Something I've always noticed and am going through now. Sometimes I'll drink too much the night before and be concerned about a hangover the next morning. Morning comes, and almost always my first thought is "gee I feel like shit but actually this is way less bad then I was expecting" this misplaced optimism gets washed away at an indeterminate length of time later when a wave of awful nausea crescendos to a peak of crappiness before gradually receding leading me to think "maybe that was the worst of it" only for the cycle to repeat.
This happens even when the hangover is not one severe enough to have caused vomiting. Feeling sick from drinking too much I understand, but I wonder what's physically happening during the peak of these waves that's not happening during the troughs.
Grats! Just hit 2 years myself.
Thank you it's been a hard journey, I found that the 2 weeks to 2 month mark was the hardest that's when I can truly say I experienced physical withdrawals. I would get headaches when I saw alcohol or others drinking at parties I would get headaches.
When I quit coke, I was told there would be physical withdrawals but I experienced more psychological ones than anything which is what scares me about alcohol. I felt this deep calling to return to it, I still the thought of the hangover really keeps me away at my age.
I agree 2 wks to 2 months was the toughest. I associated drinking with certain activities, and it was weird to do those without drinking. Then, other things i thought would be hard, weren't. Like parties, family gatherings etc. Thought everyone would say, "hey wheres your drink!". I think in retrospect i was the only one saying that shit.
I got pretty good at dealing with hangovers. I have an iron stomach and had a pretty good routine before bed and the next morning to get over it all as fast as possible. Guess that was sign enough it was time to stop.
I had the same thing I had a hangover kit that I would follow to make the hangover less harsh it was right around the time I quit too
I'm happy you had a safe environment around your family mine would prefer I "loosen" up by drinking, in fact quitting made me realize that there was a lot of toxic dynamics within my family that need to be addressed, I never realized drinking was a form of tolerating it. I'm naturally extroverted so I thought parties and dancing was gonna be different, it was an adjustment but I still like to be outgoing and boogie, I just had to do it without alcohol, I find good substitutions in weed or psychedelics though as my tool to unwind when I need it