Hi! I'm New here.

[New_Life]

Does your hands have to shake to be a alcoholic?

[MajestyJo]

That is a new one on me. I don't think your hands have anything to do with being an alcoholic. I found that it was a thinking problem more so than a drinking problem. Mind you my hand kept reaching out for more, because my mind kept telling me that I could conquer this demon alcohol and that this time it would be different.

I am not making fun. They say, "One is too many, a thousand isn't enough." When I didn't have it, I was thinking about it, the ways and means to get more. It wasn't how much I drank, it was about what it did to me when I drank it. I could match my ex-husband and my father drink for drink, I could walk a straight line, drive them home, and have nothing but contempt for them because they were following down drunks, and be totally resentful because they drank all the booze and didn't leave any for me. Who had the drinking problem? They had the problem because they couldn't handle it! I could handle it just fine, just watch me. The only problem was, it got so it took more to get to the feeling I was looking for. Then when I got to that feeling, I couldn't stop there. More was not enough, and alcohol stopped working for me and I started looking for other things to add to the alcohol like gravol (the candy that made everything work so much faster), codeine, food, men and relationships, work/busy, anything that allowed me to escape the pain and cope with life and take me out of myself and NOT look at myself.

I took stuff that made my hands shake. I ended up with a tremon disorder and when I was several years sober, people thought I was a newcomer. I walked into a rhuematologist's office and a neurologist's office and they both said a drink of alcohol would take away the tremon, so they gave me pills to take away the tremon and here I was trying to stay away from pills. Thank God for the program. I had to take my thinking about the pills to my Higher Power and ask for help.

Not sure what you wanted to know. Shaky, clammy hands are generally a sign anxiety and stress. We get that way when we detox too, it takes 11 months to detox from alcohol.

Hope this helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. If I am way off base about what you want to know, let me know.

[New_Life]

Thanks Majesty Jo!, Yes you answered my question. I can relate and I wasn't "a falling down drunk" either and was able to do house chores while drinking too until I became a "Falling down drunk" before that I too was even the designated driver. Although I don't ALWAYS fall down nor do I always wind up with injuries that occurred while drinking.

My hands never have shook besides once after something at work and although I thought I just needed a drink I told my coworker I just needed a cigarette. I smoked a cigarette and my hands stopped shaking.
And yes, by the way you are right, sometime after I posted this question I Googled for a answer and what is posted there is that not alcoholics have all have the same symptoms.

Thank you for replying!

[MajestyJo]

You are welcome. You just triggered a memory by your response. I worked on banquets for 10 years. I would be really tired, come down to the bar, totally exhausted, shaking and fatigued, get that first drink in me, felt better, get that second one into me and I was up playing darts and read to kick butt. As they say, 10 ft. tall and bullet proof.

For many years my work was excellent and at the end, I tested at 40 wpm on a typing test and wondered why. I was stoned and made a whole lot of typing errors. When I went back to school in recovery, I did over 70 wpm. at the age of 59. I hadn't worked in an office since I was 46. This is a progressive disease. Thanks for the remember when.

[New_Life]

Thanks for sharing your story. I remember even years ago I couldn't watch t.v. while drinking because there were doubles and/or things on the screen kept jumping around.

[bluidkiti]

New Life you made me remember when I would be drinking and my husband would go to bed handing me the remote to the TV. I would wonder why he did that when all I could see was what you described. lol

So glad to have you join us. I hope you will continue to come and share with us here.

[New_Life]

Originally Posted by bluidkiti

New Life you made me remember when I would be drinking and my husband would go to bed handing me the remote to the TV. I would wonder why he did that when all I could see was what you described. lol

So glad to have you join us. I hope you will continue to come and share with us here.

Thank you for sharing w/ me. It's "funny" what we put our selves through before we try to get help.