how long do alcohol withdrawal symptoms last?

Jesus is our true help and we are never alone if we know Him. I pray that you are doing better and everyone else who posted here. The things worth doing are never easy but, grace will be there when you need it.

This makes 26 years drinking for me. I had stopped 9 years ago for a year, and figured that I was better. Well, the last 7 years slipped right by, and I am right back to 5 a day, 5-6 days a week. Today is my day one, 24 hours without, and I am keeping a journal as I plan this to be the last time I have to do this. Thank you for this forum, and all the positive input I have read here, I know I can do this.

Yes, you can! Try to find out what triggers your habit..stress, anxiety, fear, being socially acceptable and deal with the root issue. Take one day at a time...you can develop a new habit in approximately 21 days but, make sure it is a good one. Alcohol and drugs steal our quality of life. God will help you.

Day 2. I've been drinking for about 6 years now pretty steady.  Usually 2 shots of vodka/day sometimes more, sometimes less.  I've gone months without drinking at times with no ill effects.  My ex-wife was my stressor in life and I started drinking to avoid dealing with her.  She was abusive to my son and had CPS called on her.  She also was charged with domestic violence against me.  About a year ago I started having muscle cramps and heart palpitations.  I went to the ER and was given Potassium pills because I was dangerously low.  I had been through a divorce and assumed it was stress related or something.  I felt better for about 2 weeks then the symptoms returned with others mixed in.  I went back to the ER and was told I was low on magnesium so I was given a supplement.  For about 2 weeks afterward I felt great.  Then the symptoms returned and I was low on phosphorous.  I finally related the electrolyte imbalance and palpitations to anxiety and stress.  The doctors couldn't find anything wrong.  I've been through almost all bloodwork imaginable.  I've had x-rays of my lungs and brain.  I've had quite a few crazy symptoms and they kept telling me that they were so general and were shared by so many other problems that they couldn't determine the cause.  I was on a antibiotic cycle for 2 months because they thought it might be a chronic sinus infection.  My symptoms change constantly and are usually 2 weeks on 2 weeks off.  I have had heart palpitations, muscle cramps in the legs, generalized weakness throughout my whole body, ringing in the ears, popping of the ears, dizziness, visual fog, muscle twitches arms and legs then moved throughout the body, chest pain, tremors, nausea, vomiting, diahrrea, constipation, painful stomach cramps, pain in the kidneys, lump in the throat, flu like symptoms, head pressure and headaches, confusion, feeling faint, feeling of impending doom, loss of interest of things, no motivation, fatigue, crawling skin, panic attacks, anxiety, and heartburn.  I didn't really start considering the alcohol use until recently.  I knew I like alcohol more than I should, but seeing other people drinking way more than I was and they weren't having my issues, I assumed I was ok.  I'm still not totally convinced all of this is alcohol related but it is definately worth the shot.  I've wanted to quit for quite some time but felt overwhelmed with life in general.  I want to ensure that I am here for my children as they grow up and that is my reason to stop. I will let you all know if my symptoms cease with the stopping of alcohol. Maybe this will help others with similar symptoms.  Sorry if the layout is confusing.  :)

Alcohol can do some really serious damage and withdrawals can be very dangerous and frightening as you can read on some of these posts.

You will need lots of support and The Lord Jesus more than anything. I pray that you stay healthy and sober.

Everyone has their own road to sobriety, and the "Lord Jesus" had nothing to do with it in my case (after 6+ years of heavy drinking).  If anything, it's little more than substituting one crutch for another.

 

To everyone, best of wishes on his or her own path in returning to a happy and functional lifestyle.

This is my first forum post.  I have been a heavy drinker for at least 25 years.  At least 8-10 beers every weekend night and impossible to count the weekends.  I start many days with Jack Daniels in my coffee.  I have tried many times to stop.  My longest run was 17 days after a drunken car accident.  I get the shakes and a cloudy mind which have always derailed my past efforts around day 2.  This is the end of day 3 for me and I feel bad for sure.  The only reason that I wanted to write is that it really helps to read other people talk about how bad alcohol is.  It is like a surprize of oh yeah it really is bad for you.  Well I recently bought an audio book from audible.com called "Alcohol lied to me" by Craig Beck and I have to say that it made a very deep impression on me.  I would highly recommend it as a good listen to anyone.  I am listening to it again now.  The other thing that has helped for me is to try and break the "habit" of walk in the door and grab a beer.  I have found that immediately walk in and drink about as much CountryTime lemonade (from powdered mix) as I can handle helps the "habit" part of it.  Nothing for the cravings, but at least my habit mind still has the walk in grab a cold drink.

Good luck to you all.  I will try to remind myself and everyone stuggling that it really is a poison.

So glad that you are realizing it now. Hopefully its before long term damage to your organs. Lean on The Lord Jesus. He will help you.

Hi I have been a Heavy Beer drinker for over 40 years, am up to 18-24 Beers a day. I just turned 65 and got the s**t scared out of me last night. I was so light headed, with high blood pressure at around 2:00 am that I really thought that I was going down. I decided to quit again. It has only been 10 hours  since my last Beer but I am already feeling the withdrawals. I am going to my Doctor today for help. Has anyone  tried quiting by reducing their alcohol intake gradually, like cutting down by 1-2 Drinks a day till out? As apposed to quiting "Cold Turkey". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Here I am, 19 years old, been drinking heavy all summer and frankly taking part in other activities. The more I think about it I realized that I pretty much always passes out when drinking, I work night shifts do staying up late never phased me. But this whole laying in bed for 7 hours and not even batting an eye has got me freaked out. How long should this last, it's been a week since my last drink. How much longer should I be expecting this lack of sleep. On top of that I was in a roll over about 2 weeks ago and have had stomach and back pains since. I smoked pot a couple times to help it not hurt and it seems since I quit both things have not been the same in aspect of sleep

I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, THIS IS JUST MY EXPERIENCE

---

Bigbird, a resounding YES! With minimal discomfort. It's a process called tapering. And it takes a butt-ton of willpower to stick with it. But if your serious about going off, it really does work. I would never do cold turkey (holy c**p, i cant even imagine). Never tried medicated route since doctors in this hippy state dont believe in it (what a crock). What i did do was look at people on the forums at (http://hamsnetwork.org/) and devised a plan that i felt would work for me. 

270lb, 6"5", 31 yr old male

Unfortunately, full disclosure, im sad to say i've had to do this 3 times now. First time i was at 9 a day. Second time i was at 12 a day. And last time i was a whopping 16-20 a day. I'm praying to all that is holy i've learned my lesson. Note, 1 unit being one 5% beer, or one 1.5 oz 80proof shot. 

I'll give you my last accounting (16-20 a day). In short, i would drink heavily at lunch, sober up enough to drive home then repeat the process. In the morning, i would be anxious, scared, heart racing, sweating profusly and hung over as well. Not that this ever affected my work being the over-achiever that i am. Year after year of glowing review for all my hard work and effort. Work hard play hard i guess. I think someone has described this as a lucid drunk. Nobody except my now ex-wife ever figured it out and thats only because i fessed up because i wanted to quit and was despartely scared (what a wench, i've since found a beautiful brunette who loves me for who i am!). But i digress. The plan i followed was actually quite simple. After getting over the severely abusive period, I tapered off no more than 1 shot a day. Use a measuring glass and dont f'ing lie to yourself and cheat. The tricky part was when i got down to the 4-10 shot range. I started to fell alot better and was like, oh hell screw it. Next thing you know, binge... done, game over, start again. Go slow here if you can't bear the symptoms (EX: 10 today, 10 tomorrow, but next day better damn well be 9, ect). As long as you make a plan and force yourself to follow it you'll be fine. Just NEVER increase the number. In my case i did this over 15 days.

20 (gotta have that last good hurrah)16121087665543321

Other tips that work is when you start your plan, plan it so your last drink is as late in the day as possible. I know my body and know it well and any sort of withdrawls happen around hour 24. (That is, when i was down to the semi-reasonable 16-20 shot range). If i tapered down, i'd do it 30mins to 60mins earlier. So if i had 8 shots at 9pm today, i'd have 7 shots at 8pm tomorrow. This gave me enough wiggle room to really reduce symptoms. I swear to you, aside from the insomnia and anxiety (which i felt when i was drunk anyways) i had extremely mild symptoms going through this process. 

Additional tips: Force yourself to eat even though i know you dont want to. And force yourself to take a b-vitamin complex. I also liked Benadryl for the insomnia (apparently its the only thing they let you have in detox centers. Everybody is different. I read reports on here and think to myself "DEAR GOD thank the lord i dont have it as bad as this person". I have no idea if thats my unique hulking body chemistry or because i tapered. 

Cheers to everyone in their battles. I hate this fricking addiction. I wish i could just stop all together.

 

 

 

 

Im so sorry! I forgot the link.

http://hamsnetwork.org/taper/

EXCERPT:

Can You Taper Too Slowly?

As long as you are progressively reducing the amount you are drinking you are tapering successfully, no matter how long it takes. However, some people find that if they attempt to taper too slowly they wind up rebounding back to baseline levels before they ever reach zero. If you are one of these people then you may want to try to speed your taper as much as you can within the bounds of safety. Many people find that they can finish their taper in two or three days.

May I make an opinion. Your symptoms could very well be Lyme Disease related. Please do a search on Lyme Disease, there are thousands of web-sites for all the information you need.

Please let me know if you have any questions...

My first time here, Today is my first day not drinking. Things are ok. Just a little headache, some queasiness and, of course, insomnia. I've been drinking fairly hard since college, some twenty years ago.

I still honestly think that I can get some control over the problem without going the AA path. I wish everyone who does success and peace but I'm an atheist, and don't like talking about alcoholism as a disease. It isn't a disease, it's self-inflicted and entirely up to willpower to stop. Don;t try that course of action with an actual disease like cancer.

But my hope right now is to go until the end of the year, slightly less than three months. I hope it takes this time...

Best of luck to all of you.

Please be careful with your symptoms, my daughter had all the same ones you had and she ended up in the hospital suffering from a severe seizure disorder.