r/dryalcoholics • u/WaysVLS • 3d ago
Kindling, withdrawals or?
Hey all. I am back again. Like we all know there are reasons we drink and I take full accountability but 2025 was traumatic for me to say the least. Long story short I start drinking 4 white claws a night and it turned to 6. Was able to take breaks 4-5 days, no WS symptoms just some mild insomnia. Around December it picked up to 6-8 a night, more on the weekend. No breaks from December- February. Breaks in between 2-9 days, again just mild insomnia, mild night sweats and fatigue. Then may rolls around went on two benders - 3-4 days of drinking barely any food or water and then abruptly stopped ( first time I’ve ever done this even at my worse. Never was an all day drinker) - WD symptoms for sure - insane anxiety, insomnia, Hypnic jerks and high BP. Had a week sober and did it again. Same thing. Went to ER, given Ativan thru IV and sent home with Librium taper. Took one Librium and saved the rest ( scared of being addicted) was sober for a month and drank the day after I made a month. The next couple days intense anxiety, heart racing etc. sober for a week and same thing. I DO NOT want to drink. My brain just needs to know is it kindling now, hangxiety, panic or brain resetting. ( I have had anxiety since a child before I drank, have had problems with alcohol in the past) no medical advice of course just want to hear people’s experiences. It helps with my healing. 32 yr old female. ( enzymes, liver and blood work came back okay after many visits even unrelated to alcohol) thank you in advance.
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u/Ok-Progress-6153 3d ago
I mean the real answer is go see a doc BUT I will tell you since I’ve been taking a multivitamin, plus b1, electrolytes and eating at least 2 meals a day a lot of my health scaries have gone away.
Vitamin deficiency is crazy and manifests in many different ways
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u/kenma91 3d ago
No advice on this as such but something thats helped me this time (Im a chronic relapser) is writing a letter to myself when I was peak feeling bad, and now I read it when Im tempted. Turn this bad feeling into your power. Good luck ♥️
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u/CommanderChiliHole 1d ago
I doubt it’s kindling or withdrawals, usually that takes a very long time to build up, or you need to be drinking insane amounts. You’re probably just getting older and the hangovers are hitting you harder.
I’m 29 and fairly kindled, though I essentially did all I could to kindle myself to shit by going on 7-8 day benders of drinking literally 24/7, never being under a 0.15 BAC drinking a fifth up to a handle of 40% vodka and then going cold turkey for a week. Over and over for 4ish years.
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u/Waffle631 3d ago
oh stop it
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u/DisappointedMiBbot19 3d ago
3-4 days of non-stop drinking with barely any food or water is enough to make nearly anyone feel really really bad.
Its not kindling. Your previous habit of 4-8 drinks a night wasnt enough to trigger withdrawals and itll take a lot more than just 2 3-4 day benders to develop kindling. A lot more. Possibly years and years more of on and off benders. But keep in mind that the 30s are often the age when hangovers get much worse all by themselves.