alwaysforward

surfing through a lot of these threads here, i've noticed a common theme of using alcohol to manage anxiety. is this something most folks do? i wouldn't consider myself an alcoholic in the sense of a physical urge to drink, i rarely drink alone, for example. but it's nearly impossible for me to feel comfortable in a social situation without alcohol, to the point where i'll often drink at work, my anxiety is so bad. is this a common thing for people here?

thanks. great forum, it has been really useful for me to read some of these accounts and realize that i'm not totally alone in some of my issues. people around me - most of whom have only hung out with me while i've been at least a little under the influence - have no conception of the extent to which alcohol orders my life.

dawnie24

My anxiety is bad too but I drank coz I was bored, I have depression, I moved out of my own town, where I live I have no friends, I kept makin excuses why I wanted to drink... But my anxiety kicked in now I'm sufferin the consequences I'm on my 2nd day sober and I feel awful

Terminally Unique

Very early on, I enjoyed the side effect of "loosening up" in social situations that drinking gave me, and I took full advantage. It took many years, but by the end, I could rarely even go out to drink. The alcohol made my anxiety and paranoia so bad that the telephone ringing, a dog barking, or the mail man at the door would put me on edge. Over the long haul, alcohol will aggravate anxiety, and if you are not careful, it may eventually end up having the opposite effect.

minorthreat

Very, very, very true. At an old job of mine, I used to always drink before I went to work, trying to be a bit friendlier and chattier hoping for better tips. Eventually, it just lead to me getting completely overwhelmed in situations I'd normally be able to handle perfectly fine, throwing tantrums, etc. Even at home, after a stressful day, I'd tell myself I was drinking to "calm down and relax", but it almost always ended in a massive fit, where I'd be crying, screaming incoherently, pretty much having huge panic attacks.

808state

I drank to quell my anxiety but then the next couple of days after a heavy session my anxiety would be 10 times worse & along with it would come paranoia too. I also drank as I was depressed, well what do you know booze is a depressant...that ain't gonna work out well is it now?!

Alcohol may calm you momentarily but in the long run it'll only make any anxiety disorder or depression much much worse.

Aegian

Hi alwaysforward,

Only you will know if you have a problem with alcohol, but having to drink to get through a work day is not a good sign. Have you talked with a Doc about anxiety and self-medicating with alcohol?

TwelveSteps

I absolutely used alcohol to manage my anxiety. What you may be realizing, alwaysforward, is that chronic alcohol use actually makes anxiety WORSE overall. It took me awhile to "get" that, but I was absolutely shocked at how much my day-to-day anxiety level had decreased once I had been sober for a few months. I realized that a lot of my anxiety had been increased by my brain "rebounding" from heavy drinking the night before.

GG

grotty75

From what I can remember before I abstained, was that my anxiety was one of the symptoms that made me think I had a drink problem. And I did.

grotty75

LOL too true. I was a depressed grumpy bloke, well I still am but at least I can joke about it now...:ghug3

Dee74

Hi alwaysforward

While I agree a lot of people use alcohol for a little 'dutch courage' and thats not always necessarily indicative of a bigger problem, I think drinking at work is a red flag.

I also think if we use alcohol habitually for years we can often find ourselves in the position you do where 'it's nearly impossible for me to feel comfortable in a social situation without alcohol'.

If alcohol orders your life, I think you're absolutely right to be thinking about it

Glad you've joined us

D

keepstrong

What goes up must come down

WillyBlues

I've been through many different phases in my alcoholism, during the progression the thing that hit me like a hammer were the panic attacks I began getting when I use to stop. Before that, I would just have insomnia and feel hung over for a day or two after a weekend of bingeing. The game changer for me was the panic attacks, that’s when I started drinking to avoid them. The fear of having a panic attack was just as bad as the real thing. I can still recall exactly where I was when I had my first one.

For about 6 years (between my first panic attack and when I stopped drinking), I was really on a merry-go-round, an extremely exhausting and nasty one. At any rate, two rehabs and about a dozen detox’s later I finally managed to put together close to a year (I’m 22 days away!). I found that breathing exercises and getting a good night’s sleep were really helpful. When I stopped last November I was only drinking out of fear of an attack, last winter was pretty bad, I pretty much avoided all caffeine and really cut down my smoking, stayed focused on work and just basically tried to get out of my head as much as possible.

I just had the best spring and summer in about 15 years! But anxiety for me, it’s a killer.

freethinking

Alcohol made me anxious, horribly anxious.

flyawayfromhere

Alcohol has never made me anxious, I'm sure it's perfectly normal that I can't stand it when people look at me, that I'm on social anxiety meds and that I can't ride in a car with someone else driving or be in any sort of situation longer than 15min where the people around me keep me from taking restroom breaks whenever I desire them and slip into a sort of panic attack when I can't...I'm sure this is all perfectly normal. lol And that's my daily dose of sarcasm for this site...alcohol will mess you up real good and for a long time too. Even 8 months of abstinence didn't reverse all of my drinking-caused anxiety.

doggonecarl

There are lots of reasons to drink, but only one reason you might not be able to quit. Alcoholism.

Froglet

I always read up on anxiety and alcoholism because they do correlate w/ each other. I face anxiety disorder and I think a large part of it is due to drinking.

I haven't found any strong success either, but people have said it helps.

ZZworldontheweb

This is very common, but any time you're "using" alcohol to do ANYTHING, i.e. loosen up, reduce stress, it can be dangerous. Be careful.

least

I drank due to anxiety and depression and ended up just making them both much worse. Now that I'm sober my anxiety and depression are much better and the meds I take for them actually help.

SideStep

I drank because I was anxious. But the anxiety just got worse, so I drank more.....you see where this is going, right?