The Life of an Alcoholic: One Big Hangover

Words From an Actual Recovering Alcoholic on What Life Is Like for Alcoholics

Your life, when you are addicted to alcohol, is one great big hangover. A great number of people have had at least one bad hangover in their lifetime, so most should be familiar with the symptoms of a hangover.

When you are an alcoholic, you never usually go more than 5-8 hours without a drink, depending on the severity. With this steady stream of alcohol entering into the body, you might be able to avoid little hangovers by nipping at the "hair of the dog," or by fighting off a hangover with more alcohol, but trust me, this is only delaying the inevitable. That hangover is going to come soon enough, and when it does, it could be a hangover after 4 or 5 days of straight drinking. Just imagine that hangover.

After one of these long binges, it comes time to stop alcohol intake until you are feeling better enough to drink again. I call it a hangover, but it is really a combination of hangover/withdrawal symptoms. The withdrawal symptoms include: numbness in the extremities, uncontrollable shaking, hallucinations, cold sweats, hot sweats, nausea, headache, and worst of all severe depression and anxiety.

All of this culminates together into the worst hangover of all time, and you can't sleep it off, as the withdrawals won't let you sleep. It can take 2-3 days to get through this, and all the while you are telling yourself: "I am never drinking again." Unfortunately, after the multi-day hangover is gone, you start drinking, and the process starts all over again.

One would think that you could be able to stay not drinking after all of that sickness and 3 days of hell, but it doesn't. This is evidence of just how hard it is to overcome alcohol addiction, even if the individual truly wants to quit and is tired of having an eternal-hangover, it still remains difficult.

Are you struggling with an addiction to drugs and alcohol?
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