I KNOW I'm talking to the wrong crowd here. Most of you guys have been sober your entire lives due to the word of wisdom. But I have just experienced the worst brain-nightmare of my life.

I was a convert to the church, on the heels of a wild sorority party life in college. At the very, very young age of 20, I had my first blackout following a crazy dorm party. I went to the campus counseling department and told them I thought I was an alchoholic. The counselor said I was too young to be one.

Pfffffffffffffffft.

I operated on that assumption the rest of my life.

When I joined the church, I dutifully kept the word of wisdom and stayed sober for 17 years. When we left I started drinking again. It's been a few years now and my intake has steadily accelerated.

In an attempt to stop, I took the drug Antabuse this summer - a pill that makes you violently ill if you drink. My last beer was June 24.

Two nights ago, I experienced the most horrific withdrawals (1 1/2 months after the fact - is that even possible????????!!!!) Shakes that felt like convulsions, wild hallucinations . . . my small son had to call 911 in the middle of the night and I was whisked away by ambulance and admitted to the hospital.

WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO has ever gone through this before? Damn, that's one thing the Mormons got right - no drinking.

;o)

Oh my. So sorry for your horrific experience. Hope you feel better soon. That ought to cure ya, as my mama used to say when we had a terrible experience with something we knew we shouldn't be doing anyhow.

So much alcoholism in my family scared me off, and Mormonism helped: I don't drink alcohol.

I can't imagine what you are going through. Just wish you the best !

I haven't had that experience, but as a former smoker, I know how hard it can be to quit. Often, I would like nothing so much as a cigarette. I quit earlier this year and it has been damned hard. I know my body appreciates that I quit, but I still would love a smoke!

It's good your son called 911. You can die from DT's. Yes withdrawal symptoms can happen even after you've been dry for a while.
There is a lot of good information for you here and support.
Soberrecovery.com. It helped me to quit and stay quit.
Good luck. Most people can drink and not have a problem with it. I'm not one of them. I think I drank heavily to "get even" with the church. Dumb.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2014 06:09PM by lapsed.

PAWS. Post-Acute-Withdrawal-Syndrome

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-acute-withdrawal_syndrome

So sorry for what you're going through. I've never experienced it, but sat by a good friend as she went through detox and rehab from alcohol and multiple drug addictions. They did a controlled, drug-assisted detox on her in-hospital. According to her counselors, alcohol withdrawal is more dangerous than withdrawing from any other substance, including heroin, and shouldn't be stopped cold turkey without medication and oversight. It can be life-threatening. If you're not seeing a doctor who specializes in addiction, please do.

after this much time your going through DT's. Those people are HEAVY drinkers and the withdrawls start shortly after you stop drinking. So, I call BS, not after 1.5 months. They would have checked your alcohol level when you came in. It sound more like a medication reaction.

I'm sorry that you haven't been feeling well, Shannon. I agree with Anon Regular Lurker above -- if you've been off of alcohol entirely for five or six weeks, it seems like it must be a reaction to something else. What did the ER doc say?

I'm sorry that you have to battle alcoholism, Shannon. It's a monster. Your campus counselor gave you bad advice back in the day. Blackouts are definitely a sign of alcoholism.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2014 07:34PM by summer.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1601-5215.2008.00285.x/abstract

I searched for "delayed delirium tremens" in Google.

Saree,
ACOA

I empathize with your situation. I am a physician who has practiced addiction medicine for over 20 years.

Stage IV (Delerium tremendous)alcohol withdrawal is not only uncomfortable it can be life threatening with a mortality of 9-15% if untreated. The best medications to treat alcohol withdrawal are the benzodiazepines (chlordiazepoxide and the like) under a physician's supervision.

With respect to preventing relapse I have to admit I'm not a disulfiram (Antabuse) fan. Evidence is equivocal at best and I don't care for the philosophy of aversion. There are anti craving medicines. Two of them are naltrexone and acamprosate. It is always important to incorporate a good program as well.

I'm a long sober sort myself. My sponsor told of using Antabuse, but only periodically such as in times of crisis (I used it myself similarly one time). He also stressed the importance of a solid support group.

But I agree with your views, and as you note, the two drugs you mentioned can mitigate the problem, but only under a physician's care.

Another old-timer in my home group used to regale us with stories about how he "Swore the stuff off forever, after drinking on it."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2014 08:53PM by Susan I/S.

Sorry about "Delerium tremendous". My computer automatically turned tremens into that. Sometimes artificial intelligence is an oxymoron.

I have been on a moderate dose of Xanax for YEARS for PTSD. I know from reading the literature that you are not supposed to do this, but the doctor who prescribed it assured me that it was OK.

I always felt fine while taking it, not furry-brained or anything, and perfectly functional. But a few months back, I got a little heavy-handed with my supply and found myself stranded with only a pill per day for the last 5 days before refill. I had been taking up to four pills per day on occasion.

ABSOLUTELY WRETCHED!!! I was ashamed to get medical help with the withdrawal symptoms, but I should have. Insomnia, terrible headaches, non-stop muscle tremors and shivering, a knot in my gut the size of a basketball - I clung to the material online that said you should be through the worst of it within 3 to 4 days, maybe a week.

I managed to get through those 5 days until I could get it refilled, but once I got it refilled, I stayed at the dosage of 1/2 pill every 12 hours. I feel more or less symptom free now, but I don't have any energy. I feel like I'm getting over a bad case of the flu or something.

Incredibly, I sometimes forget to take that 1/2 pill when it is "due." The period of terrible craving and counting down the minutes until the next "fix" seems to be over. I'm not in any hurry to get off it entirely, because just having it there feels like a security blanket. I'm pretty sure I can do it once I make up my mind to, though, and I feel good about that.

Hang in there, Shannon - it sounds like you've come through the worst of it. Good luck on the rest of your recovery.

Particles of Faith Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The best medications to treat alcohol
> withdrawal are the benzodiazepines

Get a good doctor if your using them, not one that doses them out like a Pez dispenser. They can be as hard to come off as alcohol with long term, high dose use.

I do not prescribe the benzodiazepines in the outpatient setting. They are used in a treatment center where patients get their vital signs and CIWA-Ar scores checked round the clock.

We are light years beyond sarcastic remarks about Pez dispensers.

@ Particles of Faith - I wish I had known what you do, when this doctor began prescribing Xanax for me. I was in the very early stages of PTSD following nearly two decades of a very abusive and terrifying relationship. I lived in constant terror of my ex striking back at me for finally getting up the nerve to leave.

Living in fear, always looking over your shoulder and scanning the environment for possible threats - sounds like paranoia, but it wasn't.

Even though I was able to accept - intellectually - that I was finally safe, I kept experiencing the physiological symptoms of extreme fear: cotton-mouth, rapid heartbeat, knotted-up stomach, shaking hands, nightmares. It just went on and on, and I didn't know why.

The Xanax brought these symptoms to a screeching halt. It was such a relief that I never thought to question the possibility of addiction. That's probably why I can't quite bring myself to get off the stuff completely. I'm taking about 1/4 the amount I took for years, and could probably ease off it completely, but I'm still afraid of leaving myself stranded without the "life raft" - just in case the terrors start up again.

Just knowing that those pills are there gives me a feeling of security. I wish it weren't so, but it is.

I just stopped drinking alcohol a week ago, Shannon. I'm sorry your symptoms are so intense, maybe you need medication. I did suffer some insomnia and morning sickness for one or two days, but it was pretty mild. I've quit before, for periods of several months at a time. Best wishes for you in your recovery.

--Don

I just want to say that the cult does have it wrong when it comes to alcohol. Many of the Mormon kids I grew up with either were drinking in junior high or senior high school, some even younger. They were doing drugs too. Even my cousin from a "perfect" family.

I wasn't drinking or doing drugs because I was having bad experiences with being affected when having to be on prescription medication. I didn't like feeling disembodied or having hallucinations or being so high I felt like I wasn't in control.

Use and abuse of alcohol is a very individual thing. It sounds as though alcohol is something which affects you badly and is something you should avoid.

That being said, someone else might react differently and may use alcohol in moderation with no negative effect. It is not in and of itself an evil substance.

Moderation in most things (unless contraindicated, of course) usually works well.

The sun is coming up this morning. I made it through the weekend. The shakes are subsiding. Good holy gawd I've never experienced anything like that.

Thank you guys for all of your non-judgemental support. I think I "got" this now.

;o)

Please don't assume you "got this now". Continue to seek medical and professional help through your journey. It's usually a long hard road ahead.

The body is an interesting thing. I've even had crazy withdrawal symptoms coming off chocolate. I'm a major chocoholic. The last time I managed to get off it, 3 weeks later I had this episode where my heart just went crazy. It was skipping beats and flip-flopping all over the place. It was the scariest thing. I almost called 9-1-1 and then it just stopped doing that.

I often experience panic-like attacks even a month or more after giving up chocolate and other junk food. Experiences like that often contribute to us going back to our substance of choice, because we figure the cure isn't worth it. But it is. It does get better.

So if chocolate can do that, I can just imagine what alcohol-withdrawal would do to you. I get a bad headache. I get the shakes. I get moody. I don't know what physiology is involved, but I know that it can be really intense.

I hope you continue to feel better.

Greyfort - what you may have experienced is SVT - supra-ventricular tachycardia. I've had episodes of that where my heart has raced with no stimulus for upwards of 45 min. The worst one was when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and my pulse was at 191 and it took 3 shots of cardizem to bring the heart back to normal activity.

My cardiologist told me that SVT tends to strike middle-aged women the most, and for no apparent reason. Other than the preggo episode, the fewer than a dozen that I had over 10 yrs were managed with vagal nerve stimulation to slow down the heartbeat.

My story sounds much like yours only I was sober in the church for thirty years and I started drinking in junior high school. I feared I was an alcoholic years earlier while in high school and there is a history of alcoholism in my family. What really helped me, maybe you should try this as well, was AA. You really have to want to make the change. I gave the whole idea lip service for a long time. Started attending meetings and then decided I had no problem. Several years later, after having reestablished a relationship with God, I was able to come to an understanding that I am indeed an alcoholic. AA and God have been my savior from this addiction. I cannot make a judgement as to your path to recovery that is for you to find. I just wish you well and you can beat this one day at a time. I have now been sober for 1 1/2 years. God willing, I plan to stay sober the rest of my life.

I quit alcohol on my own, "white knuckling it" as they say. It was hell.

Ninety some odd percent of people can drink alcohol just fine. Not me. In my case, I was self medicating for the PTSD which came from child abuse growing up.

I was just switching therapists, and having my meds prescribed by a doctor, and not one of the three professionals warned me that my PTSD would get worse before it got better when I stopped drinking.

I don't try to stop anyone else from drinking. My son is allergic to eggs, and it's sort of like that for me and alcohol, except that mine is a physiological or emotional reaction.

Some people don't like AA, but I found it helped me having other people there who I could relate to. There's even a for JW there who was shunned for being unable to drink and kicked out for joining AA.

It can be hard coming off the sauce but it does get easier. I stopped drinking 2 years ago and have kept off it. Support is key, I didnt go down the AA route and was lucky enough to have some damn good friends to get me through drying out. It was hades on earth and in all honesty I still get the urge to have a drink even more so under stressful events.

It can be hard breaking the pattern, I had to stay away from the pub and situations where there would be alcohol. Also asked friends not to bring alcohol if they were coming round mine. Any true friend will respect that.

I used tea as a substitute, went out and got a selection of interesting ones and when I needed a drink I would fire the teapot up. If the urge got too bad I would drink a couple of energy drinks to substitute the booze buzz with a sugar and caffiene rush, stopped doing that after the second week.

Keep strong, you can do this, its a killer now but when you get through the other side its well worth it.

I know this link is from a humor site, and it starts off crude, but it does seem to give some authentic information, and forewarned is forearmed.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18824_5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-quitting-drinking.html

And sometimes you just have to HOLD ON. Today focus on what needs to be dealt with TODAY. And do be kind to yourself.

Thanks for the support Sus. It means a lot to me.

Now can we go back and delete all the threads where I've committed a PUI (Posting Under the Influence) the past few years? <snort>

;o)

4 or 5 years ago, i got rather drunk off of some homemade wine, then smoked some weed.

I was told that is was *junk* weed. It wasn't. It was some really *good* stuff.

It gave me some hallucinations.

I haven't smoked *any* weed since then.

Nope.

Ain't going to happen.

Go on, smoke it. *I'm* NOT go'in to partake it it!

A *BAD* trip will make you stop.
.
.
.
.
.
A while back, I was told that I had *alchohol indueced anxiety*.

*I* to quit drinking.

Ok, I stopped, for 9 months.


Cold turkey.


Fo 9 months.

The start up wan't so fun.

It's really true . . . the sun comes up in the morning no matter what! 2nd morning in a row.

Violent shakes have subsided to trembling. My head continues to clear - I'm coming out of the fog. No more creepy insects crawling random places around my room. (hallucinations). Racing heart has slowed to a manageable level. I have soaked every set of clothing with sweat that I've worn for the past week. The perspiration is quite profuse still and doesn't seem to be tapering off - 100 degrees in humid Florida doesn't help I'm sure! ;o)

When I said upthread that "I've got this" I didn't mean that in a cocky way. I meant that the confusion has lifted and I finally understand what is happening to me. D.T.'s (alcohol withdrawals) felt like Dante's Inferno to me.

Again, thank you everybody. And I do want to reiterate that the Mormons definitely got this one right . . . Word of Wisdom - abstaining from alcohol.

;o)