Need some help finding help...

[neonapple]

First off - thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this and has any positive input / suggestions besides ?stop drinking?, which I already have done.

Some background about myself as a person and my relationship with alcohol:

I am a 26 year old male (just turned), and started drinking at the age of 23. Before that I had not had a drop of alcohol besides that found in medicines. Since the age of 23 I have been going out and partying a lot on the weekends, mostly every weekend. It has been constant, but I do not drink every day nor do I possess any ?cravings? for it. Honestly, the only reason I started to drink is because I found out it made me more open socially. I do however go for the harder kinds of alcohol (mixed drinks etc.) and shots.

Since Monday October 20th I've been having what I now think are alcohol withdrawal symptoms. It all started after going out to party for my birthday the previous Friday and Saturday nights (17th & 18th) and drinking hard. Since I work during the week I don't drink at all.

I've been to two different emergency rooms, an internal medicine doctor, and a Neurologist. I've had a brain EEG, MRI, and MRA done which I was told all came up "clean". I've had many blood tests from all the places I've been to and they have also came up "clean". No one has so far been able to help or tell me what direction to go in. The Neurologist was the one that suggested I was experiencing alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and when I asked him what to do about it he said "stop drinking" and left it as that.

My symptoms which seem to be completely random:
(I always feel "something" I have never felt 100% since this started happening.)

Fatigue, I don't feel "up to" doing anything that requires a lot of energy
Death is near feeling (not joking)
Brain fullness (feels like my head is swollen & going to explode)
Pain in lower back part of head (not a headache but a shooting pain)
Balance issues
Anxiety
Involuntary shaking at times (starts in chest region)

Some days I feel like I'm getting better, then the next I will be right back to where I was. I have been taking Vitamin B complex and Vitamin B1 hoping they would help some but haven't. I have also been trying to keep my diet on track by eating fruits and cereals with vitamins and drinking nothing but water. Everything is so random that I really can't tell what is helping and what isn't.

Total alcohol abstinence from now on. I do have the family and friend support already to make sure that will happen.

But for now if you can help:


With all the tests I've had done, would alcohol withdrawal not show up on any?

It's been 27 days since this began, and seems to be getting worse. How long should I expect it to go for?

What kind of doctor should I seek for help?

I don't think I have it (yet), but shouldn't Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome or withdrawal symptoms show up on a MRI?

[universal]

Need some help finding help...

hi there, glad you are here.

Are you still drinking at all? Some sound like withdrawal symptoms.

[neonapple]

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No I have not, since I started feeling bad almost a month ago I have been drinking nothing but water. I forgot to also note that I work 3rd shift at my job and my sleep patterns might not be helping either.

[startingover]

Need some help finding help...

Hiya Neon, I am not sure about your symptoms, but first a big congratulations for stopping drinking.
Do you think you are suffering from exhaustion and / or maybe depression?
I would have thought that the effects from alcohol would have settled by now but I am not a doc so obviously cannot say for sure.
The feeling of doom, anxiety, brain fullness and even shaking, can all be symptoms of total exhaustion and depression.
Let us know how you are doing

[bloggy]

Need some help finding help...

Hi Neon

as someone who has been through alcohol withdrawal on numerous occasions, I would think that you symptoms are not AW- to my knowledge even in very serious cases after a week of not drinking AW symptoms have normally finished.

I think it sounds like you may have some sort of depression which has been made worse by drinking? Alot of what you describe sounds like AW- but I think there maybe a little more to it than that?
Hell, I'm no doctor either, but I don't like the sound of yours too much- I would maybe try another doc- I don't think many would be as offhand as yours has been.

I went AF for two years after similar symptoms that you describe, stopping drinking obviously helped but did not cure me, I was prescribed tranquilisers that helped a bit, but what made me really feel good again was when I started seeing a reflexologist. After about 8 sessions all my symptoms disappeared.

Please keep logging in and let us know how you get on.

[bloggy]

Need some help finding help...

neonapple;469540 wrote:




I don't think I have it (yet), but shouldn't Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome or withdrawal symptoms show up on a MRI?

Sorry I have only just seen that part of your post, and It did make me smile a little- if you had Wernicke's you wouldn't be able to turn your PC on- never mind write your very informative post!
:l

[neonapple]

Need some help finding help...

Thanks for proving that I don't have Wernicke's. I do feel like I'm losing my mind.

I don't think I'm depressed, I mean when I start to feel bad it makes me depressed.

Here is a little more to the story that may help to pinpoint:

Strike 1

Everything started at around the middle of September. I went out to a place I don't usually go to one Friday and started drinking heavily. I came home and started feeling sick, nothing new I've been there and done that.

This time however wasn't like any other time. I started throwing up every hour for about 3 ~ 4 hours straight. Every time I was done my body would produce more of a thick coffee colored liquid. Saturday comes and my throat became infected. Sunday I went to the doctor and they prescribed me a 6 day amoxicillin type of drug and steroids to reduce the swelling in my throat. Monday comes and I have what I thought was a bad reaction to the steroids (I think this was the first part of the withdrawal). I go to the ER and explain to them what happened and they said it's probably the steroids doing it then sent me home. Symptoms went away in 2 ~ 3 days.

Strike 2

I stopped drinking the upcoming weekend and I seemed to have recovered from the throat episode so I decide to go out and drink the weekend after. I only drink on Saturday this weekend but it's my usual hard mixed drinks / shots. Monday comes and I start to feel bad again. This makes me believe the reaction I had before did not have anything to do with steroids as they should have been out of my system by now. These symptoms were kind of like what I'm feeling now but only lasted about 5 days and went away.

Strike 3

I had to work two weekends in a row after "Strike 2" so I was unable to drink anything. I did feel fine this entire time not drinking. Friday October 17th comes and it's my birthday, 2.5 weeks after I felt bad from drinking. Friends convinced me to come out and celebrate. Before I went out a drank 1 molsen XXX to get a small buzz as I didn't want to feel as bad as I have been. I IMMEDIATELY started feeling bad 1/2 way through drinking the XXX, so I dumped it out (I should have left it as that). I still went out with some friends and I seemed to improve back to 100% an hour later. I arrive at a local bar / club and since I felt better I started drinking only bud lights until I got a small buzz. I felt fine the entire time. Saturday night comes and I go out and do the same thing with bud lights. I can't tell you how many bud lights I had, but it was probably a good amount as I'm used to drinking mixed liquor.

Monday October 20th comes, and BAM, I'm right back to feeling bad. Only this time it won't go away. I guess I struck-out =(.

My current symptoms are: no motivation, fatigue, a pain in my extreme lower left back (hip area), extreme difficulty sleeping, balance issues, and the fullness in my head. I had blood work done which also came back fine. I'm waiting on inflammation and lime disease tests to come back but I'm sure they will be negative also.

I tried to exercise for 20 minutes the other day. About 5 minutes in it felt like all the blood rushed to my head but never came back out and I felt REALLY bad, almost ready for the hospital (again).

[bloggy]

Need some help finding help...

Neon- where are you?

Just to get an angle on the doc situation.

I was thinking about your post today- my symptoms were about identical to yours- in retrospect it was a mix of stuff- burning the candle at both ends, smoking, drinking and being in a bad relationship. Bit by bit my body couldn't handle it all.

I must admit the tranks did help some- don't like recommending them to anyone, but when you feel like shite, they can help.

Do you think you have a similar situation? Maybe total burn out?

[bloggy]

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Just re-read your post- would like WIP to see it, she is a bit more knowledgeable about this stuff. I don't know if she has been on today, but will try to forward it to her.

[nancy]

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Determinator might be able to help as well, seems to know a lot about physical effects of drinking.

[bloggy]

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Yes also- I have PM'ed WIP hopefully she will reply soon.

Neon, hang on in here, soon you will get some helpful answers.

[A Work in Progress]

Need some help finding help...

The problems with balance, and feelings of "fullness" in your head could be related to an ear infection OR something going on neurologically; I would strongly suggest you go back (a) to your primary care doc to describe current symptoms AND (b) to a neurologist, and by this I mean a GOOD neurologist (NOT ALL OF THEM ARE GOOD); if you trust your primary care doc, ask his/her advice OR go to a university medical center if you have one nearby.

These symptoms are clearly a mixture of withdrawal and something else (not Wernicke's), but you need to get checked out on what the "something else" is!!!

best wishes, and please get in to see somebody very soon!

wip

[neonapple]

Need some help finding help...

I am currently in the south east New York area, about 40 miles away from NYC.

I don't smoke at all, I've actually have never smoked *anything* my entire life or did any other type of drug. Up to the age of 23 I was playing the "good guy" game (the one who did nothing wrong & everyone looked up to). I just one day got sick of sitting in the house 24/7 and tried drinking and liked how it made me more open as a person. I currently do not have a g/f. My last breakup was a mutual break up and we still talk so I know it's not that.

I normally am a extremely mellow guy. Before all of this happened I really didn't stress over anything. I am however very very pessimistic when things do happen. I always look at things in the bad sense so when they turn out bad I'm like "oh well, I knew it was going to happen anyways". I've been this way my entire life, it never threw me into anything like this.

I am definitely done with alcohol for life and look forward to helping anyone that may need it if I get through this.

Thanks to all that has stuck with me this far, it is greatly appreciated.

There are no such things as strangers, only friends we haven't met yet.

You have been just that, friends.

EDIT: Tomorrow I'm going schedule another appointment with my primary care internal medicine doctor. He said he would have the blood results back from my lime disease test and blood inflammatory test this week. I do have another number to a different Neurologist that I'm going to schedule. At every hospital and doctor I've had my eyes and ears checked for any kind of infection and nothing was found regarding either. One of the latest visits to the doctor I found out I have a high white blood cell count (don't know how high). I said to the doctor "Doesn't that mean my body is fighting off some kind of infection?" and proceeded to ask for amoxicillin. They denied me saying there wasn't enough evidence to prescribe the medication & that high white blood cells is normal.

[bloggy]

Need some help finding help...

Going back to when I felt like that I had an almost permanent feeling of anxiety- giving up the booze obviously helped, but it did not cure me, this went on for months after I stopped. I too felt something 'bad' was going to happen all the time.

I could not get excited about anything- I did not realise at the time but looking back I must have been quite depressed. Why not try as I did reflexology? It sounds silly now, at that time it was not nearly as mainstream, but somebody who had been a patient of hers recommended her to me, and I thought 'Well not much to lose' - I had been feeling bad for about 6 months at the time, and nothing the doctor said or prescribed was really helping.

I went once a week for about 8 weeks- each week I started feeling a bit better, until she herself told me, I didn't need to come anymore- I was shocked when she said it, but I then realised I was back to 'normal!' It was a gradual process but I had started feeling good again without even realising it!

Edit: Just as an afterthought- maybe I should have said it probably wouldn't help with the head fullness and the balance issues, but it might help with the anxiety- your post has reminded me how I used to feel, and it was like I was having a permanent panic attack.

[neonapple]

Need some help finding help...

The saga continues...

Well I went to see a internal medicine doctor for the 2nd time yesterday evening. The first time I saw him he did a blood inflammation test and a lime disease test. He also requested that I obtain a copy of the test result documents from the Neurologist & Hospital and come back to see him. On this visit he reviewed all of my blood, MRI, MRA and EEG tests.

As before, all my blood tests came back negative. No blood sugar issues, no inflammation, no liver or kidney problems etc. He reviewed what the Neurologist said about that he didn't think I had alcohol withdrawal symptoms and pretty much believed him =(.

The internal medicine doctor's "professional opinion" is that I'm suffering from some sort of depression & that working 3rd shift (12am to 8am) might be adding to this problem. However he was unable to give any suggestion about my balance problems. I was again denied amoxicillin as there was still "not enough evidence a infection is present".

Today marks a complete month since I've been having these symptoms and it's probably worse now than it's ever been. I am starting to get "the shakes" more frequently and I've caught myself a few times from throwing up out of no where, although I've never actually done it. The swelling in my head hasn't went down and neither have my balance problems.

What the internal medicine doctor did do was prescribe me a prozac type of medication (he said it was more advanced - I don't have the bottle with me but it starts with an "A" I believe) @30mg - telling me to take 1 per day. He told me that I probably won't see any results for 3 full weeks. The way I feel right now is that I won't make it that long.

Just to give you an idea on how clueless the Neurologist was, he prescribed me "Fioricet". I'm not sure if i mentioned it before, but every doctor I've went to since I saw him told me i "should not" be taking it, including the internal medicine doctor. But yet, he believes his diagnosis about not going through withdrawal.

What kind of drugs are used to treat withdrawal? Valium? At this point I'm ready to buy them illegally if I have to before I lose my mind.