What to Expect When You Stop Drinking (E59)
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Gill discusses what to expect when you stop drinking. She walks you through the physical and mental improvements you can expect from the first few days up to the first few years. You’ll learn how in some areas of our health, things may get worse before they get better, and what challenges to expect in early sobriety that might throw you off and trigger you to drink.
Key Takeaways
Depending on how much you drank, your tolerance, and the speed that your body processes alcohol, most of the alcohol should leave your system in the first 12-24 hours after your last drink and that is when withdrawal symptoms start. These could be the shakes, throwing up, anxiety, sweating, fatigue, insomnia, cravings, or depression. Withdrawal peaks between 24-72 hours after your last drink and this is when the most severe withdrawal symptoms can show up like dangerously fast heart rate, high blood pressure, hallucinations, confusion, and seizures.
After 1 month of no alcohol your body should be feeling pretty good. Your sleep has probably improved, your ability to concentrate and just general feelings of mental clarity, liver fat can decrease by up to 20%, your blood sugar should decrease, your resting heart rate and blood pressure should decrease, and your bad cholesterol levels can go down as long as you’re not replacing alcohol with very unhealthy food. This means your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease have decreased.
Overall, studies show that the brain recovers well in areas such as short and long term memory, and your ability to use and understand verbal language. Other functions may take more time and effort to recover, like visuospatial skills, multitasking, ability to remember main ideas, sustained attention, impulsivity, emotional face recognition, and planning. Therapy and practice can be a good way to put effort into recovery of these skills. Some skills may take a year or even a few years to recover.
Sources
Molyneux, A. Timeline of what happens when you quit drinking. Delamere Rehab.2020.
What Happens When You Stop Drinking? A Sobriety Timeline. The Blackberry Center of Central Florida. 2020.
What Happens to Your Body When You Stop Drinking. 12 Keys Rehab. 2015.
Cassata C. Here’s What Happens to Your Body When You Cut Out Alcohol for 30 Days. Healthline. 2020.
Booker, L. One Week Alcohol-Free: What’s Happening in Your Body. Alcohol Change UK. 2021
Lee, J. A Timeline for the Restoration of Cognitive Abilities After Quitting Alcohol. Choose Help. 2013.
Cite this episode
Tietz, G. Episode 59: What to Expect When You Stop Drinking. Sober Powered. 2021.
