The best I can describe it is it feels like my feet are encased in cement. So I guess I feel it. Like having 6 pairs of socks on.

In my case it was numbness in my pinky fingers and the bottoms of my feet. The tops of my feet and shin\calves were in a constant state of "pins and needles".

All gone now....

Sorry for all the questions but I’m kind of freaked out about this.

My experience has been issues when seated with feet on ground, also when walking and worst by far when standing. However if I try to press on my feet with my hands, for instance, I cannot recreate the issue/sensations. It just seems so weird that pressing on my feet doesn’t elicit the sensation. I’m so confused. Has anybody else has a similar situation?

Lastly my progress after six months of not drinking stalled and now about two weeks from my one year anniversary of sobriety it seems to be getting a little worse (though not as bad as it was when I stopped drinking). Has anybody else has this and if so did they continue to tend in the right direction even after seemingly getting worse?

Thanks again!

What you are experiencing is "normal". It's a weird ailment.



In short, our nerves are protected by a myeline sheath, a bit like insulation around electrical wires. That sheath is damaged, nerves are "exposed", the electricity flowing through them doesn't make sense, and your brain freaks out.


50% of that is "in your head". The more you calm down, adapt to and accept something is not right, the less pain and discomfort you will feel. But there will always be discomfort (until the next scientific breakthrough). Sure, it is a real physical problem, but the way you mentally handle it is extremely important. (very similar to tinnitus really)



Does that make sense?



It's normal to ask the questions though. I freaked out for 3 years at first.

Makes a ton of sense Wide-O, thank you. I’m a bit of an obsessor so I am particularly susceptible to freaking out. Thank you for understanding and responding to my questions. It is very helpful and comforting to be able to communicate with others who have walked this road.

I think from reading past posts you had flare ups but tended to trend in the right direction in the long run. Maybe not quickly but even when you were having days that seemed like setbacks I think you said you continued to move the right direction in the long run. If I’m correct, did your “flare ups” include times where it seemed like areas that had not been affected were mildly affected? I’m not saying it spread from your foot to your calf necessarily, but it feels like it has spread from only one spot on the ball of my foot to the entire ball of my foot. It makes me worry that it wasn’t just the alcohol. That it’s “idiopathic” and the alcohol just exacerbated it. Any thoughts or comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you!!!!!

Happy to be of use.


Not really: my peak moment of pain was before I went into rehab. From there things got better, and then got *much* better when I started on a very sensible diet.



It did seem like it wanted to spread to the tips of my fingers at some point (I was playing piano and got really scared, hence why I remember so vividly), but hat was a false alarm. (just getting old LOL)


It stayed exactly where it first emerged, in my feet (ball of feet, toes -big ones in particular-, very symmetric too). I had weird stuff like cramps, like my big toe wanted to part ways and go live on its own. That was rather painful, eek. But it stayed around the same area.



The symptoms change, but should not get continually worse over time. But at some point, sorry, it's not gonna get better. You learn to live with a certain amount of pain. But yes, overall, despite setbacks, the long term trend was up, not down.



It could well be idiopathic in your case, worsened by alcohol or a lack of B12 or a reaction to a med you took x years ago, who knows? PN is crazy, it truly is. Some days I get up and for no reason it's all pain from down there, the weather is ****, it's an uphill battle. But you get through it, and learn to live with both the ups and the downs. (normal people will never feel the relief you can feel after a particularly bad PN flare, and then it subsides...)


Not saying "just stop looking for answers", but "don't let the lack of concrete answers hold you back in doing the sensible changes you can make" and "don't let the stress just make it worse".



I understand obsessive looking for answers very well, I did the same for years and years. In the end, the practical approach was the only useful one: stop drinking, eat well, sleep well, work on relaxation, get bloodwork done, and don't forget to enjoy life in between it all. Stress is a killer.

Wide-O, your case sounds a lot like mine. The balls of the feet, particularly behind the big and second toe are where I feel it the most. Largely symmetric. Pain definitely peaked right before I got sober. Now I don’t have much pain, just discomfort. The discomfort is fine in short spells but can wear me down when I have to stand for more than a few minutes.

How long after you stopped drinking did you hit your baseline? Said another way, do you know roughly when the improvement stopped and you hit the point of “this is probably as healed as the nerves will get”?

Also I’m mostly fine barefoot but shoes tend to activate the issue. Any similarities there?

Thank you again for the counsel. Scary stuff.

I am the complete opposite. I am WAY better with shoes on as the bottoms of my feet are now over-sensitive and being barefoot throws off my gait a tad.

Pedicures are no longer fun.

Thanks Icehouse. Yeah it seems like shoes press against the area on the ball of my foot. Whereas barefoot that area doesn’t make as much contact.

If you don’t mind me asking, how long did your symptoms improve for? I’m hoping for more improvement but I’m a year into sobriety and feel like I’ve stalled out. Frankly I’m going through a pretty dark period.

It was six months in a walker, over a year with a cane and it took about 4 years before I felt "normal".

My legs are still improving after 11 years....I am not 100%...I may never be.