Alcohol Withdrawl symptoms

[Conex]

Hi. Ok, I would consider myself a functioning alcoholic, some may agree, some may think I am being a bit over the top.
So we have that out of the way.
I found this site three or so days ago and it has been so helpful so far ( I have done my intro by the way ).
Now here's the thing. Over the last few months i have been hitting it hard. i have basically drunk varying amounts of alcohol every day. Most red wine, not the real hard stuff and over the last few weeks I have got really bad. Sometimes just drinking all day until I fall asleep. I recently split up with my girlfriend and this was my way of coping.
So, now to my problem. About 48 hrs ago, I went cold turkey. Completely stopped. I noticed a rise in my anxiety the first morning and my anxiety levels have continued to be very high. Unfortunately the symptoms for my high levels of anxiety are also very similar to cold turkey quitting alcohol, which i am sure some of you may be aware, can be a killer.
But I am not sure i want to go to the doctor or emergency with what may just be extra high anxiety brought on by quitting, or make the mistake of not going and actually be having Alcohol withdrawal symptoms. I will say that when I practice my breathing techniques some of the effects subside. Please anyone, any advice. i havent really slept in two days now and really just want to stop getting anxious about either being anxious or being withdrawn. Reading this back, it all sounds a bit nutty, so I apologise. I am actually of sound mind when writing this.

[HalfJack]

I think it's a good idea to go to a Dr and ask for advice, withdrawal symptoms or not, they' be able to give you all the info you need to do it safely which would put your mind at ease which would help in general I'm sure.
Good luck :) I really admire the determination you have.

I don't think you need to worry though, I'm no expert but as far as I'm aware people only die from cold turkey if they are heavy drinkers, have fits or are old etc. It's always better to be safe than sorry with these things though so I deff think you should go to a Dr, you're not being dramatic, you're being sensible.
I know anxiety and insomnia are symptoms of withdrawal but they are also symptoms of stress. Quitting anything cold turkey is going to have a more stressful effect than weening. If you're not sleeping that will make you anxious too x

[Conex]

Yes i think you are right. As is usually the case though, I felt a lot better afterwards just by getting that all off my chest. Apologies for all the spelling errors by the way, you know what phones are like.

[HalfJack]

Yeah, I find posting on here helpful because my own head can be so messy, it's nice to talk about things with other people or just shout them out at the general cosmos rather than to try and unwind them in my head.

---------- Post added at 02:33 ---------- Previous post was at 00:36 ----------

It can't have been easy to go through that but there is no default treatment for alcoholics. Treatment can depend on the severity of the dependency, age, health issues and available facilities.
Not everyone will have the same experience with going cold turkey, with heavy long term drinkers it can be lethal but it's not lethal by default.
It's serious though, definitely something to be discussed with a Dr asap.

Good luck Conex, keep us updated.

[Conex]

Hey everyone, just to let you know it would appear it was Anxiety. I think there was obviously some withdrawal symptoms in there, but fortunately not the bad ones. I think the anxiety was increased by the fear of having dangerous levels of alcohol withdrawal. I had never had anxiety so bad before that I couldn't get out of bed, and never had auditory hallucinations. Whether this was anxiety related or AWS related I guess I will never know. I can say that I haven't had a drink now for 96 hours, or a cigarette for that matter, and I am really starting to feel the benefits. My anxiety levels today were virtually non existent. After my experiences over the 72 hours of sweating, shaking, short of breath, auditory hallucinations, total confusion, not being able to walk most of the time I can say it is very unlikely I will ever drink again. I hope thats the case as I never want to go through that again. Ever.