 the meds

tnman1967

I'm not a medical doctor and this is not medical advice, but I think all you really dealing with is the withdrawal from the poison you have been drinking. It's not easy in the beginning and those mood swings are more than likely helped by abstaining from Alcohol and it'll clear up. If not then seek medical advice but I would not resort to pills after only a couple of weeks off the bottle. I'm not trying to be harsh but this sobriety thing is not easy and takes a lot of hard work, especially in the beginning. Don't get discouraged, It will take a couple of months to clear up your mind and then you should see definite improvement in my opinion.

Horn95

Well put

Dee74

I think you'll find the mood swings are pretty much early recovery Horn?

Life will continue to throw things at you.

I really needed to take drinking off the table as a viable option and explore other ways of dealing with life and coping with powerful emotions like anger.

Drinking at things or people was one of my things.
Utterly futile.

I put a lot of effort into getting drunk and staying that way,

It was a revelation to me to realise it was entirely possible for me to put that same kind of effort into not drinking.

Like me, I think you know what to do but you willingly forget all that and say eff it.

I stopped that by posting here.

Even when I didn't quite believe I was worth the effort, I acted and worked like I was ...and then soon after I realised I really was worth it.

You can do this...but I think you need to take some action.
D

Hevyn

Horn - I definitely agree it's normal to be emotional & moody in those first days and weeks. I was getting tearful & upset over nothing & felt jumpy/confrontational. It all settled down! I'm glad you wanted to talk about it here.

KiKi0615

Hi Horn, I just wanted to say thank you for your post. It and all the replies helped me. I too am suffering with the early sobriety mood swings. Ugh.

Horn95

Thanks everyone. Your words of support have really helped.

Hevyn

I hope today's been better, Horn.