We may be anonymous strangers on the internet, but we have one thing in common. We may be a world apart, but we're here together!
Welcome to the 24 hour pledge!
I'm pledging myself to not drinking today, and invite you to do the same.
Maybe you're new to /r/stopdrinking and have a hard time deciding what to do next. Maybe you're like me and feel you need a daily commitment or maybe you've been sober for a long time and want to inspire others.
It doesn't matter if you're still hung over from a three day bender or been sober for years, if you just woke up or have already completed a sober day. For the next 24 hours, lets not drink alcohol!
Todays topic is medical.
My Public Service Message of the day: Be HONEST with your doctors. I lied for almost 30 years. The last 18 months since I admitted my alcohol usage was a problem has been life changing.
Many medications say avoid alcohol with usage. Some say alcohol intensifies the effect. In my 20’s I was on antianxiety meds, in my 30’s ADHD meds… drinking didn’t SEEM to be an issue. I got away with it for so long that I felt I was impervious to this caution, that was for pharmacy Cover Your Ass only. I’m pushing 50 now, and have been on a variety of heart and cholesterol meds along with mental health. It took one new prescription for my body to flip. 2 10% drinks would get me smashed, and if I missed a day, I started to detox. It took me months to figure this out, mostly because when I researched my symptoms on the internet, the results came up with alcohol withdrawal. That couldn’t possibly be me, I wasn’t an alcoholic. It HAD to be something else. I was convinced that the cold sweats were perimenopause, so my gynecologist put me on hormones. Didn’t help. Went to the ER after 24 hours of sweating, yet shivering uncontrollably. After 4 hours of scans and labs, I was discharged for “nothing wrong” with me! Looking back, alcohol is absolutely the reason. The warnings on medications are REAL and they are there for a reason. Saying you are on a medication and can’t drink is an absolute fact. Do not feel like it’s a cop out.
Now for the YAY medical story… before I got sober, I developed tachycardia issues. Dr. put me on a beta-blocker. It did NOT get rid of the problem fully, I still triggered the watch at least twice a month. It dawned on me in March that I have not gotten the high heart notification in quite a while… checked the phone log and sure enough, I have not had one since July 2022. Still true to this day.
One of the events that led to me deciding to try out sobriety was a low blood sugar (drink all the day before, ate very little) induced panic attack. Being the first one I ever had, naturally, I freaked out and thought I was dying and wound up in the hospital. I was honest with them about drinking. I was then honest with my primary doc. This landed me in the liver specialist with a fatty liver diagnosis asking me if I had any kids (that I might leave behind).
I'm glad I was honest with them when I was. IWNDYWT.