Welcome Eyeball, I think you will find not drinking gets a lot easier, but "a day at a time" is pretty much the only way to do anything, in my experience. Keep at it and sooner than you might think, it will feel more or less Normal, at least that's how it happened for me once I developed PN from the crap. I never was able to do sobriety very long until I got PN, sad but true. Good luck, welcome aboard, and if you haven't read all this thread, there is lots of good stuff on all the different supplements and other topics you might find of interest. Hang on, it gets easier!!

Hi all,

I've been reading this thread, and I find it so wonderful. It's uplifting and amazing. Congratulations to you all, you've done so much!

My story is somewhat long and complicated, but I basically have small fiber neuropathy. I'm wondering if anyone here has a diagnosis of SFN that is alcohol induced. I know the person who started the thread did, but it doesn't seem like anyone else does.

I have pure SFN that is not length dependent, so it's all over my body, from head to toe. It started back in the spring, but looking back now I know that it started far earlier with signs going back a few years. Hindsight is 20/20, isn't it? Part of my story is that leading up to the diagnosis I drank a lot of very strong beer, from 6% all the way to %15 as though it were beer. Now, occasionally I drank wine, but rarely, as I was really into beer. It was never from dependence and I wasn't addicted, so when I myself suspected the neuropathy might be from the alcohol, I stopped immediately. The doctors said nothing, but I wasn't going to wait around for them to figure things out. I read that alcohol can cause neuropathy and regardless that it can make it worse, like gasoline on fire. So I stopped. I don't really miss it, rather I miss my health. I'm only in my mid 30s.

Regardless of whether it's alcohol induced, I drank too much, and I should have known better. But I also had a terrible diet, didn't exercise, was quite overweight (I've since lost over 50 lbs and am quite thinned out), and had far too much stress. My guess at this point is that the beer and poor diet caused too much stress on my cells, too much sugar, and that it wasn't the alcohol per se, but beer, the grain and sugar, and the high carb diet - I'm on a keto diet now.

I've changed much and seen improvement, but I've also seen my symptoms expand to new regions and am experiencing new types of symptoms, so I worry. I know PN is quite unpredictable, but I'm still concerned, or that may be all the most reason to be concerned.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any thoughts, advice, ideas, etc. I'm basically curious whether anyone has such symptoms and has had alcohol induced SFN. I plan to post my full story on the PN thread too soon enough. Bare minimum, I wanted to say that I truly enjoyed reading all your stories, about your struggles, courage and perseverance. You are an impressive bunch! Keep it up!