Vitamins Help in Early-Sobriety!

Getting sober is tough! If it were easy, everyone would do it! The reality of getting sober is that it’s a scary, overwhelming, and often painful process. Being forced to sober up after years (or decades!) of drinking and drugging isn’t fun.

Fortunately there are some things us drunks and addicts can do to improve our early-sobriety experience. These are things like eating healthy, seeking outside help to deal with unexpected emotions, and taking vitamins.

Today, I’m going to focus on the benefits of taking vitamins in early-recovery. After all, anything that we, as newly sober women, can do to feel better and help our bodies return to health is key!

Find a list of common vitamins and how they can help during early-sobriety below!

Multivitamins

A once daily multivitamin is the easiest and most common type of vitamin to take during early-recovery. It packs in it all kinds of vitamins and minerals our bodies desperately need after an extended period of drug and alcohol abuse.

Most multivitamins contain a mix of, well, multiple vitamins! These may include: vitamin C, a whole host of B vitamins, and vitamins H, A, E, D, and K. They also commonly include potassium iodide, zinc, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and iron.

Thiamin

Thiamin is also known as vitamin B1. It plays a huge role in boosting immune and mental health. It also gives energy and focus, like most B vitamins, and helps to reduce stress.

Thiamin helps our bodies process carbohydrates. When we’re in active alcoholism, we don’t get a ton of carbs. We’re mainly surviving off sugar from booze. I was anyway!

So, in early-sobriety, taking thiamin regularly can help restore our liver to health quicker than it would be otherwise. Thiamin can also make this freighting and stressful period a bit more manageable!

B-Complex Vitamins

B-complex vitamins are all about energy! Do you find yourself dragging in early-sobriety? Are you tired after years of getting drunk? Fear not, simply take a B-complex!

B-complex vitamins typically include: thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), biotin, folic acid, B12, and vitamins C and E.

The health benefits of B-complex vitamins are nearly endless. They help to produce healthy new blood cells, protect against free radicals, prevent heart disease, boost good cholesterol (HDL), prevent acne, boost reproductive hormones, regulate sleep and mood, promote hair, nail, and skin health, prevent memory loss, and even boost other vitamins (for example, B12 helps B9 which then helps iron carry oxygen to other cells).

Whew, that’s a lot of good stuff! It’s important to note that taking a B-complex isn’t guaranteed to make all the above happen. Rather, B-complex vitamins promote general health throughout the body.

It’s plain to see there are a lot of reasons to take B-complex vitamins!

Niacin & Glutamine

You know those extreme alcohol cravings we sometimes get in early-recovery? Well, one of their causes is low blood sugar. Our bodies adjust to taking in hundreds, even thousands, of calories of sugar from booze. Once we stop drinking, our bodies don’t know what to do without this sugar!

Niacin (also known as B3, see above for some more B vitamin benefits!) helps to regulate blood sugar levels. Glutamine is an essential amino acid that also helps regulate blood sugar.

Having an early-sobriety craving? Well, first call your sponsor, sober supports, and pray. Then pop a B3 vitamin and a glutamine tablet. Chances are your craving will subside in a matter of minutes!

Vitamin C

And here we come to the granddaddy of all vitamins, vitamin C. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that promotes general body and brain health. It’s also been shown to help ease the physical withdrawal symptoms associated with opiates, alcohol, and benzo’s.

Vitamin C helps to restore hair, skin, and organs to health. In addition to all the above, vitamin C may also help the body fight immune system deficiencies (from the mild, like a cold, to the drastic, like Hep C and HIV), ease symptoms associated with cardiovascular disease and eye disease, and even prevent skin from wrinkling as quickly.

Mark Moyad, a doctor from the University of Michigan, had the following to say about vitamin C:

“Higher blood levels of vitamin C may be the ideal nutrition marker for overall health” (WebMD).

What’s Your Point?

That’s a great question, dear readers! Vitamins are extremely beneficial and important to take. Am I going to ask you to finish your broccoli next? Well, broccoli does offer some interesting health benefits…

All jokes aside, taking vitamins in early-sobriety is important for the simple fact that they help. I destroyed my body for years with drugs and booze. Even after getting sober, I still ate unhealthy foods and didn’t take good care of myself.

So, when I finally woke up and realized the substantial benefits that taking a few vitamins each morning offered, I jumped right on the train. Why is it important to take vitamins during early-sobriety? Try it out and let me know how much better you feel! You’ll have answered your own question!