Current Events > I'm quitting drinking.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Been drinking daily for two years. The past eight or so months has been around 15 drinks a day, more or less depending on the day.

This is day three of stopping cold turkey. It's been fine. I feel extremely hungry.

Yesterday had some scary moments. I needed to login to my employee account at work. I know this short username/password by heart but all of a sudden my mind went completely blank, and I was sweating extremely hard through my hands and back and neck all of a sudden.

Also when I laid down for bed last night, my heart was racing so fast it felt like it was gonna burst out of my chest. Also felt extremely jumpy and paranoid (seeing things in the dark that weren't there, thoughts racing and contradicting each other, couldn't focus, a deafening ringing in my ears, felt paralyzed and unable to move) and had lots of night sweats.

I've mainly been eating a 2,000 a day calorie diet with plenty of water and Gatorade to get hydrated again. Also started at the gym three days ago and going daily. Not for too long though, just 20-25 minutes of exercise before walking in the park a few hours.

Good for you man. Thats great. Although i wouldnt recommend cold turkey as usually its ok at first but then you get hit real hard later. But youre already 3 days in so keep it up buddy.

good luck

Also if yiu can cut out the gatorade. Thing is almost as bad as soda with their high sugar content. Water is the best.

Yeah I think it can be dangerous to quit heavy drinking cold turkey. Maybe ween yourself off. Which is a pain in the ass in of itself. I personally can't just have a beer or two.

good job on identifying an issue and taking action about it.

WrestlinFan posted...

The past eight or so months has been around 15 drinks a day, more or less depending on the day.

be careful, you could be approaching some nasty withdrawals. after reading more of your post, it sounds like you're already experiencing some. alcohol withdrawal is serious.

SauI_Goodman posted...

Good for you man. Thats great. Although i wouldnt recommend cold turkey as usually its ok at first but then you get hit real hard later. But youre already 3 days in so keep it up buddy.

I'm hoping all that crazy stuff last night was the worst of it.

It's zero sugar Gatorade. I know that isn't much of an improvement of the vanilla stuff but I'd like the electrolytes. Not going overboard with them, mostly drinking water.

I'm being very careful to monitor my health. Unfortunately can't detox in any hospitals near me due to covid. Tampering off is out of the question. I'm a two minute walk from a gas station and I know if I have a few, I'll have to walk to the store and binge.

Oh and I've been killing a lot of time on r/stopdrinking. It's great.

i had a full blown seizure during my withdrawals. i think it was on day 4 or 5. i was close to a 750mL of liquor / day. if i had been alone and not received immediate medical attention i could have suffered serious, long term consequences. the scariest thing about it is that i didn't feel it coming at all. one moment i was standing in the lunch line at rehab and the next thing i knew, i woke up in a hospital with nurses around me. be careful, homie.

Giant_Aspirin posted...

i had a full blown seizure during my withdrawals. i think it was on day 4 or 5. i was close to a 750mL of liquor / day. if i had been alone and not received immediate medical attention i could have suffered serious, long term consequences. the scariest thing about it is that i didn't feel it coming at all. one moment i was standing in the lunch line at rehab and the next thing i knew, i woke up in a hospital with nurses around me. be careful, homie.

Damn dude glad you're okay. I'll be sure to.

Honestly I have to stop drinking. I got shitfaced, fell asleep then drank until the sun came up. Probably not gonna live to 50 the way I'm living. Emotionally I kinda wonder if I'm gonna make it to 30.

Best of luck.

Drinking is a nasty habit and can be hard to stop. But you can do it if it's truly what you want.

As a longtime alcoholic myself, it's always nice to see someone overcome it because I know well what years of drinking will do to you.

once I got sober I lost like 30 pounds in the first month, so you have that to look forward to!

Awesome man, I'm rooting for ya. Quitting is not east, especially with the withdrawals you'll face. I had a friend who eventually gave in and started drinking again unfortunately.

DespondentDeity posted...

once I got sober I lost like 30 pounds in the first month, so you have that to look forward to!

Wow, I figure I'll lose some weight but not that much. I'm 5'11 and 220. Hoping to get down to something like 160.

DespondentDeity posted...

once I got sober I lost like 30 pounds in the first month, so you have that to look forward to!

It's the opposite for me.

Anytime I've tried to take a break from drinking I gain weight because I eat way more.

Fight the good fight TC, I want to quit myself and failed the last few times I tried. Ill get there.

Congrats. Aside from the aforementioned r/stopdrinking (a big help for me over my 2.5 years of sobriety) I'd like to recommend This Naked Mind by Annie Grace. That book is what really tied everything up for me and filled in the gaps that AA and r/stopdrinking had.

You got this. Feel free to message me any time as well.

DespondentDeity posted...

once I got sober I lost like 30 pounds in the first month, so you have that to look forward to!

truth. i lost 50 lbs over like 3-4 months.

Good for you and good luck

The first step to quit drinking is declaring it on a video game sites social board about current events.

Coincidentally, Im on day 3 of quitting cold turkey as well. I saw my doctor earlier this month and hes worried about my liver (it has early signs of cirrhosis that have gotten worse over the past ~year).

I decided to make the start of my attempt at quitting coincide with my vacation, so thankfully I dont have to work for a couple weeks. I definitely have much more of an appetite for food as well since I stopped.

Anyway, good luck. Maybe we can support each other on here. Im hoping not to drink at all until July when my next checkup is; hopefully my test results will look better if I do.

TheLiarParadox posted...

Congrats. Aside from the aforementioned r/stopdrinking (a big help for me over my 2.5 years of sobriety) I'd like to recommend This Naked Mind by Annie Grace. That book is what really tied everything up for me and filled in the gaps that AA and r/stopdrinking had.

You got this. Feel free to message me any time as well.

I actually have that book downloaded and was gonna start it tonight.

Shablagoo posted...

Coincidentally, Im on day 3 of quitting cold turkey as well. I saw my doctor earlier this month and hes worried about my liver (it has early signs of cirrhosis that have gotten worse over the past ~year).

I decided to make the start of my attempt at quitting coincide with my vacation, so thankfully I dont have to work for a couple weeks. I definitely have much more of an appetite for food as well since I stopped.

Anyway, good luck. Maybe we can support each other on here. Im hoping not to drink at all until July when my next checkup is; hopefully my test results will look better if I do.

Sounds great dude. How long have you been drinking?

I fell off the wagon once since I quit last January. So almost a whole year. This was in August, i think

Nice. You can do it.

WrestlinFan posted...

I actually have that book downloaded and was gonna start it tonight.

Sounds great dude. How long have you been drinking?

Sweet man! Roughly 10 years, 10-20 drinks per day (it fluctuated but yeah, Ive been a huge alcoholic for most of my adult life).

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


this is good advice. don't get discouraged by a setback / relapse. we all have them, they're part of recovery. learn from what happened and use that knowledge to do better next time.

it took me a couple of years to finally get it together. the first time i made a serious stab at quitting, i went to inpatient for like 3 weeks. on the way home i stopped at the liquor store. took about another year before something snapped inside me and i finally got it.

Stick with it, @WrestlinFan . (Another former alcoholic talking here.)

Sending love your way, tc. You got this!

watch out for the DTs. those are a bitch

Weezy_Tha_Don posted...

watch out for the DTs. those are a bitch

Im pretty sure thats what I went through last night. Hopefully it stops, its been fine today except I feel like I have a fever.

Definitely monitor your health. I dont know if you have insurance or any medical options. I gave it up myself to but never had physical withdrawal even though I was drinking pretty heavy. Definitely visit the stop drinking subreddit they have a symptom rundown to I believe. I used candy for my initial drinking urge replacements.

The first two weeks are fucking rough, guaranteed. I still get cravings about 4 months later but its not everyday. I had to cold turkey tho, I could see the fuckin bottom, there was absolutely no option to taper. It was either quitting kills me or continuing kills me, Im so glad I took the chance with sobriety. I really hope you can find what youre looking for too.

Congrats on making, and starting, that decision. I've seen how bad alcoholism can get and how hard it can be for people to quit (could be why I don't like drinking, now that I think about it). Hopefully you have people around you, supporting you.

Im so hungry all the time.

Awesome, sobriety is amazing

What worked for me:
- /r/stopdrinking
- keep candy around for a while to help with the sugar cravings
- find something to replace the ritual. I got into herbal teas as my "something to sip while i play games"
- for social situations: offer to drive and order seltzers w/ lime. People will assume its a g&t
- "play it forward" if you find yourself about to grab booze, think through what the next day will feel like and all the reasons why you quit

ymmv

DespondentDeity posted...

once I got sober I lost like 30 pounds in the first month, so you have that to look forward to!

Are you still depressed?

you can do it!

Yeah, you need to quit 100% for sure.

SauI_Goodman posted...

Also if yiu can cut out the gatorade. Thing is almost as bad as soda with their high sugar content. Water is the best.

And Propel

MedeaLysistrata posted...

Are you still depressed?

Maybe, but Im much more resilient against it and just feel more capable and confident in general. I was always so angry with and ashamed of myself before, so when the intrusive thoughts came I felt defenseless against them.

Almost finished with day 5. I dont remember the last time I went this long without drinking. Every once in a while Id miss a single day and thats it, and it was only because my body was too wracked with pain to handle any more.

Shablagoo posted...

Almost finished with day 5. I dont remember the last time I went this long without drinking. Every once in a while Id miss a single day and thats it, and it was only because my body was too wracked with pain to handle any more.

I get that dude. Sometimes I'd skip a day or just have a drink or two because I just felt too hungover from drinking so much every day.

Wishing the best of luck for all of you. Someone close to me is going through it right now. Its tough to see people you care about struggle with booze.

Addiction sucks.

It gets better, keep at it! Been drink free for almost three months