Alcohol Withdrawal
The symptoms of alcohol withdrawal are exceptionally unpleasant, as I’m sure you know. There are physical symptoms and emotional ones. Let’s start with the most extreme to get it out of the way – death.
Yes, if you’re physically dependent on alcohol, then a sudden withdrawal as opposed to a gradual detox can actually kill you or leave you with brain damage, usually via a seizure (a bit like an epileptic fit). Heart palpitations are the milder form of this. But lets hope you’re not quite that bad just yet (if you are drinking over 70 units per week for a woman or 100 for a man, then at least try to cut down gradually, or better than that – see a doctor).
On to the less fatal withdrawal symptoms then, we have hallucinations (usually unpleasant – spiders or snakes are common), the shakes, nausea and vomiting, oh and diarrhoea of course. Particularly unpleasant is waking in the middle of the night soaked in cold sweat, or alternatively, your own piss. It’s not sounding like a party exactly, is it?
Then you might have a splitting headache, often from severe dehydration and dilation of blood vessels. Basically the brain shrinks away from the lining of the skull. Ouch!
Hypoglycaemia, caused by the inability of the liver to metabolize sugar, can then leave you feeling irritable, nervous or aggressive, and weak.
You might end up with a few more emotional effects too, like mood swings, depression or confusion. Basically feeling like the lowest form of life on the planet.
So how can you make alcohol withdrawal easier?
- Electrolyte replacement might help (the sachets you can get for diarrhoea are the best), along with plenty of liquids.
- Complex carbohydrates (like brown rice, wholemeal bread, wholegrain cereals etc.) will help to slowly stabilize your blood sugar levels.
- Eggs contain Cysteine, which can help the liver to metabolize Acetaldehyde (the toxic by-product of alcohol).
- B-vitamin supplements are essential, as they help your nerve cells to recover from the damage you’ve inflicted.
- We all know about the healing powers of caffeine – this constricts the blood vessels and can therefore alleviate the headache.
But to be on the safe side, if you’re drinking most mornings in order to get through your hangover, or you often get the shakes and sweats if you haven’t had a drink for a while, then you really should get some medical support before you consider withdrawing.
Hiya all, I am still here, I check this site on an almost daily basis but I don’t post often. So today is the start of my third day of the beer but I am still smoking though
Have to admit that it hasn’t been an easy two days so far and I am dreading tonight because people tell me that the third day is the hardest, but I dunno how true that is lol. First day seemed okish, if I had money in my pocket I would have bought beer there is no doubt about that. Yesterday was hard, I couldn’t get the money from anywhere and I tried buying on my card but it was declined twice — really embarrasing to tell the truth and I won’t show my face in that shop again.
I guess if it was possible to bottle how I feel in the mornings and carry it with me, I would only have to take a swig of that bottle and I know that would be enough to stop me from drinking. I’m determined to stop the booze and I am going to battle it tonight and I will let you all know how I get on.
I hope everyone else is doing ok.
K.
Hi all
I have’t posted in a while….I’ve been on and off the booze since before the new year, but I have been doing better, my binges are shorter and the times inbetween are longer.
Right now I am doing Great!!!….. I got a new job as a Crane Operator …… This job has random piss tests so it forces me to quit drinking alltogether.
Hope you are all doing well too.
Bye for now….Claude
I don’t think mine made it to the wall last night Jax. I thought i would show you how the plant the seed and it will grow thing works. Oh well at least Tobin will have the last bit of my jigsaw. So that’s it now then Tobin. On woods and up woods as they say. Oh and that eating disorder thing. I am now pretty much ok there now. A couple of Hicks here and there. And it was me that treated my self. A normal GP seems to have no idea about that disorder so it was down to me to sit there and think back to were it started and from there i started to understand Wat was wrong with me. To put it into a nut shell it was all in my head. Ok then that just leaves 3 and a half grand to put the last bit right then i am me again. 3500 well its not possible so steady as she blows……………………….C yazz
Anyone else’s posts all mixed up?
OK here goes. You no we all boot on about alcohol on this page…..Well that’s fine and i understand alcohol as good as the next woman or man. But i think the thing we don’t really address is why some of the alcoholics or problem drinkers first hit the bottle. You no the underlying problems that were there before they drank. It could be divorce it could be that they were fiddled with IE step farther or some thing…Lost the house or dads died or mum or some one close has took there own life. Now the list is a bit endless there but as a hole alcohol can be put right and i don’t give a crap to any one that tells me it cant.. You have the first problem then you find a way to suppress it IE that’s were the booze comes in……Now be it 6 weeks or 20 years on booze you have to address the first problem…..I hope you can understand wat i am trying to say…..In a nut shell its a bit like this you get off booze …Now that’s the secondary bit or problem but booze now it is becomes a bigger problem than the first and how things go in life you forget about the first problem mainly because your pissed all the time….But its there deep in your head and it will show its ugly face again and then your back on the drink….Thats why i all ways ask people on my side back here why did you start to drink as in the part from just popping out for a pint to smashed with piss stinking jeans….Now get that person of booze that bits easy if done in the right way.. The real hard crafting part is to put right the part that started them drinking and its a must you have to or you will at some point become a active alcoholic again….That’s why i wish and i wish this in the nicest way that people that come on this sight and post would just loose there selves and let it all out…….What the hell have you got to loose apart from maybe 30 mins of thinking and 1 hour to lay your post down…And who the hell cares how long it is ….Now you maybe drink for 16 hours a day so wats 1 and a half to get it all of your chest,,,,,,,,,,Well i will have to leave that with you….Well this post lays in TOBIN’S hands and i just hope he understands what i am saying i no you do……
Hi Guys
Sorry haven’t been on for a while, really busy at work / home. Well my brother was doing really well but he started drinking again on Saturday
Thought he was really going to stop this time. He’d rang a PADS counsellor (can’t remember was PADS stands for sorry) but couldn’t get an appointment till 15th Feb. Apparently they are going to give him a pill that makes him violently ill everytime he drinks. He asked if he could get in any sooner and said he was getting irritable and moody – which he was! Proper snap dragon.. anyway, he went the docs and asked if they could give him something to tie him over. Doc gave him sleeping pills although he’s been sleeping right through so that didn’t really make sense.. Dunno whether they will see him now he’s started again? I hope they will.
Like I said he was back on it Saturday and also yesterday. Poor mam is gutted. We all are but its had a huge impact on her. Like you said in your post about not letting your son in the house Jane, we’ve done that and its the most horrible feeling in the world but before he left the house he was warned not to come back drunk and used to ignore it all the time. Then would start trying to cook daft o’clock in the morning – it was just hellish, no-one was sleeping properly and so was going to work zombified. Then mam said right, no you’re not staying. Unfortunately he stays with his alcoholic friend around the corner.. I really think he will be dead by the time he is 40 the way he’s going on and its heartbreaking.. He has pancreatitis which is deadly anyway, his liver is knackered and has all sorts of other health problems relating to his drinking.. Really, really sad atmosphere in the house at the minute.
Anyway, on a lighter note, I hope you are all ok. I hope those of you who were expecting a visit from the ‘EAF’ kept her away.. From what I hear, she’s a right evil biaatch! Hope you’re all being good.
I am supposed to be working at the minute so must be off but will pop back on later. Toodle pip x
Hi All…
Just checking in to say all good here! Nine weeks ago today was my Day 1…the day I called a halt to my daily cider binges. Today I am a different person, and so grateful for this site.
My “Wait til Tomorrow” resolve seems to have worked for me… This voice doesn’t have to be so forceful now because the question “Shall I have a drink today? is no longer my first thought of the day! I have enjoyed a couple of G&T’s…but never more than one a week. Luckily gin is not my open the bottle and chuck it down my neck to reach oblivion drink…I seem to be able to sip it in quite a ladylike manner!!
Ramona and Steve…You are both doing brilliantly! Your posts are so much more upbeat and cheerful when the booze isn’t winning!
Dolly, My Love…Where are you??
Love To All…Remember, We CAN do this!
So glad for you Gillian x
I understand what you are saying about the underlying problem, Sean. I guess if I had an underlying problem then it would stem back to a time (a number of years ago) when I used to take drugs. Every year we used to take magic mushrooms when they were in season (about 5 times a year). Once year I took more than everyone else, and plus the mushrooms were picked in a different location, which means that they could have been a bad crop to begin with. I ate about 300 raw mushrooms but they were larger than the usual type and they have bigger teets on top, which means they contain more of the hallucinogenic drug — psilocybin.
The trip started off all right and then went from bad to worse. My previous mushroom trips had all gone well and were a laugh. To cut a long story short I ended up suffering from nerve damage, anxiety, and paranoia as a result of being poisoned. Not a laughing matter and it screwed me up for a good six years or more. My anxiety levels were always worse during the evenings and at night, and nothing would take it away. Because of how I was suffering I was unable to take drugs anymore, not even so much as marijuana. Then one evening I decided to buy a four pack of beer and much to my surprise it actually removed the bad feelings completely.
So there began my escalation into alcoholism, but to begin with it was really short lived. I drank heavily for a number of years — going out twice at the weekend and getting wasted, waking up in the police cells, re-living embarrassing moments the following morning (don’t you just hate those people who always start off drinking fast and then once everyone else is ahead they slow right down? Yeah, they are the people who always tell the stories the following morning and help you to re-live all the embarrassing things you said and did the night before). I knew what alcohol was doing to me at that time, and many people were quick to point it out all too often. I suffered a bad bout of alcohol withdrawal — most of which was anxiety and paranoia — and I stopped drinking for about 5–6 years.
That was then. Now I have been drinking beer most nights for the last 6–7 years. In the beginning someone who I love and care for very dearly encouraged me to start drinking again. I had explained that I didn’t like alcohol and that I had a problem (one pint is too much but ten isn’t enough), but this person just assured me that I was basically wrong, and that I didn’t have a problem and I would be all right. In the beginning it started off with just four cans a night, but now I can easily drink eight cans a night plus anything else that’s in the booooooooze cupboard LOL.
My younger brother [28] died suddenly while on holiday three years ago, and although it changed my life I wouldn’t say it had/has anything to do with my binge drinking — my problem existed a long time before his death. The weird thing is that I no longer suffer from any of the ill effects from the mushroom unpleasantness, so I can’t understand why I still have an association with alcohol and the hours of 19:00–00:00. I don’t know if alcohol is filling a void or if it has created one… I wish there was a way of removing all this from my life, but I haven’t been successful so far, so I guess I’ll just have to keep on searching.
I’m lucky in the sense that although I have a problem (and I openly admit that), I have good people in my life who are there to support me — they have even been buying me booze when I have no money. Although I imagine that they haven’t been doing me any favours, I don’t blame them for this, I blame myself. I used to be such a healthy person, lean, muscular, and really fit. Now I’m over weight and ugly LOL. I try my best to keep in shape, it just so happens that this week’s shape is a sack of spuds…
K
Hi Kev some times one thing can get replaced by another,if you stop smoking say you eat more,as far as i think drugs = alcohol and alcohol = drugs,so when you stopped the mushrooms did you look for a replacement,as in alcohol,just a thought.take care.
Lea, I think the tablet you are talking about is Antabuse, Ross did use this for about 31/2 months and it worked for that time,great we thought at the time just keep taking one a day and you will be too frightened to drink and he was , he was quite happy to do this as he did’nt want to be ill.But deep down this is not the answer as we were to learn (and truthfully you have to not want to drink)but it does work for some people and it did him for a while , whether they will give it him now he has drank i am not sure(your brother i mean).The reason it went wrong for him was he must of sort of got bored with it and started to miss ones and then drank,he went red and felt a bit sick but obviously did’nt get ill so carried on drinking (you have to wait 7 days till they’re out of your system)they are not a drug that makes you better they just react to alcohol and anything with alcohol in it, this was enough for Ross as a deterant like i said for a few months.But not sure they are enough in the long run as Ross has been dry without this as well.It’s a shame he did’nt get these sooner as he’s gone and drank now and maybe he would’nt have if he’d had them,but I am grateful that these tablets did keep him on the straight for a while as It gave him the chance to see the world sober which he loved, the reason it keep’s going wrong is beyond me I’m afraid,I hope all goes ok for him you know .I know how gutting that feels when you think they won’t drink and they do, sometimes it felt devastating like grief or something but i’ve learnt over the years that i cannot control anymore how he choose’s to live his life,so we had to have rules about what we would allow in our home and now he only has a home here if he’s dry,that’s the best i can offer,take good care all speak soon Lea x and let us know how you get on.
Big Kiss for you jane jones Umwahhhhhhhhhh xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hell your a good person