It's somewhat comforting to know that while I came here to address my drinking, so many others have issues with anxiety and depression as well (the root cause for my drinking) and I feel less alone in so many aspects. When anxiety and depression occur together, it just really sucks. Idk how else to put it.
Practicing mindfulness is something I'm working on. My therapist said that for me to be mindful of thoughts that are a result of my anxious mind working and to imagine myself on a beach and those thoughts are like seagulls. If there's just one flying around me it will eventually leave if I ignore it, but when I entertain it and start tossing it food, then the whole flock shows up. I find this is true...my thoughts do tend to snowball into panic attacks because I feed them in the first place.