alcoholic cardiomyopathy

have drank heavily for 25 yrs,always have a pounding heart and anxiety the next day after a decent drink,suffer from panic and anxiety,if i had a dollar for every time i thought i was going to die i,d be a millionaire,well anyway i go to bed the other night with about 6 to 7 beers in me and a stomach full of asian,wake up about 2;30 in the morning pretty dazed and panicky,go outside to get freshair and try to take some deep breaths,go for a short walk feeling absoloutly terrable,actually praying to god to save me from dropping dead on the spot,scared to death with chest pain ect,cant seem to get a deep breath,so i walk myself up to the emergency dept and tell them ive got chest pain and feel like i,m going to die,they keep me in for 12 hours run all the tests,put me on a traedmill and give me a stress test,everything checks out ok,i admitted to them that i drink 6 to 12 beers a day and have drunk hard for 25 yrs,they suspect my heart pains i always get,my feelings of stiff and swollen legs ,my pounding heart,my fatigue and tiredness,numbness in feet and legs is all related to alcohol abuse,they send a toxicology specialist to talk to me about detox and rehab and aa meetings,gave me some literature,which they said i better take heed of or they,ll be seeing alot more of me in there in the future,they said the numbness in my feet will come back if i stay off the grog,i havnt had a drink for 3 days and am to scared to,my drinking days are over and i,m going back to aa,my own research says that i have what they call alcoholic cardiomyopathy,i seem to have all the symtoms and its freaking scary,i,ve never been so scared as the other night,i really thought i was a goner,just wondering if anybody else on here or anyone they know has given up the booze cause they knew it was killing them,restoring mopars and drinking booze has always gone hand in hand for me,but i gotta learn to do resto work without the reward of a beer or 20 at the end of the day,i,m entering a new and unknown chapter of my life!!!!!!!!!