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This is a place to motivate each other to control or stop drinking. It is also a place for non drinkers to discuss and share.

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Are gradual, but significant, personality changes normal after muti-year sobriety? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by remotelove@lemmy.ca to c/stopdrinking@lemmy.world

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So, yeah. It's been a few years sober now, so that is nice.

One thing I have noticed about myself is the actual existence of a personality. It wasn't a change that happened within the first few months of being sober, but over the following years.

Strangely enough, a bizarre trait is that if given the chance, I can talk about just about anything for hours. My saving grace is that I was always a repository for massive amounts of random information, but now, I can string all of that data together into coherent sentences then easily pivot into all related sub-topics and associated information on top of that.

I make a ton more off-the-cuff jokes now and I don't even know where they come from. It seems I have the ability to make people laugh, which I never thought possible.

Overall, my personality has become extremely broad these days and the above is just a couple of examples. One might say that I am a pleasant person to be around? (That is a very strange feeling, BTW.)

Has anyone else seen themselves or others go through massive personality shifts like I describe? I am not understating "massive". I surprise myself nearly every day with how intense I can get.

FWIW, I was an extremely heavy drinker when I quit and was about a year into serious dependency.

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[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Do you every so often have periods of depression? I was undiagnosed Bipolar until my 50's. Many Bipolar (over 60%) Self medicate. I'm not doing a diagnosis here, just explaining that what you describe rings a bell. Bipolar can be a bitch to diagnose, and since the heightened well being never worries, and the depression cycles can be very short, it's often overlooked.

Do you spend impulsively? Take risks; financially sexually, other types?

Just in case this may be helpful.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It's more anxiety that can cause my depression and my anxiety and depression is only a shadow of what it once was since quitting the booze.

Most of that stems from ADHD and the bubble of problems that come from that. It could be possible that some ADHD'isms have simply gotten the chance to blossom fully over the last couple of years.

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I also have ADD. Nice combo, no? ;)

You do know that ADHD people also have a very large percentage of substance abusers? Self medication...

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

Self-medication was absolutely a factor for me, and I still see it all the time amongst my peers. As such, I am extremely open about my place on the spectrum and extremely open about my alcoholism. (My goal is not to "diagnose" people with a disorder, but to hopefully trigger a chain of events that leads to a person seeking assistance on their own.)

If I had to speculate, alcohol tempered my hyperactivity for a good number of years. While I am aware that is a huge part of my personality change, it's absolutely not the complete picture.