Asking anyone who drank alcohol after they c/t'd.

Hey there everyone. I don't post much but I have read so much on these boards and during my first month of w/d you guys saved me.

 

I c/t'd on August 16th and before that I was abusing Ativan for about 3 months taking anywhere from 2mg to 5mg a day.. My first month of w/d was literal hell. I was naive and had no idea that these pills that were given to me by a doctor could cause me to feel that way. But I was abusing them so I totally get it. Things have gotten better and then worse and then better again. No more muscle twitches and my panic attacks are almost gone.

 

My question is, I have been drinking about 1-2 times per week, maybe 2 glasses of wine, since stopping the Ativan and I've read on here that this can slow the process of recovery. I definitely think that I might have screwed myself. I've struggled with alcohol and didn't want to believe that it was contributing to my w/d issues. 

 

Over the holiday I drank 10 times in 20 days and some of the nights were 5 or 6 drinks and on New Years it was a blackout. I finished an entire bottle of wine to myself last Thursday and since then I have had constant head pressure, headaches, shortness of breath and sometimes its like I can hear my heartbeat in my ears. It seems like a lot of the symptoms that I first experienced during w/d are now back in full force. Needless to say, I get it now, I've learned my lesson and am abstaining from alcohol.

 

I wanted to see if there were any others who drank alcohol after quitting and what was the experience like for you? I have been checked out by 2 doctors and everything has come out normal. I was originally prescribed the Ativan because I have terrible health anxiety so as you can imagine, it is in full force right now.

 

Thank you for posting =)

I had not been a heavy drinker but I drank.  I was CT'd on August 11th, I have not drank in over a year.  Honestly I have had an uptick of sx since the 1st of the year especially the physical sx.  I sure hope you are in a wave like me but for your own good and sanity don't drink any more for a while.  It's just best.  Try not to read to much into it right now.  Relax breath, walk, exercise drink water, rest and heal.

 

B

Not trying to "scare" you but Alcohol works on GABA pretty much the same way Benzos do.  There is a BB (Siggy) that had 2 major relapses after drinking quite a lot at company Christmas parties 2 different times.  I would definitely avoid alcohol until you recover.  I occasionally have a beer or two now that I am recovered, but have never exceeded 4 drinks in 12 hours and I never feel "buzzed," etc.  I am 3.5 years off.

 

I was too afraid to try alcohol until last summer as I have read too many stories of people getting pushed back into WD for months and months after drinking too much. 

 

Good luck!

Please do not beat yourself up for this stuff. You made mistakes, and if you learn from them, great. We BB people tend to be so hard on ourselves.

I know I have been just like that, and still am.

I would imagine that perhaps some day in the future, science will tell us why some people tend to use substances to feel better. Not enough is known about this, and current thinking is still in

the mode of labelling people who use various drugs to feel better as "damaged" or "troubled." I do not think it is that black and white. I strongly feel other forces are at work there, causing us to chemically alter how we feel every day.

I wish all of us knew more about this stuff. It is hard to even describe this stuff. Being a person who has always used various drugs to feel better (cigarettes, alcohol, benzos, and for a short time, street drugs) I know I am just like that. But why? I dont know. I feel it isn't all psychological. I feel that there are others things at work here.

Hope this makes sense. I am so tired, and will hit the bed soon.

east

Hi B4Ree,

 

You might want to do a search of the forum using the word alcohol, there are many threads and many comments about how drinking a little or a lot has affected our members, about 99% of the comments are negative.

 

As ThEwAy2 said, alcohol acts on the same part of the brain as benzo's, this is why benzo's are given to patients detoxing from alcohol, I'd avoid it if I were you.

 

Pamster

 

 

I too drank alcohol early on in withdraw. Not the first 3 months I felt way to sick to even look at a beer. The problem I had was I dident know I was in withdraw. I dident even know I took benzos. I stopped taking my "medicine" Cause I felt I dident need it anymore. It took me 3 months to figure out what the hell was wrong with me. Still at three months I dident realize alcohol effected us like Benzos. So for 3 more months I continued drinking. I noticed everytime I had drinks my sx went away the most noticable was my tinnitus would completley disapear. Then within days the sx would come back with a vengance. It took me 3 months to figure out alcohol has the same effect on the body as benzos. since then I quit drinking, started eating healthy and exercising and Im fealing pretty good right now at 11months off. To each there own, but I dont believe I would be were I am today If I kept drinking. It was a viscious circle. Believe me. I love my beer! But I love my sanity more... Hope that helps.

Same story hear, drank because I did not know a thing. Avoid alcohol at all cost, really simple. While your at it, avoid all supplements and drugs too. I’m really starting to miss having a beer but won’t touch the stuff for a looooooong time.

Thank you guys for responding to my post! I found a great deal of comfort reading your responses. I decided to quit drinking and just started doing yoga and am 10 days into the Whole30 and I am feeling better. The shortness of breath/air hunger/dyspnea is the worst though. I'm looking forward to making a full recovery.