@Vermillion-Rx long story short, when drinking, your brain is sedated artificially, and because the brain likes homeostasis it tries to counter that by producing hormones that keeps one alert. the sedating effects of alcohol wane off faster, and you are left with the "agitators" that your brain produced, which take a longer time to leave the body. This is why we feel like shit the next day after drinking. Do this for long enough, and this agitation state remains much much longer, hence the insomnia. this is also the reason people can get seizures after drinking large quantities and stopping, and why quitting cold turkey can be dangerous.

now that you've stopped drinking for a while, check your vitamin D and magnesium levels, and supplement if low. Alcohol sucks out the minerals from your body, and these two in particular are important in helping your body sleep. if you supplement with magnesium, be sure to do it with magnesium glycinate, as this one seems to be the best for sleep. After stopping drinking I discovered that my vitamin D was very very low and I'm struggling since then to keep it up at a good enough level. I still have some insomnia problems, not sure if related or not, and since supplementing with vitamin D and magnesium glycinate I've noticed a slight difference, a good one. CBD oil seems to make a difference for me as well. From what I know L-theanine and GABA might help as well but I haven't tried those out yet. Melatonin also helped me out, but not always.

You can also try out some tea ritual in the evening with some tea that aids with sleep. I am a bit skeptic on this one, but I don't underestimate the power of placebo.

the first days to weeks you'll have to ride out the insomnia though, you'll realize at some point that your sleep is getting better and better.

hey guys, maybe I can get a more grounded view on a family situation I'm facing.

I have a daughter (1y and 3 months), and since birth my wife moved out from my apartment to hers (in the same city). I have some medical issues which needs me to be rested well so this separation was kind of needed and agreed upon in advance - we didn't fight or anything like this. her mother-in-law came to her place in order to help her out after childbirth, help which is otherwise welcomed, but that woman is driving me insane with her defeatist attitude and negative outlook on life, not to mention the constant nitpicking and criticizing. She is driving my wife nuts as well, but she accepts that because hey, it's momma.

my wife, my daughter and mother in law moved after a couple of months to the mother in laws hometown 300kms away, so that she can continue helping. After a while I left and I rarely visit there because it's just a matter of time until tensions escalate, and I've decided to skip going this Easter there because I don't like this arrangement. Our agreement was that we live separately in the same city, not at this distance. My wife claims that her mother helps her out a lot (which she indeed does and probably more than I would) but I don't think it's good for me and my daughter to be at this distance.

In all fairness I don't mind the fact that I still have all this time for myself. I also don't think it's bad that I am not seeing my wife on a daily basis, and I can still do whatever I want and I don't have to concern myself with changing diapers or feeding my daughter or just keeping an eye on her. Don't get me wrong, I love her with all my heart, I just don't see a fathers utility that much in the first two or three years of a newborn's life. Would you recommend me to suck it up and go for Easter there and try to tolerate my mother-in-law, which I can do for a few days, or will I lose frame if I concede and go visit? My wife did knew about my condition and our initial arrangement, but anyway she went for the easier way for her afterwards, me and my relationship with my daughter be damned.

@Vermillion-Rx as a post scriptum to my previous reply. try something out for the first few days if you muster the courage to stop drinking. In short, eat a lot of sweets.

The long thing - a thing I learned from AA is that a lot of recovering alcoholics crave sweets - chocolate, sugary bars, cakes, you name it, sugary shit. Leaving aside the fact that you're changing one vice for another, this craving is not so random: alcohol acts similar to sugar in some ways once you ingest it and it breaks down in your body, and your body becomes accustomed to getting a lot of "sugar". In other sources I've read that it lowers your blood sugar. But whatever angle you look at it, once you stop the alcohol ingestion, your body will notice that it lacks sugar, and you WILL crave it.

This happened to me as well, I still get these cravings. I particularly like chocolate sweets (chocolate bars, Snickers, wafers, lava cakes, the like).

Your body also became accustomed to the unnatural high dopamine hits from alcohol and, in short, this is what keeps you going back to it, so in a way you will mimic this with the aforementioned sugary treats, albeit probably at a much smaller scale. But try it out before actually getting these cravings. Think of it as a preemptive strike. I would've tried it if I'd known this. The next time you are craving alcohol eat your favorite cake instead, and eat it fully. In the end it's these dopamine spikes that are causing the addiction, whatever the medium might be.

In retrospect, I realized that while drinking I generally did not eat anything with sugar, but on the times when I did gave myself a sugary treat before drinking something, I did not feel the same need to drink alcohol. Don't expect miracles though.

You might replace one vice with another, but I think being addicted to sugar for a while is way better than being addicted to alcohol. Make sure this doesn't worsen your psychotic episodes if you have them though, I don't know the relationship between bipolar disorder and sugar, but I can only assume it's not a good one. And check your blood sugar regularly.

Of course, this alone won't work as a substitution. I can not stress it enough to check in with your psychiatrist, no matter what.