[nikkilove]

Im only 30........After days of drinking, I stop, and starting within 24 hrs I get skin crawling, weird sensations up and down the legs and body, scalp itch, watery eyes, which the next night turn into needle pains, uncontrollable like electric shocks, cold sweats, and the list goes on........... Went to doc, trying to figure out a potential thyroid problem, liver panel was only high by +2 over normal range, low on folic acid, B12, and a couple others but the tests came back not too bad.......................... Are these reactions gonna happen to me for the rest of my life if I drink???? I am a totally social person, and that scares the hell out of me........... Any thoughts?

[Wide-O]

There might be a couple of things happening.

1) Some of the symptoms sound like withdrawal symptoms (cold sweats) and are not typical for PN.

2) Alcohol numbs pain very effectively, so some of those sensations might already have been there, but masked.

3) Being low on B12 (it would help to have numbers here, but if the doc says you are low you are probably *very* low) and folic acid is typical for heavy alcohol consumption (you flush these water soluble vitamins out, same for B1), and can do lasting damage.

4) I don't want to scare you, but after a while these sensations stop being reactions, and will be there 24/7, drinking or not.

I'm not going to tell you how to live or that you should cut back on alcohol, but you can potentially still avoid years of suffering (I have a T-shirt for sale...) if you do.

In the mean time you may want to read up on B12 in the big sticky thread; the sooner you get your levels back up, the more chance you have to avoid full blown PN.