Hey all, just wanted to contribute here. I started drinking heavily when I began my venture into Law...apparently this is quite common in the field, and lawyers, paralegals, judges, etc. often have addiction problems. I used the alcohol to avoid personal conflict. When my whole career became dealing with other peoples conflicts, I could no longer handle dealing with my own ones in my personal life.
Recently I've realized, all that time of ignoring my own personal problems and drinking them away has left me emotionally stunted and unable to deal with conflict at all in my personal life now. I've been recently diagnosed with a serious anxiety disorder myself...I understand wanting to go grab a drink when things happen. Sometimes it feels better to be drunk and not jumping at every little sound. Not advice really, but I understand how you feel. I'm willing to suffer through this with everyone here, day by day. Best of luck.