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.
Hello all,
Some great talk going on! I’d never thought about some drinks compared to others – its interesting Jane that Ross is different on different drinks!
Dolly – huge congrats on day 11. If it helps, I get night sweats every so often, and I think I’m on something like day 63 ish? I did last night – obviously got too hot – I often think its when I’m cold though – I then wrap myself up too tightly!!
I know what you mean Jane – what on earth is alcohol here for? When I drink and fins myself falling down that horrific spiral and ending up ‘poisoned’…why oh why? I’m often chasing ‘just taking the edge off’ of life, a small relaxer etc. Problem is, I’ll have one glass one evening, then not be able to not have one the next evening and so it’ll go on….
I’m determined not to drink until the wedding (end of June), but I have to admit, its hitting me with cravings right now.
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Hi Jax,
Hang in there, am with you now 100%, have sorted the work front and will be back there soon, turned out load of others had gone into bat for me while I was not there! how good is that.
Dolly
xox
Brilliant news! It’s so easy to beat ourselves up…yet hear good things other people say about us and ignore it!
All will be fine Dolly xxxx
Steve, can’t drink’ not at all’ inevitable’are you confusing me lol, parties,yea tea parties lol sorry on a serious note chemicals maybe that’s it,I only know and see cheap vodka,scrumpy jack,tennants 9% or anything that’s got a high percentage oh yea and I hate those plain blue carrier bags that he always seems to have hundreds of, thanks everyone for your posts,just willing you all to be ok,speak soon x I’ll tell you an enlightening story next time (I can hear you all groan) x
I agree with that part Steve but i must make a small change to it ………………Drink’s not a problem, until it’s a problem know what i mean?…….to…….Drink’s not a problem, until Sean allows it to become a problem again no what i mean?…….Have you got a car lined up yet Steve……I can just picture you driving an Eco friendly ford fiesta with 4 minders piled in the back lmkao……………Oh and as far as i can tell from reading Wat you said about how different drinks work on the mind and body your right……….Well it’s along the same lines as wat i looked into a year or so back and it’s maybe by the same bloke but it’s a year back so i have had 30 re formats since then lol and lost all the text files i saved……….Still it’s nice to start afresh now and then……….Ooooooh must add some thing for every one that wants to no why i add this part —->…………………….In real life i can not talk well some times i can but i find it hard to express my words let alone remember them and THAT—> …………..Is a slight form of that trying to put it onto paper ,,,as you can see those two (that’s) make no sence but they do to me yehar so there yazz go…………………….Now Wat was that i wanted to say ummmmm Oh yes some times i feel like a >>>>>))))))*> out of water.?
Man, as long as its got four wheels and gets me out and about im all good…
I havent lined anything up yet, im broke, but i talked to one of my guys, well he’s one of my best friends as it goes, we are sort of buisness partners, when weve got a buisness that is, anyway he said he would get me a run about. We all help each other out when someones in it, and i am well and truly in it…
I read your post and what scares me is that i can totaly understand it??? You write how you talk mate, thats ok with me.
fish was a nice touch.
Old Type E Jag Red With Cream Seats….I had one years ago but smashed it wish i had it now lol
Nice fish!
Dolly
xox
>>>>>)))))*>KISS<*(((((<<<<< For you Dolls
Hi Jax, I think sometimes Ross could never do the things that some of you are doing at this point in his life,like go to work drive a car he’s declared unfit for work,so course I look and you holding down jobs sorting yourself out getting married,yet you’ve just explained how it effects you and yea if he had been my husband I would have had to walk away,but he’s not he’s my son he’s like a boomerang he keep’s coming back lol take care x
Its Time for a little more help than a local GP can offer Jane for Ross….He is playing you jane and you may say no he is not mostly because you are his mother but 6 months from now i bet you tell me i was rite
I’ve managed to quit drinking (again) with help from my doctor. He prescribed librium for me,and it has worked wonders to help me quit. It’s been about two months now,so not bad so far. I sympathise with ANYONE going through the agony of withdrawal. It doesn’t really last too long, though. 2-3 days of it, and you’re soon back on your feet, eating properly again. Sleep was always, and still is, to some extent, a problem for me, although it does take a few weeks for our bodies to get back into a set rhythm again.
Hello everyone. Well well, this is a fantastic website. Where else can us heavy drinkers, secret drinkers, binge/alcoholic drinkers, whatever we are, come and share our experiences in such a way eh? I heard about these sort of sites many years ago (way before I realised I had a problem,even though I certainly DID!) and thought ‘what a waste of time’.How wrong was I? I stopped boozing about 7-8 weeks ago. Second time around for me. I cannot promise anyone that I won’t drink again, but at least, for the moment, I am sober.It is wonderful to read all of these stories and I sincerely wish everyone all the best and hope that those of us who are trying to get sober, can manage it.It feels great, I MUST say! I will be back to see how folk are doing and, the best thing of all is that I will always be honest on these pages because there is NO point in lying to ourselves or one another about our addiction! Take care all. Bye for now. Al
Hi Al,
Good to hear from you mate, This is a good site with good people. It’s helped me no end.
Unfortunatly now im sober and can see straight, i’ve become addicted to hagen daas and video games?
But at least i get to save the universe!
Steve is that Polish immigrants ice cream or is it a shop as my guitar gently plays a nicker blocker glory with hundreds and thousands with green sauce
It’s from the US, they made up the name to sound like it was from somewhere else. That’s fine Steve it’s better than drinking! I’m glad you’re still going strong.
Dont worry about the ice cream – its much more fun than alcohol – you can remember it the next day. Well done
Dolly
xox
Are you pissed
I was, sorry!
I was pissed later, but that was true about the ice cream company. I posted that before I was pissed, it’s a US company. It was an ingenious marketing scheme so they could sell it like an import, I studied the company in MBA school, marketing class.
Well I did it. Gave in to stupid tempting thoughts for a glass ‘just to relax’….I felt sick at the thought, I felt sick as I raised the glass.
I drank 2 x 187ml tiny bottles. I woke up in the night feeling sick. Now I’m awake this morning, and my heart is racing!!
My body does not like alcohol……
Well, goes to show. I’m not missing anything – I can’t drink anymore. Now no more……
Oh Jax,
don’t beat yourself up about it, It happens? Just put it behind you like you never did it, at least you know it’s no good now.
Jax,
It only reinforced that you don’t enjoy it anymore. I do the same thing and I just don’t enjoy it anymore. You really do have to quit again like it never happened, you’ll be ok!
Rebecca
Jax wat the hell was it moon shine…………374 mills at 12 percent you would not get any withdrawals from that ya siilly billy. A bit of a distant head maybe you no lazy head…..3 Anadin Extra would give you the same feeling well there about’s….Now come on get a grip there are 2 things………You can drink and become a slob or you can say i don’t drink and fit in….Its your call……….You must ask your self why you wanted a drink……..I wanted one to relax…..Jax i am no mug so lets start again with i had a drink because blar blar blar…..loves ya
Jax,
Seans right, but what has happened is you can see without anything in your way that drink is simply not for you right now – make the most of it. Its a great warning!! well done for not running off to buy half a dozen big bottles
Love
Dolly
xox
Hi Rebecca,
Well you cant be going saying things like that on here? Its not exactly private!
Never mind the old ‘don’t want to say too much on the mobile’…..
Rebecca, im so sorry to hear this, Rape has only one punishment in my book, but for some reason the law seem to view an insecure, sick twisted coward of a man like that, in a lower catagory than a guy who robs a security van? You can tell that by the sentences they give out. Rape with a knife, six years in a nonce prison with all the kiddy fidlers, swapping ideas, out in three with a new identity, the blagger will get 15 in the big house.
You should have asked admin or got my email ANOTHER way? Its a bit obvious now. The one thing you have got in your favour is that most proper fellers who straighten things out like this will do it for a drink because they hate the f…..s.
I hope this isn’t the reason you started on the booze, what a waste, messing up your life for the sake of some worm.
Put a bit of time between this conversation, use your brain, and we will see.
You wrote this at four in the morning so maybe you just had a sherbert or two, you know, wev’e all been there. Don’t let it eat you up hun.
xx
Sorry Steve, I fell off the wagon. I ran into the person I was talking about, he lives down the street from me, so every now and then I see him. The statute of limitations has run out it was ages ago. I had 2 glasses of wine at dinner, then went by the store and got another bottle of wine and a bottle of tequila, but the tequila was supposed to be to bring to something this weekend. You can imagine what happened! I had lost my mind after I mixed wine and tequila. I’m sorry, I’m not really upset about anything from my past I had just lost it from drinking! Thanks for your response, though, it made me feel better.
I’m also back on the wagon as of today.
Aww Steve, good post!
Rebecca – hugs honey. What brought that on? Anniversary? Just thinking about it?
Its easy to say, don’t wreck the rest of your life because of some worm, but the fact is, most of us do…..we end up with wrecked lives because of what happened in such a small space of time.
But Steve’s sentiment is right….if we throw the rest of our lives away than the person who did this has stolen far more than he intended to that day. But this you have control over.
I’ve said it before & I’ll bleat it again – forgiveness. Its the ONLY way to stop the bitter anger in your head. I refused for years & years – no way would I forgive people for what they’d done. Finally, finally, I realised that I wasn’t keeping those people ‘on the hook’ – they didn’t even know! The only person hurting from my bitterness and anger was me. That’s when I let it go. Sometimes it comes back, but I make a conscious decision to let it go – even saying it aloud.
I’m OK – thanks Sean! I am not feeling 100% anyway, so maybe I’ve got a bug, but I didn’t know how to tell whether I was ill or it was the alcohol.
Do you not think that our bodies can remain repulsed by alcohol for ages to come? Yes, it was only a small amount of wine, but I thought of it like an allergy…my body had some of what it hates, and told me so….
Anyway, thankfully that dealt with the temptation – I just got nothing out of it at all.
Don’t want to work…want to go lie on the sofa and moan a bit!
hi Jax,
I hear what you are saying there, but it takes a certain kind of person to forgive a thing like that, and bottom line, that aint me.
Its not my game going round putting the world to rights, but if someone were to rape my sister or one of my fold then they would be in a spot of bother.
I think this country and all its do good’ers (i dont mean you hun) need to open their eyes and go out in the real world, you know go and get a big mack at two in the morning in the high street and see all the animals. We at least need a bit of corpral punishment. And drink is no excuse for the things that go on? I can go out and get pissed without beating the life out of someone for looking at me wry?
Maybe im just getting old, but i can totaly understand rebecca’s anger, and I dont think it should be down to having to find someone a bit naughty to have to deal with it properly. Its the same everywhere you look, even in security, which ive done for over twenty years. Thats a joke now, nobodys safe anymore? The doormen (if you can call them that now, more like glorified trolly dollys) have got cameras up their arse’s all the time and cant lift a finger, The scum just laugh in your face because they know your hands are tied? No wonder theres so much violence and knife crime on the streets? Even the police are little boys with big hats and no bottle? Parents of good kids are worried sick when their kids go out these days. You cant even let your little ones play out the front anymore because there are so many weirdo’s about. Oh im ranting…Sorry.
Breathe…..
Agreed, agreed, agreed, sorry but have a real bloodlust for some types, and you wont need a prize for guessing.
Dont waste a life on a gutless coward! But hugs Rebecca
Love
Dolly
xox
Im relieved you put that Dolly thanks,
I was starting to feel a bit Alf Garnet there, especially as admin have taken down Rebecca’s post.
I think ill leave it for a bit…
Thanks Dolly and Steve, I don’t think I have held anger all of these years. I don’t think about it anymore at all, unless I’m forced to remember. It was a situation where he was in his 20’s and I was a young teenager, he knew I liked him and he just took advantage of the situation, but I was a minor. He was nervous about it for a long time, begged me not to tell anyone. So, I didn’t tell my parents or anyone, I would hope if I ever have kids they would tell me, though. I don’t even know if it had much to do with my drinking, I didn’t start drinking until a few years later.
Oh – I asked admin to take down my post
Rebecca
My 20 year old daughter has just told me how proud of me she is… Some things, above all others, make the sobriety worthwhile!! xxx
(Excellent rant, Steve…Reckon you voiced the thoughts of all decent folk there!)
Don’t get me wrong…I know the anger you speak of Steve…I was in psych wards for years – I don’t think there was one person there who hadn’t had a lot of wrong done to them – I was on adult wards from the age of 14…believe me, you never look at the world the same again, and I grew up way too quickly…
I thought ‘forgiveness’ sounded like a load of rubbish for years & was gone on about by people who had no idea about the world or the evil that existed in it…
Suppose I just wasn’t ready to listen. But eventually I got sick of living in anger, living in pain…and wanted to be free of it.
Why did I drink? I don’t know. I’m still struggling with the cigs. Really finding it hard to let go of that last addiction. I’m more annoyed that I swore I wouldn’t drink until June & then gave me at just a nagging voice in my head. I was tired, fiance away for 10 days…but no big reason you know? Not bored….an evening home alone, that’s all. If I’d quit smoking, the fight would’ve been about cigs….I’m sick of living dominated by tempting thoughts about stupid drugs – be they nictotine or alcohol!!!
I’m tired of it too, Jax. Even when I’m happily going along not drinking, it’s still on my mind, always think “Oh, maybe I can drink again one day, or I’ll just try one more time to control it, I can just go a few months without, then try it again.” Even though I’m fine not drinking, it’s still on my mind – that’s what I’m tired of!
Jax, Rebecca, That’s what I’m tired of too. Can’t ever get drinking completely off my mind. Ladies I am so sorry to hear of the abuse that happened to you. Hugs!!!!
Jax,
i hope i havent rubbed you up the wrong way, i didnt mean to, im sorry.
I dont think that forgiveness is a load of rubbish, not at all, and i think its an admirable quality to have, and if it works for you then that can only be good.
People have all different beliefs and morals, some people believe in god, and spend their life looking at the sky? Or in a book, as a user manual on life. What a gift to empower ones self with continual comfort and reassurance, the abillity to turn the other cheek.
Some guys can take their misses to a swingers party and sit and watch two fellers drill her to the floor, because it makes her happy?
Im not saying my ways the right way but i do know, if you want to make a good omlet you got to break a few eggs?
Becc’s im glad you dont carry all that shit around with you all the time, and its ok to have a blast on here because were all just a bunch of drunk mates at the end of the day, trying to stay sober.
Hey Steve, no, you didn’t upset me.
Its just hard to explain forgiveness without sounded all airy-fairy/psychobabble…and I wanted to try & explain it!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I never thought of myself as being abused really. I thought I asked for it. I was going on and on about it to my boyfriend years ago, it was 10 years later at the time and he said “you know what, he was young too, only 21, just forgive him” and I did. It’s now about 20 years later, It was horrible at the time, but I did forgive him. It just all comes back sometimes, that’s all. Now that I’m an adult of 35 and realize what he did, I get angry. I had no hope of defending myself and thought I’d be in trouble too if I told. Now that I feel like I could defend my old helpless teenage self it makes me want to do something sometimes. But the best medicine is genuine forgiveness.
Heyall, have decided to pop back on as I am going through a horrible time at the moment, my aunt has been put on the transplant waiting list in Germany after taking an overdose 3 days ago. Was meant to be going out there this morning to visit for 5 days and surprise my sister who is there at the moment (she emigrates at end of April). This has come as a massive shock, she is only young and has a young son who is living / studying in the UK. I really want to just crumple and don’t know what do do. MY wee cousins passport has expired so I am waiting for news and I am going to have to drive the 500 miles to be with him i think – he’s going to the passport office this morning but I don;t know how long these things take? I really want a drink and know I have to hold it together but I’m struggling and have nobody to talk to.
Anyway, thanks for listening to me xx
Oh Kirstie – hugs. What a horrid shock for you.
Keep fighting the urge to drink – you’re right, its the last thing that would help now.
Bless you xxxx
Hi everyone, just thinking this is like a club that nobody wants to join but do for obvious reasons,sometimes we get it right some times we get it wrong some times we don’t come across in the way we intended to and some times we can’t explain fully what were going through,but joined we have and it gives comfort to know some ones listening take care all have a good weekend speak soon x
How the hell do you do it, Jane??
How do you deal with something that to you is totally unfathomable?? I can’t do it, n I know exactly whats going on!!
Steve…Remember ripping ur bathroom down the first time you shared givin up booze with us? Remember you didn’t know what to do with yourself in the breaks?? I’m doing that now! Ripped shedloads of paper off the stairwell…no way in hell I can redecorate it…much too high…but the satisfaction of ripping it down was too much to resist! You have been all the places I’ve been. I’m not strong…I’m weak…Jesus, I can’t even resist wallpaper!!
I feel like I’m going to die! Ok, it will be over soon…help. I seriously hate alcohol.