My husband gave up drinking ten weeks ago, cold turkey. Before then, he’d been a heavy drinker for going on thirty years, although never before or during work (e.g., he wasn’t drinking 24 hours a day).
I’m enormously proud of him, of course, and extremely impressed with his willpower.
Our question is this: he expected to go through a physical withdrawal period, but he felt very few and very mild symptoms. (We know the psychological desire isn’t so easily conquered, but so far, so good on that front.)
However, now at ten weeks later, he’s finding that he’s more irritable than he used to be, much more impatient, he’s finding it hard to concentrate or to sleep soundly. His hand-eye coordination is off, which is aggravating to a golfer.
Is this just an expected outcome of kicking alcohol, or something else? I’ve tried to research this a little on the web, but I couldn’t find anything outside of the severe initial detox, and then lots of social advice, and I don’t know if that’s because what he’s experiencing is not related, or just that other issues are usually more urgent (and perhaps I just had the wrong search terms.)
We aren’t asking for definitive medical advice, and we’re going to make a doctor’s appointment regardless.
Facts are what we are hoping for, but we’ll also take anecdotes!
This will probably break into GD territory, but Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) describes something they call a “dry drunk”. Symptoms include increased anxiety, mild tremors, depression, disturbed sleep patterns, inability to think clearly, craving for junk food, irritability, sudden bursts of anger and mood swings.
They claim it’s the result of stopping drinking without solving the emotional problems that led to the drinking in the first place. I don’t have any basis for deciding if they’re right or not, but you could look it up.
Several months ago there was thread discussing the long term effects of drugs (including alcohol) on the brain, and QtM said that in cold turkey scenarios it could take a year or two in some cases before a person’s brain chemistry (assuming no substantive permanent damage has been done) re-aligned itself to full pre-drug 'normality".
So yes, there apparently are some long term behavioral re-alignment issues.
If and when you find it, would you post a link? I’ve always wondered about this myself. I once read that a person who drinks to the blackout point once a month, but who otherwise abstains completely from alcohol, actually has an abuse issue which could render them eligible for public assistance. I’ve never understood how this could be true, and this might explain it. Also, I think I remember QtM mentioning recently that the derangement to the hepatic cytochrome P450 system takes about 4 months to resolve itself when a person stops abusing alcohol. There’s no question that alcohol abuse leads to biochemical lesions which take a long time to repair themselves. I’d really like to know more about the subject, and learn what they are and how long they persist.
Quitting alcohol cold turkey without the supervision of a medical professional is potentially dangerous if you are physically dependent upon alcohol (i.e. you get shaky without a drink).
Acute alcohol withdrawal can lead to the DTs in a proportion of physically dependent drinkers (sweats, high blood pressure, shakes, hallucinations and seizures). DTs are a medical emergency that can be prevented by medication. It’s difficult to predict who will get DTs on cessation and who won’t, so most medics prefer to treat all physically dependent drinkers with medication to prevent it occurring.
merrily while I applaud your husband’s decision to quit, I’m suggesting perhaps he didn’t go about it in the safest way. That’s MHO, and I’m not trying to be snarky, just giving info for anyone reading this thread and thinking about doing the same thing.
The best things you can do for you husband in the mean time is to make sure he eats a healthy, well-balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals. Alcoholics often eat poorly and can be deficient in B vitamins, which can be dangerous. A good multivitamin might be an idea while you wait to see the doctor.
I tend to agree with this. The guy drank for thirty years, now after ten weeks the initial emotional high from giving up booze has left and normal life sets in.
His body chemistry was used to a certain about of alcohol in his system to regulate his moods, nerves, appetite, etc. Now his body doesn’t have that alcohol and is trying to adjust…
I wouldn’t include this in the dry drunk phase because it is much too early. Physiological alcohol addictions can take a very long time to go away. I have experienced it first hand and also have the academic credentials to back it up. Long-term alcohol abuse starts with acute alcohol withdrawal and that is dangerous without medical intervention. It might take up to a week to become medically stable. However, there are still many physical effects that linger. Irritability and edginess can last for months. There can also be light tremors for months. A strong craving for sugar products can last for a long time as well.
The brain has to rewire itself after such a long time of alcohol abuse. Six months - two years seems about right to me and in the ballpark of what I experienced. It isn’t pleasant.
I don’t know about that part but they teach it in rehab, detox, and sometimes people say it in AA. I don’t even like sugar that much…until I experienced it myself and saw it in others after acute withdrawal. It is a really strong drive. Alcohol is related to sugar.
Irishgirl, you have a good point. We were aware of the possibility, but I was here for the first couple of days, and with him for the next two weeks when he wasn’t at work, and there was just…nothing. I don’t know the medical ins and outs, he’d drink 12 beers in an evening on bad days, and maybe a six-pack other better days, but he never blacked out, so maybe that had something to do with it. Or maybe he’s just physically lucky.
I looked at a lot of threads for the last couple of hours – QtM is always a good use of time – but I didn’t find that particular one. Maybe he’ll show up.
(There sure is a lot of inspiration in the Teeming Millions.)
Shagnasty, thanks, since he hasn’t gone the AA route, he doesn’t have the peer group experiences to fall back on (he’s stubborn, a blessing and a curse for this). Your input helped him understand what the norms might be.
What happens if a recovering abuser relapses a year or so into their recovery process and goes on a short (2 or 3 day) drinking binge? Does everything rescramble itself and essentially set that person back to square one?
The hypothesis is that it depends on a lot of factors, including original degree of dysfunction, length of relapse, amount and number of substances used during relapse, and whether any significant physical dependence developed.
The results would range anywhere from minor setback to all the way back to square one, to having regressed even further than they had been before they quit last time.