Withdrawals.....
 

So it has been about 19 hours since my last drink. Last night I woke up at 1:30 am and could not go back to sleep. Racing thoughts, anxiety, adrenaline, and some sweating. Bad nausea too. Last time I was dry, it took about a day for the nausea to go away. A little shakiness, but very minor.

Question is, does anyone have any experience in withdrawals ramping up post-24 hours? I have a business trip scheduled tomorrow. I have some Klonopin if I am not feeling better by morning. Not asking for advice, just interested in folk’s experiences. Thanks in advance.

As you know, every person and every withdrawal is different and each time you withdraw again the symptoms and severity can ramp up.

Here's that Kindling article...again. :(

NIH - Kindling

I am now a week sober after 4 years of drinking. My mind was in it to stop drinking but day 3 I had anxiety, the shakes, insomnia, night sweats, and a feeling like i needed to do something. Funny, but I have still been a avid runner for 17 years. I stopped for 5 months and started up again this week. I can honestly say that the exercise helps immensely with withdrawals. After a good run I am relaxed, and the shakes stop. I am more focused too so I can stay on track. If you can....exercise the pent up energy. It will help. I wish you much on your journey.

Depends how much you were drinking, your physical and mental condition. I had hallucinations 10 days after stopping drinking. But you are not me. Keep loved ones and medical professionals informed. I hope this goes smoothly for you.

I am 15 days sober. For the first 5 days my withdrawal symptoms were pretty persistent. The first 3 days being the hardest for me. I turned to walking, magnesium oil on my feet at night and calming herbal supplements to help get me through. I've noticed a big difference in how I felt physically after adding these things to my recovery process during the first days/week. Those things are still helping now. I wish you ease in the coming days.

Hi Horn,

To echo what everyone said, withdrawal is different for everyone, but I can speak to my experience (unfortunately I have gone through it several times) --

As you've probably read, withdrawal usually peaks 24-48 hours following the last drink. This has been true for me. Within ~15-19 hours, I start feeling a bit shaky, maybe some sweating, but nothing major. For me, it gets bad after the 24-hour mark. I am a binge drinker, so I don't drink every day, but when I do drink, I go way overboard and generally keep myself inebriated for 2-3 days. I can tell you that on day 2 or 3, the nights can be terrible. I have pins and needles pain randomly, chest pain, shakiness, difficulty with equilibrium (balance, walking etc), muscle spasms...the whole 9.

Not to scare you, but without knowing the extent of your drinking, I'd like to let you know that one time after a particularly bad binge, I was more or less okay the first 2 days. Didn't feel great, had bad anxiety, but nothing that I thought was too dangerous... day 3 no drinking, I go to work on my thesis. I work all day, chugging water etc. By the end of the day, I start to feel like my heart is racing. I mean like I felt like I was having a heart attack. I raced to the health center at my university and told them that. Wrote it off, as I was only 28 at the time, and wrote me a prescription for Ativan. Go to take the shuttle home and a full-blown panic attack hits me. Suddenly I'm paranoid, hearing things, my voice sounds echo-y when I speak; in short, I'm certain I'm about to die. Had to call an ambulance, for the first time in my life. I had to stay in hospital for 3 days to replenish my vitamins etc.

This may not be the case for you, but I'm telling you all this to say -- do NOT mess around with alcohol withdrawal. It is the only withdrawal that can actually be fatal, and the symptoms can come on very suddenly and out of nowhere, as they did for me that time. As I said, it's happened several times since, but nothing that warranted a hospital visit. You can possibly avoid it by drinking lots of water, Gatorade, Pedialyte, all those to rebalance electrolytes.. for me I also take vitamin B and D supplements, as alcohol interferes with the body's vitamin absorption capabilities.

Just stay true to what your body is telling you, please. There is no shame in going to the ER for help if you need it, and if so, be sure to be honest about your drinking. They've seen it a million times and will not judge you.

Hang in there, and keep us posted :)

*Note: When I say I am a binge drinker, I mean to say I was a binge drinker. I've stopped, thank god !

Sure - nothing worse. Well, I'm sure there are things worse. But they suck.

That said, for me, they've passed. Please seek medical help if you need.

God I don't miss those. 41 days ago I was at lunch with my saint of a wife and I couldn't get the soup spoon to my mouth without shakes.

What a terrible way to live.

Get sober brother.

No one is coming to save us.

Thanks. I am feeling ok right now. Which is kind of how it went last time. I did take a low dose of Klonopin. Still having anxiety, but not nearly as bad as it was this morning.

As far as how heavy i was drinking, no less than the equivalent of two bottles of wine a day. 4 5 oz. glasses of wine and two double scotches. This went for about a week.

I have, however, been consistent about taking a whole vitamin, l-theanine, and B-complex vitamins. Also Fish oil. I’ve also been exercising.

We’ll see.

Preach!!! Nothing worse than going out to eat and worrying about what I can and can't order due to my shakes.

You can get through this! And one you do, do everything you can to plan and prevent yourself from having to endure it again. It's a nightmare.

Horn,

Just a quick note about the benzo you mentioned - and again, emphasizing that this is ONLY my experience, and I've never been addicted to benzos. I did, however, begin to sort of rely on the small Rx I was given to "save" me from alcohol withdrawal, which in the long run was super detrimental for me in terms of real recovery. I would think well, the worst thing about alcohol abuse is the withdrawal, so if I have this stuff, I'll feel better after feeling the incredibly deceitful "high" of alcohol... I hope I'm making sense. Definitely not meaning to imply this is the case for you, just kind of a cautionary tale that it's possible to use these drugs as a crutch, and that won't help you stop long-term the way real recovery support will.

:)

Great comments above. Obviously, as already mentioned, it's difficult to give specific advice because everyone is different, and reactions depend on so many things, particularly previous drinking habits.

For me, I found (the one time I managed to quit and avoid drinking for 4 months) that exercise definitely makes things easier, but that is not always possible. For so many of the symptoms, when they do hit, I found that breathing exercises were incredibly effective. They can even be done sitting down at a desk, with ten colleagues in the room, or on the plane, or in the car, even when driving, or at 2am when it feels like I'm having a panic attack. Just by lying relaxed on my back, or sitting and placing feet firmly on the floor, hands relaxed on the knees (or steering wheel), and staying focused on slow breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth, I honestly feel that I am able to slow down my racing heartbeat, calm my stress level a bit, get my eyes to stop flitting left and right and focus on what is going on right in front of me.

In general though, in my limited experience, after 24 hours, it's about as bad as it's going to be (but this is from the perspective of someone who typically drinks from 5am until the moment I go to bed, so my initial reaction is fairly rapid. Having said that, I never found that it got much easier over the next 5 days. It was just a matter of managing things, sleeping when I could, and (because it is legal where I am and I was prescribed it) taking cannabis capsules at bedtime so that I got a better sleep.

I hope for the best for you, and that your business trip goes well.

I agree completely. I do not intend, and will not, start drinking because I have the Klonopin. I am just using it now to get me through today, and tomorrow. But I get your point.

Withdrawals get nothing but worse every time you drink. What once was just feeling like crap in the morning, will turn into days, possibly weeks of absolute hell.
For sure make that the last time, and get a solid sobriety plan in place.

I have no relevant experienmce to share Horn - hoep it works out OK. One thing I would siggest tho - the AV will be screaming at you to take a drink - just to appear normal, or to get through this day/night/meeting whatever.

Don;t give in.

You need change Horn, not more of the same and change starts here on a business trip and the decisions you make. You can do this :)

D

Thanks Dee. You are absolutely spot on.

Forward is right -- they only get worse. What was once a simple hangover - like "eh, gotta sleep this off" - turns into really scary nightmarish episodes of feeling out of control.