Does this sound familiar?

So I stumbled upon this site after attempting to figure out what I'm going through initially from medical sites. WebMD and the such. But all of you (incredibly kind honest writers) pretty much summarized the way I'm feeling right now. I didn't even think about alcohol being a possibility for my condition. Possible denial. Probable. So here's the situation, please give me your feedback... I've been drinking a lot lately. I'm on short term disability for about 3 months as I recover. That has made it very easy to drink. Daily. It's come to the point where I'll black out once a week and only know about the stupid stuff that I've done from stories from my dissapointed girlfriend and embarassing FaceBook pictures. Yesterday I justified getting drunk again for a friend's going away party. But I didn't drink much this time. By my standards. A bottle of wine and 2 Newcastles late at night. The result was one of the scariest days after I've ever experienced. I couldn't sleep. Maybe 2 hours. Mind racing but nothing really paranoid. Just chaotic. A chorus of a song that wouldn't stop for the entire day. Over and over. Loud. So I went to a social event today and couldn't communicate with people. Every conversation was akward. The words I chose embarassed me as they came out of my mouth. It was a horrible day of forced conversations that I just wouldn't stop. It was like losing a part of my identity. I had to appoligize for conversations half way through. I've never experienced anything like this. It's embarassing, and I don't embarass easily. I don't feel necisarily paranoid, but I think this might be my interpretation of going through the same stuff all of you are. I believe my main question is this- has anyone experienced a loss of motor skills from drinking? 12 hours afterwards? How about insomnia for more than 36 hours? Those are the only things that feel like they differ from most posts here. I still haven't slept in 48 hours. Literally. And I'm not going to sleep for a while. I can tell. This restless energy stuck in my chest. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Thank you for reading and for your time.

Hi Emfn T,

The loss of motor skills from drinking is extremely common- the stereotypical image of a drunk is staggering & incoherable. This is because certain parts of the brain that are responsible for balance, co-ordination & speech are affected. Regular heavy drinking can definitely affect you in the way that you have stated, for more than 36 hours after drinking and in some cases, permanently.

There is an illness that usually affects long-term, heavy drinkers called Korsakoff syndrome. This is caused by a lack of vitamin B12 (Thiamin) in the brain. Some of the characteristics of Korsakoff are deficits in memory, balance, co-ordination, speech & appertite. This lack of B12 is usually contributed to the poor diet & generally unhealthy lifestyle of long-term heavy drinkers. Furthermore, research has shown that excessive alcohol actually reduces the production of B12 & replaces it in the blood stream.

And actually- the symptoms that you stated were different from other posts are not unfamiliar in someone suffering with the physical effects of excessive drinking. Alcoholics very often suffer with insomnia & auditory repetation. This, again, is due to the damage to the brain that the excessive alcohol is causing.

IMO- you need to reduce your alcohol intake immediately. Depending on your age, general lifestyle, how much & what alcohol volume you drink- you may be able to reverse your symptoms. Korsakoff in it's later stages is not reversable and only gets worse; however, if you are simply displaying similar characteristics, but don't have the actual syndrome- you can help yourself by severly cutting down or stopping.

See your G.P- they will be able to give you a health check & give you some more personal advice.

Good Luck.