Withdrawal / Kindling

[Gettingbetter]

Jaxom,
You are correct. I have some goodisms and badisms! The badisms along with the alcoholism is being treated today, it's a long road ahead and when I believe I'm totally cured of all the negative "isms" in my life...up pops another one. No life will ever be perfect and I will never be a saint in this life! Working on it though, I believe that being an alcoholic or addict or whatever other weaknesses I possess, when dealt with through the available channels can only make me a person of better understanding.
Mike, my name was Clarity4me, I now know that clarity is not 100% achievable, I use the name "getting better" not because I am better than anyone else, far far from it....I mean to say, "I was a very sick person" but now I am in recovery and recovery is a daily process.
Hope everyone is staying on the Recovery Road and will never get off it.

[Melanie961]

Slingy: I am with you 100% on AA.

There are a cult at best and dangerous at worst.

I tried them a few years ago.

I went to a meeting and when I went outside I met a woman
who looked in very bad shape.

Shaking really bad and sweating.

She had been told to throw out all the alcohol in the house
and the benzo she was taking.

Told to go to meetings admit you are powerless over alcohol
and hand yourself over to God.

I told her how dangerous this was and that she could die.
I took her to the hospital.

They don't have a better success rate than
other programs.

I am very sensitive to the withdrawal part.
The first time I stopped drinking I almost died.

People on here will help you to understand
that alcohol is the most dangerous drug to
withdraw from.

If I could have done something about this
I would have.

But they hid behind anonymity.

I came on her because it wasn't AA based.

When people come on here they are
vulnerable and weak.

They need good guidance and support.


Mel

[faith2be]

Melanie - how are you today, dear??

[faith2be]

Oh ho hum, I so wish this desperate headache would disappear, it's clouding my brain and I so need to THINK for this assignment I'm doing...
Day 3. I know Days 4-5 will be pretty much the same, and then the sun will start to come out.
Last time I did a longer AF stint - I had headaches until day 14...
Nothing will shift this - tried asprin and paracet. I haven't got anything stronger, and I'm not going to the docs (2 week waiting list anyway so wots the point).
Ah well, time to just keep plugging away!

[Fig]

Did anyone else here ever experience their hands or hand involuntarily seize up? This has happened a few times over the last few days.Its like they are having a spasm.The muscles in my hands feel exhausted and sore now.Is this a common thing?

[smudge]

Are you taking a decent strength of B complex vitamins? Vitamin C is also a good thing to take - helps your body to absorb the B vitamins. You need to be taking these for at least three months and possibly up to a year after giving up booze.

Magnesium is often mentioned by people as a muscle relaxant - try magnesium citrate, rather than other magnesium compounds. The cheaper mag supplements aren't well absorbed. If you try this, take it in the evening. It makes some people sleepy.

Another possibility is that you might be dehydrated and you need rehydration salts. Have you been vomiting or suffering from the runs while you have gone through withdrawal? If you have then rehydration salts will help. You can buy these from supermarkets or pharmacies - Dioralyte is one of the most well-known brands. You shouldn't need to take them for very long - a few days at most. I took three sachets per day for the first five days of withdrawal. Sorry, I don't know when you stopped drinking, so this particular bit of advice may be irrelevant to you.

Good luck.

Edit : If you haven't already done so, you would probably benefit from reading all of this thread :

Practical Advice About Detox and Getting Sober

And this one is another essential read too - follow the links people have posted - they are really helpful :

PAWS (Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome)

[Fig]

Thanks for the info Smudge.

Ive been off the booze for 11 days.
I didn't suffer from vomiting,diarrhea,headaches etc.Never really do,but had almost every other symptom you could think of. I read the PAWS thread and it scared me to death.I have a lot of those symptoms it seems.I was feeling terrible last night,really hopeless and reading the thread actually made me feel worse! Feel much better today though and a few of the things in the thread were invaluable.Like when you have crazy mood swings and anxiety (totally out of character for me) that im not actually going mad but its normal.

I went to the chemist for vitamin B supplements and they only had vitamin B+ which i presume is the same? so im on that now.The strangest thing is at no point have i felt like a drink.I read the thread and people were saying ' I know i could make it go away right now by having a drink".I dont feel like that at all,drink is what caused all the problems and i dont want to touch it at the moment.

The idea of never touching a drink has terrified me before.This time (rightly or wrongly ) i have a designated time at the end of this month where im going to a good friends wedding and im planning on having a few pints then,none then until Christmas.Whether this is a mental coping tool or what im actually going to do im not sure.The thing that scrad me most about PAWS was that one drink will put you back to square one.I though if i can drink on one occasion between late sept and Christmas that would be huge for me.Not sure either if this is the place for such a question.I'd really like to hear anyones opinion on this,whether they have tried something similar.

[smudge]

Sorry, I don't know what vitamin B+ actually is.

Just so that you can compare, after I realised the importance of taking high dose B Vits I started taking these :

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/ ... 95&cid=212

I don't take anything as high dose as that any longer, but I did get through a couple of bottles of those before I gave them up and reduced to these :

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/ ... 74&cid=212

I've reduced even further now, and take one a day of these (not two, which is what it says on the bottle) :

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/ ... 07&cid=212

I also stop taking B vits altogether for a few weeks, every now and then, but then I've been sober for quite a long time now, and if I haven't absorbed plenty of B vits by now, I never will!

Dunno if that helps or not.

[Sqibby]

Hi all can i just say that 31 year's ago it was discovered that nearly every Alcoholic they tested had Hypoglycemia,(low blood sugar) not caused by the booze, BUT drank because it actually made them Alcoholic's by proxy.
In other word's, most of them didn't even LIKE Alcohol, or being drunk but drank huge amount's, so this would be classed as an 'Allergic reaction' My friend has a SERIOUS allergy to Apples to the point of it could kill her.

BUT although she is well aware of this, she said she get's insane cravings for them, and i have seen what they do to her first hand, its scary. But she eats them like a junkie craving a fix in HUGE amounts then goes in to near death shock and still carries on eating them? A Natropath DR said its well known for people to crave and use something they are deadly 'ALLERGIC' to. And there has been program's on TV about this phenomina as well.
Love Sqibby xxxx

[Melanie961]

[loosebanana]

When I was drinking a lot and got blood tests I was diagnosed with anaemia, low iron, that's why I would feel so weak, I was relying on alcohol to fuel me through that weakness. So, another thing to check for if you struggle with feeling that way. I just started eating lots of red meat (not perhaps the best idea), but there are lots of other dietary sources and things like breakfast cereals have iron (I was never a breakfast person but have slowly changed that).

[mtngirl]

Hi all

I am tapering and in mild withdrawal and Ive got this rash, anyone else had the experience?

I am not having a hallucination because I can see the rash in the mirror! Had this on my last detox. Wondered if it could be some kind of prickly heat from a form of dehydration?

Searched the forum found some hits but then couldnt locate them in the thread.

Any Thoughts?

mtngirl

[Topcat]

Hi mtngirl. I used to get a rash on my torso on a regular basis. I don't know if yours is similar. It didn't used to affect my face, but my torso used to get covered in it. It would last a few days and then fade/disappear. Alcohol does in fact affect every part of the body so it's no surprise that the skin in affected. See your doctor if you are worried.

[mtngirl]

Hi Pyjamagirl, Tomcat

Yes I think it is part of the detox as I now have that nasty body odour I have previously had whilst detoxing. Rash is better this morning but I spent half the night drinking loads of water and now have spent most of the morning errm getting rid of it!

I get it on my face upper chest and last time somewhat disturbingly down my spine. I was in a professional detox clinic and they were so concerned they pulled all my medication, benzodiazepines, multivits the lot. Had a sign on my bed saying No drugs under any circumstances....It went in three days but was very intense. In retrospect I now believe as I am not taking anything except Thiamine it is a detox reaction and I never have drunk enough fluid. What with the sweats at night and stomach issues, probably losing too much water generally.

Hi Gerard

Can I join a challenge if Im not sober yet? Still got about a week to finish the taper, currently down to 8 units per day. My biggest challenge will be to get below 6 which I have found very difficult in the past.

Many Thx for the advice all

mtngirl

[faith2be]

Hi mtmgirl,
Hope you are getting the rash under control.
For my part, i'll just say

Here i go again.....

[mtngirl]

Hi faith2be

Glad to be with you on the journey! Let me know how you are doing.

Been a bit of an odd couple of days some of which taught me some lessons. Ill post more on that anon. I basically got caught out one day and massively undershot my target, didnt shake thank god but I did get very weepy, nearly embarrassed myself in public. Thank God for toilets.

Note to self, when tapering seriously, stay at home!

Face still itches but much milder. Im stabilised at around 7 units on average, have been back at work two days and am basically very very grumpy but getting things done.

Got the results from my docs of blood tests they've taken for infections and I am being treated for three moderate (sic) infections, candidiasis, strep B and one I cant even pronounce. So on antibiotics and have been diagnosed as lactose intolerant. A lactose free diet seems to be working and now I have constipation......I was also diagnosed two years ago as anorexic and have to eat also. Aaaarrgggh.

Well a work in progress. I can at least now drive safely (for most of the day) and get to the doctors etc! So things are better.

Feel a bit guilty as many people would be happy with 7 a day... but I have to get to 0 still as my liver functions are a bit iffy <cough> and my weight is dropping again...so a way to go for me at least. It is difficult to explain to some how heavily addicted you can become when you are drinking 24/7 for months. Im only 5 ft 5 and on 20 units a day I was still shaking.

I now need to evaluate how physically dependent I am at this stage (12 days), to be frank probably not so much, so the next bit is to deal with my head. And fill my time productively..hmm.

Stick with it faith2be and speak soon.

mtngirl

[faith2be]

Hi mt,
Lets stick with it, well done you. Im doing, well like i do when going af, but need a sober stretchs, so will stick with it. It scares me how we can get in a state we get sick by stopping...

[mtngirl]

Hi all

Been a bit of a while but I am proud to announce that I have reached an average of 3 units a day, can go all day without withdrawal and sleep as well as I can expect. So no longer physically dependent, now need to work on the psychological dependency.

I am not a doctor but I did find that when I got to 6 and under units per day (drip fed as it were) I could drop to zero without problems.

My major withdrawal symptoms occurred in dropping to 6 per day, they were in fact pretty minor all in all.

The real bitch was I got Pancreatitis at 6 units a day! Ive been drinking hugely more than that per day for years, start withdrawing and then Blam. Guys if there was another reason to stop drinking Pancreatitis is definitely right up there, it hurts like hell.

Ive read a couple of articles that indicate that this phenomenon has been clinically observed, but they dont know why and this is not a good enough reason to not stop drinking because whilst you drink its a possibility.

Anyone else got any experience/knowledge of that?

Thx

Mtngirl

PS How are you all doing??

[faith2be]

Hi, you still about mtngirl?
I'm on a new day 1 after an unwise period, and have decided to just push through. I get shakes and sweats, but only jitters really, nothing dangerous. Last time i tried beer taper, i just ended up drinking loads of beer
So just dry for me today.
Anyone else in the same position and want some company/ support?
F xx

[Mr. G]

Hi faith, I am also shaking right now and I am not having a regular sleep. it is already 2:45 am already. withdrawal is killing me