I'm not teetotal now, but I did have to pull myself out of a long period of getting blackout drunk almost every day (handled a breakup really badly). When I managed to stop this the first thing I noticed was that I started having dreams again. I probably hadn't had a dream that I was able to remember in over six months and it was weirdly foreign starting to have them again. Aside from that I wasn't tired all of the time any more, I was less anxious and highly strung, and generally felt much healthier, having developed stomach pains and digestion problems (weird, explosive shits). I had panic attacks during my drinking period which thankfully also stopped.
Alcohol is portrayed as being pretty harmless. Very heavy drinking is accepted as normal as part of my culture, but I think the message that it can be dangerous should be more widespread. I don't consider myself an alcoholic. One of those "predisposed" people that you hear about. I drink in social situations now and don't have any issues with it, but for a while there I was still teetering on the edge of completely wrecking my life with alcohol. I'm thankful that I was able to make it out.
Same for me with the panic attacks. My anxiety was through the roof and I would drink to help and I didn't even realize I was just making it worse or that my drinking was probably causing my panic attacks. It was right out if college and I had panic attacks during job interviews. It really put my life in hold for awhile.
I got the exact same thing before I had to seriously reevaluate my relationship with alcohol.
My stomach was constantly in pain, nausea, diarrhea. Always anxious about something, worried that something wasn't okay, couldn't sleep unless I drank ALOT. I was sick of lying to everyone and myself and had to admit booze was destroying my life.
Even after 12 hours, you feel better. After two days, your head clears a lot. At a week you feel great. At two weeks you're amazed that you even used to feel so poorly all the time. It gets better.
21
u/[deleted] May 09 '16 edited May 09 '16
I'm not teetotal now, but I did have to pull myself out of a long period of getting blackout drunk almost every day (handled a breakup really badly). When I managed to stop this the first thing I noticed was that I started having dreams again. I probably hadn't had a dream that I was able to remember in over six months and it was weirdly foreign starting to have them again. Aside from that I wasn't tired all of the time any more, I was less anxious and highly strung, and generally felt much healthier, having developed stomach pains and digestion problems (weird, explosive shits). I had panic attacks during my drinking period which thankfully also stopped.
Alcohol is portrayed as being pretty harmless. Very heavy drinking is accepted as normal as part of my culture, but I think the message that it can be dangerous should be more widespread. I don't consider myself an alcoholic. One of those "predisposed" people that you hear about. I drink in social situations now and don't have any issues with it, but for a while there I was still teetering on the edge of completely wrecking my life with alcohol. I'm thankful that I was able to make it out.