PARANOIA

[IAD]

PARANOIA

Moo.....who are you.....I have a feeling we've met before ! LOL IAD

[Mtntop]

PARANOIA

You're not alone

I also drive myself nuts with the cyberchondria-it's too easy to look up symptoms and convince yourself that's you! Especially when it involves organs you know you've abused over time. I try to see it as an incentive to work on the problems that you know in your heart you need to change. I so relate to the nose veins thing-outward sign of your weakness. I get obsessive about that stuff.

[mooderator]

PARANOIA

BUMP

Have spent an entire afternoon looking up symptoms again. WTF?

I have been doing really well with my MWO stuff. I have been AF a lot and special occasion drinking. (Still having too much I must admit. But more sensible and not on the scale it was). I went out last night and had champagne with a dinner with a friend. Because I had wine I had a headache and that ended up with me thinking I could feel discomfort in my back on the right...which must be my liver - right!!! And suddenly being really conscious of my thread veins again....Net result. Spent ALL sunday afternoon looking up cirrhosis and liver disease and thread veins on the net and total scared witless again. I dont know what the hell provokes this. It assists nothing and is very harmful to me mentally. I got really distress earlier and that wont help anything.

So there we are...just had to get it out my system...thanks for listening.. AGAIN..A rather distressed Moo

[42cat]

PARANOIA

omg, Moo .... you are me. I've been obesssing ... I've abstained quite well (came off of a quart-a-day habit - vodka/rum - and down to a beer here and there) .... but .... I'm obsessed with my liver. I've been looking at my eyes (yellow in the corner? I'm not sure) ... veins ... pushing at the right side of my tummy to see if I can feel anything ....

..... and trying to convince myself that I'm OK at the same time.

What I've come up with so far is .... keep on keeping on ... and don't fret over stuff that hasn't happened.

Easier said than done.

[irish eyes]

PARANOIA

Moo you are OK, just last nights AL making you anxious.

[Evie.Lou]

PARANOIA

Maybe this will help ???
Liv.52 - Herbal Liver Support
It worked wonders for me !!!

[AstraiaJ.]

PARANOIA

Moo, one the biggest challenges I faced when going AF was the obsessive anxiety. It's what makes many problem drinkers go back to drinking when they are trying to quit, and I know from experience that it feels like a vicious cycle. It can make a person feel like a lunatic -- one the one hand, the logical part of your brain is telling you that things are probably OK, or that lots of people get little veins beginning in their 30s who don't drink at all (or whatever malady is on your mind at the moment), BUT on the other hand, your mind and emotions can't seem to stop racing and it doesn't seem to matter what your logical mind tells you at moments like that.

At one point someone, I think it was Boss.man posted a summary of a article he had read about what happens in the brain in the early days AF. Essentially a part of the brain goes on overdrive for a awhile because it has to start manufacturing something that AL was suppressing before, and the overdrive is usually directed in a really narrow focused (and often anxious) way. It is apparently REALLY common in the early days AF. Anyway, it helped me to know that, and I began to say to myself, "It's the anxiety. It's the brain healing. Go do something else now." And I did. "Refocus and do" became my motto for a time.

Also, L-Thianine was a godsend for me. It's apparently often low in problem drinkers and helps the brain restore the balance that lowers the anxiety. It's also really calming. I know that others on here have found it helpful too.

Keep up the good work! And remember you are not alone in those moments when you feel like you are going nuts. You are not going nuts, and it wil get better in time!!!