Hold up a second, you can't beat yourself up too much over this....day 12 you are trying, Kudos...you had your reasons to start; It's what you are doing now.
Remember when there was a generation who ran around in the sun w/o sunscreen and SOME have skin cancer....and who knows, maybe alcohol induced nerve damage caused your damage but you knowledge is very much appreciated your experience is welcomed here....

I certainly appreciate the replies. One thing for certain is that I cannot change what has happened, however I can change with the choice to drink or not. I believe I'm going to look into some methods/tools to help stay sober. Day 14.

Yup yup...Kudos

Bobby, as far as tools are concerned, one thing which helped me was the "one day at a time" approach.

By that I mean that if I got urges to drink I would say to myself "Tomorrow you can get drunk. But, not today, today you will be sober."

I repeated that the next day and the next day and the next day..., until the urges subsided (which they do).

That helped me and I hope that it will help you as well.

HA! I did the same thing. I would wake up and look at the counter on my phone and say. "Wow, <insert real name>, you made it one more day. Get through till midnight or you will have to reset that counter."

Yes, cease. I am living proof that alcohol has a direct poisoning effect on nerves and also depletes the body of thiamine and other B vitamins. Also, continuing to drink will continue to set up a state in your body that will not allow you to absorb vitamins properly. You will feel better off of that junk. I sure as heck do, and I never knew just what an alcoholic I had become.

My thread here (about third down on the list) talks a little about what I am still going through and it also gives a vitamin regimen (do not take the iron) that I am following today. Importantly, don't be scared of blood tests, and in all cases of something weird going on with your nerves get a CBC.

11 days sober are the eleven hardest. It gets easier after this week, and it gets much easier after a month. If you need any support, message, please!

Welcome to our little outpost

Awesome beautiful

The love
Me

Still here, still fighting. That is all. Thanks for the support!

First of all, to your initial question: ABSOLUTELY YES. The total ceasing of alcohol intake will halt the PROGRESSION, or NEW damage to the Peripheral Nervous System.

Degree of recovery and repair is dependent upon a number of variables, several posted to you from fellow members already--but maximum effectiveness of any is totally contingent on complete alcohol abstinence.

I, personally am a firm believer in cold-turkey. This method is rough, very rough, especially in the beginning, with the strong physical and mental urges, physical addiction withdrawal suffering, re-establishing restful sleep patterns, and even the danger of Epileptic-like seizures. Unfortunately, I have seen all too often relapses when weaning-off methods are employed, whether there may be too much alone time opportunity for rationalizing that one harmless glass of red wine, or "how harmful could one lousy bottle of beer be?

Throughout a 50 year every day drinking career, beginning at just 16, (I hung with an older intellectual and hard-drinking crowd in the mid sixties) there were many occasional cold-turkey month or two cleaning out periods, that never were attempts at quitting permanently. Just giving my body a short, well earned respite. Consequently, I grew to be aware and prepared for the first day, second, third,etc., and just gritted my teeth through them.

When PN finally took an unbearable stage in it's hold on me at age 66, My doc gave me the final kick that inside I knew was already overdue. Due to the frequency of the aforementioned seizures that were documented diagnosed as due to cold-turkey cessation, it became medically advisable to prescribe a 10 day regimen of Librium to stave off such possibilities. I went that route and can speak with some experienced authority that it made all the difference in the world. Some of the suffering I was used to were either eliminated completely, or greatly reduced.

If you are truly serious about total cessation on a road back toward good physical health, I would strongly recommend this approach--but only if you are mentally ready for full commitment, as it's doubtful your physician would repeat the regimen risking a trade of a new addiction for an old one.

Whichever path you choose, I know we all wish you the best of luck.