Overcoming alcoholism is a fantastic life change to make, however, it is not without its challenges. One of the biggest concerns when beginning a move toward sobriety is the fear of withdrawal. It’s important to understand the most common symptoms you are most likely to face, in order to be prepared should they arise. Knowing what to expect improves your chances of overcoming those symptoms and continuing on your march to sobriety.
Table of Contents
Anxiety
Alcohol is often turned to as a method of responding to stress, anxiety or other forms of mental duress. When you remove this as an option, it can have the short term effect of making those feelings seem more extreme. Often this is the most common cause of breaking sobriety and having a drink.
Confusion
For an alcoholic, it’s not uncommon for the majority of waking hours to occur in a state of inebriation. When going through the sobriety process, this can then lead to significant bouts of confusion as the body adjusts to operating without alcohol again.
Disorientation
Just as an individual’s brain can struggle to think in the way they are used to when alcohol is removed, a similar effect can be had on the way it communicates with the body. When undergoing the early stages of alcohol withdrawal, it is common for there to be feelings of dizziness or physical disorientation.
Headache
Waking up with a headache is one of the most well-known side effects of a night of heavy drinking, and with a sobriety effort, this can be experienced on a more extreme level. When a former alcoholic’s body begins to be deprived of the alcohol it is used to having, it can result in painful headaches throughout the withdrawal phase.
Insomnia
Many individuals who struggle with alcohol rely on it as an aide to help them get to sleep at night. Over a long enough period of time this can result in the body beginning to require alcohol to sleep soundly, which results in the potential for difficulty falling asleep, or fitful sleep once it occurs, during the withdrawal period.
Irritability
It is common for individuals in withdrawal to go through a period of increased irritability, and it’s understandable when you consider the other side effects of withdrawal. In addition to the removal of alcohol which is often used as a calming solution, the additional pains and discomforts of withdrawal result in a shorter fuse.
Nausea
When going through withdrawal, many recovering alcoholics experience a period of nausea as their body adjusts to no longer consuming alcohol. The length and severity of these bouts can vary widely from person to person.
Shaking
Shaking is one of the more well-known side effects for an individual going through withdrawal during their sobriety process. This is due to a combination of the fact that shaking is a somewhat common side effect that many individuals will experience for at least a portion of their withdrawal period, and also because as a physical reaction it is one that is easier for others to see and understand.
Sweating
Another outwardly apparent sign that an individual is having withdrawal symptoms is an increased frequency of sweating. This often occurs in a setting where it would not otherwise be expected that somebody would be feeling overheated and sweating, such as when they are neither active nor in an overly-warm room.
Withdrawal can be agonizing for the individual going through it, and that plays no small part in the difficulty of successfully managing a detox program. The good news, however, is that it can be done. Particularly with the aid of professional help and a strong support system, the withdrawal systems can be overcome and the individual set forward on a path to a happier, healthier life.
