Hi!!  I am a 40 year old woman who has been struggling with alcohol for about 5 years.  I have stopped on and off many times throughout that period.  Most recently however I was on a month long binge when I decided enough was enough and I stopped altogether two days ago.  I have never really had withdrawal symptoms before but last night I woke up at 1am and just couldn't get back to sleep.....I am assuming because my brain was so wired to pass out when I was drunk.  And then tonight I have had some odd things happening.....I woke up after falling asleep for only an hour (I took 10mg of melatonin to help me sleep) with a weird pressure in my chest and in my back back and the odd need to burp??  I started to get panicked that I was maybe having a heart attack and of course all of the symptoms worsened too. I got up and got dressed ready to go to the ER, pacing around my house not knowing what to do??  Are these withdrawal symptoms? Would they be worse on day two then they were on day one...shouldn't they be getting better??  Do I need to go to the hospital?