If you have been drinking alcohol regularly and in large quantities, you probably have not participated in activities that support your overall health. Additionally, you probably have been relying on alcohol as a coping mechanism. When you decide to get sober, it’s about more than just putting down the alcohol. It’s about making changes and learning how to live life without using alcohol as a crutch.
Treatment offers you an opportunity to examine how you have been living your life and decide what changes you want to make. You may start to question your choices and wonder how you can take better care of yourself. At Marina Harbor Detox, we understand how breaking free from alcohol can make you step back and re-evaluate your life. We’re here to help you look at all the ways you can improve your self-care and create a routine that serves you in sobriety.
Signs of Alcohol Withdrawal
One of the things that you never see on a commercial for beer or liquor is that alcohol withdrawal can be fatal—consuming alcohol regularly changes how your brain and body function. If you drink alcohol daily and abruptly stop, your body will be unprepared, and it will let you know that it is not pleasant.
Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS) includes symptoms such as anxiety, headache, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, increased heart rate, tremors, and more. Acute alcohol withdrawal can move quickly from discomfort to danger. If not appropriately managed, alcohol withdrawal can result in delirium tremens (DTs), seizures, and death. Alcohol withdrawal can start as soon as four hours after your last drink, with the symptoms peaking around seventy-two hours after your last drink. After about five days, you will have completed the acute alcohol withdrawal phase, which means your body will be free of the alcohol and will have begun to heal itself. However, it can take your brain a little longer to rewire itself, and that’s what happens during the post-acute withdrawal phase. During this time, you will help your brain rewire its pathways so that it learns that alcohol is no longer the default for coping. During this phase, you will start to find answers to questions like, can exercise help alcohol withdrawal. Because while no you may not want to exercise during those first few days, you will want to when the alcohol has left your body.
Can Exercise Help Alcohol Withdrawal?
When you first quit drinking, you will not feel well, but you probably haven’t felt well for some time. This is because alcohol damages your body in so many ways. You may wonder how exercise can help alcohol withdrawal or why nutrition is so essential during withdrawal. The short answer is that you have to heal your body and retrain your mind simultaneously. By incorporating exercise into your life, you can begin to offer your mind an alternative way to deal with stress. In addition to the overall health benefits, exercise is a low-cost, flexible, and accessible activity. Researchers have found that exercise may benefit those in recovery in many ways, including:
- providing pleasurable states without using alcohol,
- reducing depressive symptoms and negative mood
- increasing self-efficacy
- providing positive alternatives to drinking
- decreasing stress reactivity and improve coping, and
- decreasing urges to drink.
Exercise is something you can do at any time of day, no matter where you are. Whether at work, at home, or with friends, you can always step away for a quick walk to clear your head. It’s the least expensive form of therapy, and it has many positive side effects.
How to Get Help with an Alcohol Relapse
Creating a life without alcohol might seem impossible, so it’s essential to know that you don’t have to do it independently. At Marina Harbor Detox, our team of medical professionals understands what it takes to recover from addiction. We provide a luxurious, intimate setting that relies on individualized care and a low patient-to-staff ratio. In addition, we will provide you with a structured, supportive environment to enable you to create life in long-term recovery. Contact us today to start your recovery journey.
