how long do alcohol withdrawal symptoms last?

May I ask if anyone considers the family and the effects that drinking has on them?
I have lost a brother at 49 years old because of alcohol.
You have no Idea what stress and emotional suffering it caused for the family to watch the life support and feeding tube, colostomy bag and various other medical equipment being used to try to save a precious life and to see those once vibrant and lively brown eyes lose their sparkle forever. i am so saddened to know that alcohol cheated my brother and our family out of wonderful times together. One of the things he said to a family member was" I never knew alcohol could do this to you".
I beg you to stop drinking and realize that every day that you have is so precious. The withdrawals are a symptom of your body not having something it was accustomed to having. If you need medical help please get it. You body is fearfully and wonderfully made and will heal if you don't wait too long. I pray for each of you a long and blessed life.

I tried to quit drinking on my own and I would sweat, shake, couldnèt sleep. It was the worst 2 days of my life and then the depression and paranoia hit. I couldnt take it and went back. The next time I checked into the psych hospital as I also suffer from depression. The detox was night and day. I was looked after, fed, given lorazapam sat in on group therapy and quit it. I live in Canada, but if you can go this route, check into the hospital, of course I was a mess when I got there, but medical help is the only way to go.

Pj again, a week away from 7 months sober.  Mood swings much reduced but still feel moody at times for no real reason but snap out of it quicker. Physical symptoms barely here.  Most days good, can Chet the odd slightly bad day but nothing like before.

 

diet slipping back to a bad diet and because im feeling better im letting myself get hungry, tired ect. need to be more determined to eat well etc.

 

can have a week with barely any symptoms.  Protein shakes dont help at all!

I have been dealing with trying to get my alcohol intake under control for a very long time, and am now trying to quit. I sought out help and the counselor told me that I will experience "post acute withdrawal" for 2 to 3 months, but said after that I will start feeling better, and feel like I can start enjoying life again without alcohol, she also suggest I try taking 5htp to help with mood and cravings. I am taking a natural supplement that contains 5hpt along with quite a few other ingredients called Serelax. It's really helping me with the anxiety and depression I was going through. I hope this helps!

Im 25 been a heavy drinker for nearly 4 year. First out I was earning good money on oil refinerys and going to the pub after work was the norm. Ended up every single night and some!!!. I could afford it and had some of my best days and nights. But few years later it became a 4pack of cans every night maybe 6 drinking alone in the house. Thats a big question did I need or was I in a routine. Id say routine I couldnt and didnt want to get out of. Weekends were bad. Id drink from 12 till 12 saturday and same sunday. Enough was enough I had the worst withrawal for the first 6 to 9 days. Panic was horrid anxiety breathing issues was the worst, head zaps, shaking and internal shaking was unbearable. But I did it without treatment (cold turkey) dont let people scare you about dts kill. Only a small portion of heavy alcoholics and I mean dangerously heavy go into dts then even then only 5% of people die. Im not saying dont get help stopping or that you wont have dts but its unlikely. I am on week 4 of no alcohol and before that I did 3 week before I even wanted to quit.so all in all around 7 weeks. Ive been to the pub with friends in the beer garden when there all drinking and im drinking orange juice or coke. So im cured id say as there was not one part of me that wanted a drink. Plus it was fun being sober watching them slear there words and talking waffle. Anyway maybe in the future I will have a drink or 2 but I will be strong enough to not over do it again ever

Pj again. Felt 100% so did squats had protein shake and diet slipped to cans of diet drinks etc and mild anxiety came back. Got back on diet and fine again.

have Quaker oats and a banana for breakfast with water and multi vit

midmorning snack rice cakes with hhummus lunch chicken salad, chicken and rice or something nnice afternoon snack either jacket with salad or peanut butter on brown ttoast 

tea could be anything hhealthy just drink water and camomile ttea within 3 weeks i bet most are feeling much better

PJ..keep up the good work! Remember that each time you start drinking again the withdrawals get worse.

You are too valuable to Jesus to go through that again. My prayers are that you have the blessed life life that He wants for you!

I began drinking 4 years ago but I was deployed (where alchohal was not allowed) for 1 year, but in the year and half since I got back my drinking grew, I would do a 6 pack of 16oz beers on weeknights and a 12pack of 16oz friday and saturday. The past month it got to be a 8-12 beers a night and 16+ on weekends and was affecting how I planned my off time.

I decided that enough was enough and I stopped 72 hours ago cold turkey still feeling pretty drained and I cant focus well all and a alittle irratatable. For me though the 24h mark was the worst, 48h sucked but it tad better at 72h its pretty much a headache which is making it hard to focus or doing thing productive hoping a good night sleep with help me lick this.

Pj again. Thanks for the kind comment.  Dont feel any urge to drink at all.  Just miss saturday nights out with friends and fitting in. If im not drinking then id just rather stay in with a cup of tea and biscuit than go out round bars so social life taken a big hit. Does get me down a bit but not much, its only on Saturday nights 

never been an at home or weeknight drinker but just miss the social aspect at weekends.  Dont enjoy being out dancing at 3am if im drinking orange juice!!  Just doesnt feel right, I have a good night but am ready for going home at midnight after a couple of hours you just lack the drive and motivation to stay out chasing girls etc.  is that age too? Lol.

 

most things social revolve around others drinking.  be it barbecues, holidays, nights out, restaurants, weddings, funerals, Sunday lunch and you just don't fit in as well. My friends dont care im not drinking but im fine if theyre sober eg when at gym or playing sport but when they all want to drink i don't enjoy not drinking because i feel 'wooden!'

Hello everyone,

After reading the vast majority off the posts on this forum I have to say that it sort of feels comforting to know that I'm not the only one that this really sucks for. So many different levels of symptoms from actual people (Not just a list of symptoms that some websites provide).

I am 24 and have been drinking pretty much everyday since age 14. I usually stick to beer, but I notice that I will usually make it a point to get drunk each day (So the number of beers needed to reach this state has varied as the years went by). It currently takes about 5 or 6 mild beers (5% ABV or so), which doesn't seem like too much.. however I am 5,6 and weigh 120 lbs (male).

My point though, is that I noticed if hadn't had a drink yet (around 11AM - noon or so) out of nowhere I would start to experience many of the withdrawal symptoms that others are describing (anxiety, nausea, hands shaking, red eyes, rapid heart beat) and for hours at a time, and on a daily basis, and only if i did not drink the next day.

I have had 1 beer (22oz 4.2% ABV) in the last 7 days, and only noticed symptoms the day after I had the one beer. So it doesn't seem likely that a 22oz light beer would give me a hangover (which I never usually get, even when I would drink more)

Does this sound strange and might anyone have any experience with type of phenomenon? 

 

-Jason

Pj again. Thats classic alcohol withdrawal Jason.  You need to stop drinking. Taper down at first then just stop and never look back.  You're an alcoholic and you need to turn your life around.

Some wife an support system u got there buddy but u should have a serious talk with them an let them know the seriousness of the situation cause im an alcy an let me tell u its hell im 3 weeks clean but still battling an i lost my car job went to jail a few times my wife cheated on me cause she's an alcoholic to an let me tell u female alcoholics r frikkin crazy I've.lets just say two alcoholics dont make a great couple i knoe from exp. So Please i beg u u an ur wife both neet to stop i wish my hellfire on no one an trust me it frikkin burns hot as f**k

Hi Craze, I was drinking close to the amount you have mentioned. I remember about 5 1/2 weeks ago I woke up with my heart pounding and sweating in the early morn after finishing 4 tallboys of beer 5 hours earlier. I was putting back probably on average a dozen beers a night. I went to the hospital that evening and laid in there for a good 7 hours. They suspected a possible heart attack but the results came back negative. The Dr. did talk about a specific syndrome that occurs during and after binge drinking which is quite common to emergency rooms in hospitals during holidays. Point being the drinking was affecting me enough to put me there and scaring the c**p out of me. Needless to say I haven't touched a drop since and there are days that I feel really nervous and my heart rate is all over the place. I have been checked out by my Dr. and she is sending me to a cardiologist for a stress test just in case. I am a 6 ft, 210 lb, 52 year old, non smoking male that has been in good shape most of my life. Drinking will get the best of you! I strongly suggest you go and see a DR. before going cold turkey and ask about the dangers of withdrawal; which by the way affect people differently depending on your state of health and endurance. Yours, in support.

I know people who have over 20+ years "clean & sober", but are still jerks, predators on young new girls, lie & cheat & steal...."Drydrunk" is just a term for people who no longer drink, but still do the same shitty things as they would do as if still drinking. BTW, it's not a "syndrome", it's personality of jerks and people that are pretty much psychopaths.

been reading this thread for months now; working up the courage to just go through with it. 

i'm 35 and have been a pretty heavy drinker for the better part of the last decade. at the height, i'd say i was drinking 18 beers a day, usually capping it off with a few glasses of whiskey. sometimes more, sometimes less ... but not too terribly often.

i'd say over the last 2 years, i'd lost nearly everything i cared about thanks to the booze. maybe 2 1/2 years; i'm not even terribly sure at this point. i say "nearly" because it wasn't quite everything ... but it has gotten very close a handful of times. Now, the thing was ... none of this was simply a result of just being drunk. in fact, the only thing i lost specifically as a result of being drunk was my license (and a whole lot of money to pay for that one). but it's deeper than that. the anxiety that came out of nowhere due to alcohol dependence robbed me of so much. i had to have at least a 6 pack in me to ... drive, to ride my motorcycle (yeah, i wrecked that - fortunately not hurt, but my bike was totalled), to really face the public, to stand in line somewhere, to go to the grocery store, go to a movie, play a round of golf, to go to the airport, to stand on the balcony of a hotel without being terrified, hell ... just carry on a normal conversation. hell, i couldn't just have a cup of coffee - which i love - in the morning anymore unless i could follow it with a few beers as the caffeine just made the anxiety and panic worse. nearly everything was unbearable. completely incapable of doing normal day-to-day stuff without being half in the bag. i would see people out ... living ... and, if i hadn't had a drink yet, wonder "do they feel like this too? how can they do what they're doing?" i'd wake up completely obliterated and hung over and rotten on a saturday morning after my weekly friday night binge (i was, of course, drinking heavily on weeknights as well) - just waiting till i could walk to the store for that first sixpack of the day - and would look at my friends' instagrams seeing them OUT ... having fun, enjoying the life of living in los angeles. which just became depressing. so ... since i couldn't drink coffee anymore ... f**k it, guess i'll just start drinking now! 

no one had ANY idea how much i was really drinking. 

in the meantime, though, i'd been able to keep my career together and keep growing. i'd suffix that with "somehow," but i know exactly how - i was abusing benzos bought over the internet. what a brilliant idea! instead of just STOPPING what was causing all this; why not throw another addiction on top of it. perfect!

of course, eventually ... that wasn't enough either. i practically succumbed to the fact that i was just destined to feel absolutely terrible 90% of the time; all for that 10% of feeling great. 

a couple months ago ... i realized ... i can't keep doing this. i'm only 35. i'd been popping about 2mg of ativan daily for a good two years to just deal with having to go to work. i'd read enough about coming off the pills and, frankly, was embarrassed to say anything about it to my doctor. so i started the taper. over the course of a couple months, i got it down to .5mg every other day. in the meantime, i was tapering my drinking. i even could go a few days with none, but i think the best i ever did was 3 or 4 ... then, i'd be like "oh, i'm mostly ok now ... i can have a few beers." and yeah, we all know how that goes. within a day or two, i was back to the same ol, same ol. i DID stay strong with tapering the pills, thankfully. 

which brings us to weekend before last. went to vegas for some friends' events (a 30th birthday and a wedding) and was absolutely apeshit the whole time. i woke up saturday just in time for the wedding and all i had was my little flask, half full of bourbon. it wasn't enough and i was a shaky, sweating mess the whole time. it was embarrassing, i could barely stand for a minute or two for photos. 

i was only able to get through going to the airport to come how thanks to about 5 mimosas at brunch and a couple beers. i then followed that weekend getting completely hammered every night and then went totally crazy last weekend. i have absolutely no idea how much i drank ... i just know that my bank account had a nice dent in it and recall 3 or 4 empty 12 packs laying around my house and 2 empty whiskey bottles. god knows what else i bought and threw away before going back for more. 

of course, i had to go to work monday morning. i took the .5mg of ativan and felt ... well, not so great. and likely looked even worse. not a good place to be for an executive. sometime around 2pm ... i had easily the worst panic attack yet. my heart was pounding, i was pouring sweat, i couldn't sit still and i was completely convinced i was going to have a heart attack, fall over and die in the middle of my office. i was able to catch a ride from a co-worker that lives near me that happened to be leaving early that day, as i knew there was no way i could deal with the bus. after she dropped me off, i immediately went to the liquor store, bought a six pack and pounded the first one like there was no tomorrow ... which i honestly felt would be the case. one more ... ok, starting to feel better. one more ... ah, ok. i'm fine now.

then it really, really hit me ... this is it. this is the root of every single problem i'd been having. and for what? a few hours of being a mumbling id**t - this is worth feeling how i felt? not being able to do ANYTHING without it? trapped in this awful circle. i finished the rest of the sixpack and said to myself ... this is it. i am doing this and i am getting through this. 

the next morning ... i woke up and took my .5mg and also said ... this is it ... this is the last one.

i prepared myself mentally for the worst. fully aware of what could happen if i just stopped. but i really felt like ... i'd rather be dead than keep feeling like this. 

it wasn't the easiest day. got through it and when i got home, i started chugging ... the iced tea i'd prepared the night before. i basically treated it like i'd been treating beer. finally came around to when it was time to go to bed - which is where it got bad. couldn't get to sleep ... sweating, tossing, turning ... with the help of some melatonin, finally got to sleep. 

i've written enough so i'll just wrap this up. each following day this week was better than the prior. at night? just iced tea. LOTS of it. of course, lots of water as well as gatorade in the morning to hydrate myself after night sweats. thursday night ... i got to sleep just fine. no sweats, really. woke up this morning, friday, and honestly felt better than i have (sober) in ... god, i don't even know. a small thing i noticed ... before, i would be crazy anxious going down the escalator to the train - hanging on tight to the rail, certain i was going to topple over and fall down the whole thing. this morning, i found myself bounding down it, not a care in the world, just a dude in a hurry to get through his commute.

now ... it wasn't a PERFECT day ... still some small bouts of anxiety, but it wasn't anything like before. most days, my mind would be racing with anxiety constantly till i could get home and drink. perhaps the small bouts of anxiety were the challenges i knew i had to face ... not only did i really need to go to the grocery store (a big anxiety trigger), it was also FRIDAY NIGHT. i probably haven't been sober on a friday night in ... over a decade. easily. so ... got home, played with my dog for a bit and said "it's time." drove to the grocery store (yes, with no license - fortunately, it's just behind my neighborhood, so i can avoid bigger streets - i just had to get way more than i could carry) and as i was pulling up ... i felt the familiar tightening of my stomach that had become so familiar before. "this will not beat me." i casually walked in, grabbed the cart and ... instead of rushing through it as fast as i could ... i took my time. looked for some things not on my list just to be in there longer. made a point to zig zag around the store instead of doing my typical "exact path from A to B to C - DONE NOW GET OUT!" it wasn't EASY ... but it wasn't all that hard. my hands never started sweating, i never got shaky ... just a little nervous. came home, cooked a big dinner, took the dog for a walk ... all the while drinking my savior ... this delicious, delicious iced tea. 

so i'm happy to say ... day 4 is over. at this point, i'm over 100 hours since my last drink. no pills since that last .5mg tuesday morning. had lil bit of a headache a while ago, but otherwise ... i've been pretty much fine. i'm certain tomorrow will be even better than today. i have to work a lot this weekend on a project with a tight deadline and also walk down to the pet store to get some stuff for my boy (another place a trigger would kick in) and i'm not even all that concerned. 

i know i still have a long way to go; but this week has shown me i CAN do this. and maybe one day, i'll be able to enjoy a nice glass of scotch with friends or a glass of wine at dinner - but for now, i'm fine with my tea. and i will NEVER go back to what i was. getting stupid drunk and partying when you're 25 is fun and funny ... getting stupid drunk and sitting at home alone when you're 35 is depressing. 

so ... sorry for the super long post. i felt i owed my story to the others struggling with this; as i owe so much to the stories i've read here in my ongoing recovery. it's not been easy - i failed several times over the last couple months - but i feel like now, i've made it past the worst part. AND i made it through friday night. 

now ... just need to quit smoking. :)

good luck, guys. hang in there.