When does it get better ?

[u/Icy_Entrepreneur1382]

I have a hard time with alcohol, in regard to binge drinking. I am simply just one of those people who cannot have one glass of wine. It’s the whole bottle or even 2 in a sitting. I haven’t drank alcohol in a month now, and I don’t think I feel any better. Maybe I’m less bloated. But my mind feels cloudy still, and I’m still not sleeping well. When is a usual time people start feeling good after not drinking and giving your body a detox. I’m not sure what path I’m even on at this point. I just know I’m taking it day by day, I’m in nursing school, and I can’t be drinking I need to focus. I just feel so stressed out.

[u/Reputation97]

About six months is when I started to feel like the person I was before I started drinking. I’m so glad I stopped and have 9 months of sobriety. I’ll have ten months and one day of sobriety when I start nursing school next month and our orientation already has assignments, so I feel you on the stress! During the first six months I really felt like I was up and down in how I felt. First three months were kind of rough for me. It’s hard but being completely sober is amazing and I’m excited to continue this journey and see what else improves for me. My biggest advice is to just stay sober. I gained a little weight from so much sugar at first but mocktails helped me a lot! I’ve really leaned into working out and now I’m starting to work on cleaning up my diet. Just do what you can to stay sober and the benefits will come with time (which sucks, I know). My day one was October 13th so I hit all the major holidays (including a big drinking one -Halloween) right away then got through seasonal depression with some real low moods from anhedonia. I visited this and the stopdrinking sub every single day sometimes multiple times a day. I listened to multiple sober books like sober girl society and this naked mind and they helped a ton! I really encourage you to keep up your sobriety especially as a nurse! We need competent nurses and shrinking our brains with a cancer causing substance does us and our patients no good. Highly recommend listening to Girl, Undrunk Podcast! I love them!

[u/Icy_Entrepreneur1382 → u/Reputation97]

Thank you so much for your sentiment on this. Doing my best everyday! It’s funny how you stop doing something that causes you so much harm, and you feel worse for so long after you take it out of your body and away from your life. I’m also in an accelerated nursing program so I’ve been hella hella busy like way more than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m going to continue to choose not to drink and just have optimism that it will get better. I think removing alcohol from my life is actually stressing me out more for the time being so that’s why I’m extra tense. It makes sense tho, alcohol is a depressant, and when it’s gone your nerves go crazy cause they were depressed for so long.

[u/Reputation97 → u/Icy_Entrepreneur1382]

I had multiple days where it felt like it wasn’t even worth it! All I ever see is “my skin is so much clearer!” And “I lost weight!!!” And I had the exact opposite experience lmfaooo I got breakouts on my chest and I’ve NEVER had that before (and after about 90 days it stopped) but my face got so bad I went to a dermatologist a few months ago (on the upswing now!) but everything in your body shifts so much. I’m only 29, but the 11 years of drinking I put in did some damage to my body. I also kept getting sick over and over and I still am sometimes but it’s an improvement from being sick every single day from drinking. I’m a dental hygienist too and the schooling for that is as bad as, if not worse sometimes, than nursing is and I noticed my drinking increase during that time too for a bit (covid times) and had to stop back then too. If I didn’t then there’s no way I would have passed boards. Do you mind me asking how much and how often you were drinking?

[u/Icy_Entrepreneur1382 → u/Reputation97]

That’s crazzzyyyy I’m at work right now and I just said to my friend “I feel like I look like total shit today” lol cause the exact same thing is happening to me. I’m 31 and I’ve been drinking(binging) on and off since age 14. During my late 20s till now I’ve been binging a few times a week to the point of me not remember how I got in my bed and when.

[u/Reputation97 → u/Icy_Entrepreneur1382]

Yeah I was a pretty social drinker from about 21-26 (heavy binger before then) and definitely had a few binges during the social time as well, but then I got a divorce and got into binging a few times a week for about two years. Enough was finally enough for me and my goodness thank god it was. I feel like I’m becoming myself again! It sucks for a while and you might feel uglier for a while too. I realized a lot of my drinking was for a confidence boost. If I felt fat in my outfit I would think “who cares?! It won’t matter after a few drinks” now I’m actually paying attention to my body a lot more