WaterOx

we're all familiar with the usual suspects of alcohol withdrawl:

anxiety
depression
irritability
insomnia
brain fog
forgetfulness
........Did I leave any out? Probably. Anyways....

But what about the ones you have had that no one has heard of before?

For me, the two biggest ones are mild palpitations and achiness that seems to shift around in my body. It doesn't seem like anyone ever mentions that.

Anyways I thought I'd start a thread of the "unusual suspects" just in case anyone had any particular symptoms they wanted to share that never get mentioned in recovery 101. Maybe we all have more in common than we know!

WeThinkNot

Two I had mentioned in another thread were sleep apnea and erectile dysfunction.

Some nights I would be on the verge of sleep and my breathing would get irregular. Before dozing off I would feel like I stopped breathing and then lurch forward out of panic. It was terrifying. I never experienced it before sobriety and thankfully it seems to have stopped along with the depression.

I had ED for about two or three months straight. Nothing. No activity whatsoever. To be honest I actually didn't care since I was battling depression so ED was the least of my worries.

I have a funny story about that, if this is inappropriate let me know. One day I was at the gym training my legs. At the end of my workout I went to the leg press machine, I was going to lift to failure and call it a day. I'm doing my reps and use all the energy in my reserve tank to push the last rep out.

Then I felt something.

My friend awoke from his months long slumber. And he was in an ANGRY mood.

As discreetly as possible I go to the locker room and then it hits me...there was no way I was going to be able to hit the showers in my "condition". I grabbed my gym bag from the locker and drove home in my sweaty gym clothes.

No problems since.

trachemys

Random sharp pains all over my body. Feels like being stabbed with an ice pick .

WhoDeyPI

I don't know if any of these are related to my sobriety at all....

I've noticed my legs have been a bit..."splotchy". Not yellow, red, or swollen like they were when I was really sick....just like...normal flesh color in most areas, with some dime sized pale spots. Very odd, but doesn't bother me.

I get some sores on my scalp under my hair....zit type things. Also, not sure if these are related, but never had them before.

In the mornings I often sneeze bloody discharge. And then later in the morning I'll have like phlegm with chunks of brown/dark red. I blame the dry air, because using a humidifier helps to a certain point.

I feel like this took a gross turn lol. Oh well, I'm an open book.

WaterOx

omg I almost forgot about that one! I would get that kind of in between drinking. Like when I was drinking heavy but I would go for a day or two without (long for me).

I'd get these random shooting pains, especially in my knee. They wouldn't last but they came out of nowhere. Fortunately that went away.

Polaroid

Well, I've been through quite a few withdrawals - I don't get any physical pain, but the first thing you listed - anxiety - that goes through the roof, and may be overshadowing any other symptoms I may have.

As for physical symptoms; hyperventilating, so damn shaky, all over my body.

I'm not sober, I'm in the cycle, and am not sure yet what to do about it. Every day, when I wake up (I try to sleep for as long as I can, as that helps me stop thinking), the anxiety is there to torment me. It exhausts me... What's the first thing I have to do? Drink some (non-alcoholic) fluids, like juice, as I feel so dehydrated. Then, a few glasses of wine to calm me down......

So, forgetfulness, no... rather the opposite. I remember WAY too much than an alcoholic like me should.

WaterOx

That's interesting, Polaroid. There's a whole thread we could also cover on what symptoms we were "supposed" to get but never did.

I never got the shakes or nausea. I never experienced the heart racing thing during my 10 years of heavy drinking. It was only after relapse when I started moderating a few beers a week that I started experiencing the weird heart stuff, including these palpitations that occur a few times every day. The doc seems to think they will go away in time. It's been 7 weeks since my last drink, so I hope he's right.

ScottFromWI

For me a lot of the symptoms I was having were manufactured by my anxiety. Health anxiety to be specific. I obsessed about ever little twinge, pain, movement or feeling i had in my body. I would google for hours trying to find out what the potential cause was and I self-diagnosed myself with just about every possible thing you could imagine. I was convinced that I had some kind of neurological disorder, and i could literally worry myself into manufacturing symptoms of said disorders. For example, one time I read somewhere that blood sugar levels might have something to do with whatever I thought was wrong with me at a time - so I bought a blood sugar test kit and literally tested it at least 10 times a day. And that's just one example of many.

I may have taken things to an extreme, but the point is - if you've been to a doctor and they've confirmed that you are pretty much in good physical health - than you probably are. And Dr. Google is probably going to cause more problems than it solves.

teeej

Constipation!! My body was so used to having the beer as a laxative, my gut is still having problems. Anyone else?

fintime

Lets see
Hallucinations - Auditory - I used to hear music playing through my bath fan. To the point I recorded it with my phone and played it for someone. They said I was crazy.
Tactile ? - felt like it was raining indoors

Paranoia was awful at times thinking everyone was looking at me or stalking me.

Brain zaps when trying to fall asleep.

Im not going back to any of this mess.

WhoDeyPI

LOL, idk why this made me laugh, my bad. But no, I was never a beer drinker, and the liquor just dehydrated me making me constipated. Now, I'm normal again. Hallelujah!

WaterOx

Now that you mention it, yes. I was never constipated, per se, but my regularity definitely changed up a bit. Seems to be evening out, slowly.

WaterOx

It can be pretty hellish, can't it? I have definitely heard of hallucinations- and I have definititely experienced paranoia...usually in the first week of acute recovery. There is a day or two where I am obsessing about the stupidest little stuff...who said what, how I responded, omg they hate me, I hate them.....

then it passes and I'm like "wth was I worried about?"

WaterOx

That's odd isn't it, since ED is usually accompanied by heavy drinking. It would seem that happens a lot...contradictory symptoms...

For example it makes sense that a person would become anxious, since the absece of alcohol would cause someone's nervous system to kick into overdrive. What is not so clear is why the opposite happens. For example, why would anyone get "brain fog", feel tired and depressed? We are suppose to feel happier, more energetic and think more clearly, right??

It just goes to show you this isn't about the substance in isolation but rather the complexities of one's own body. So many moving parts and the symptoms are the only things we are aware of. Imagine what amazing complexity lies beneath.

canguy

Itching. Don't forget the itching.

Also the runny nose and watering eyes. Beer drinking....full of histamines, so its sort of like having hay fever all the time.

Both take a while to go too...

enginear26

Not so crazy. I hear rhythms and melodies in household appliances. I noticed it years ago on drugs and when I was drinking heavily when I wasn't listening to music or video.

I would not call it a symptom but a sense of awareness. Some are more sensitive to auditory frequencies etc. Especially musicians and audio engineers

enginear26

One symptom I have noticed is a saliva discharge. It would start for me a little after lunch time and continue to get worse into the evening. It was kind of like my body was saying "come on...where is it...I need it".

Day 4 now and I feel it dissipating.

Polaroid

I never got any heart racing or palpitations either. Actually, my heart rate slows down (it was clocked at 42 last time at rehab, they had to double check it)

... As for ED, as you describe it... is also the total opposite for me. Maybe because I have been numbing my feelings for so long, and they are suddenly coming back. I'm lying there in my hospital bed with a constant.... never mind.

Other than that, dizziness, brain fog - but the worst of it all, is the anxiety. It feels like torture - I honestly wish I could withdraw while being under anesthesia, or something.

Never had any hallucinations, and I've always been aware of my surroundings (eg, where I am - what day it is, as they usually ask)

Having an appointment for an CT/X-Ray scan in about a week, to see how my liver is doing, and I dread the results.

I've been a heavy drinker now for almost 10 years. That should be the cut-off point...

enginear26

LOL Nice save

TheWayBack

I swear I think I've had all of them. Including some that no one else has maybe ever heard of. When you drink as much as I did, you become an expert on getting symptoms.

Among the ones I hated most are:

Waking up sweating profusely at night. I would have to get up and get a towel and dry off it was so bad. Gross.

Waking up extremely thirsty, several times a night. It's hard to sleep well when all this crap is going on.

Waking up in the morning and seeing 'spiders' crawling around on the walls. That weren't there. When you don't let that stop you from drinking, you've pretty much lost your mind.

I've had all of the common ones of course.

Now that I've stopped drinking, the worst ones are depression and anxiety. From what I'm reading around here, that doesn't sound uncommon. But it sucks.