MrTumble

Hi Guys, does anyone have any ideas on how best to deal with stress? I'm fairly certain that one the contributing factors to my abuse of alcohol is that I often get stress and boozes helps relieve that feeling.

Does anyone have any practical ways to deal with it that can share?

Joe Nerv

That is the BIG lie of alcohol, and the toughest lie for a person with an alcohol problem to get past. Alcohol is a depresant, and only adds to the stress while acting as though it's relieving it. The seeming relief is very short lived, while the after effect lasts and compounds itself.

Good for you that you're looking to learn to deal with stress without it. There are lots of ways to relieve stress without alcohol, and I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions here. To save me some typing I'd suggest googling "natural stress relief" and all other stress help words you can come up with.

Real quick list of mine would include:

exercise
relaxation exercises
drinking lots of water
deep breathing
mediation
hot baths
herbal teas
new age music
reading positive and inspirational material
avioiding negative people and conversations
massages
prayer
mediation
12 steps
AA

and the list goes on and on....

Doug39

Helped me big time:

Natural Anxiety Cure | Panic Treatment | Self Help With Anxiety Attacks

youbetcha

Joe Nerv pretty much said it all. Some stress is just part of life, there's lots of tools to deal with it. Just practice walking through things sober, you probably won't break. Sobriety takes faith, tools, and a bit of cajones.

MattM316

I'm yet to find a true answer to this.
I've suffered from stress/anxiety/worry for as long as I can remember. But because I come across to everyone as very laid back, nobody had any idea how anxious I was and how I spent so many years self-medicating with mainly alcohol to try and ease the anxiety.
But as Joe pointed out, it only relieves it for a while, then it comes back and hits you again.
I used to even stress myself out over situations and conversations that were extremely unlikely to ever happen.

All I try to do now and focus on what is more important than anything else - my own health.
Also focus on things I enjoy, which in my case is films, music and a couple of sports I really enjoy watching (football and MMA).
I try and remind myself about the things I am stressing about - Are they really that important that they should dominate my every thought?

Vlad

Sex

zjw

go for a walk. if that doesnt work go for another one repeat as many times as necesary! while on said walk you'll be able to sort out the issues and solve the problems of hte world in a much more productive fashion then you would while sucking back drinks.

I've moved on to running now and it works very well. My only gripe is sometimes I wish i had no reason to run so i could sit back and relax but alas I'm always agitated anxious frustrated you name it and need to go run to blow off all the pressure etc.. and then i feel better.

deeker

My stress was brought on by the guilt, shame and remorse of drinking.

The further away I got from the drink, the less stress I had because I began walking up with less and less guilt shame and remorse.

I drank for so many years that I didn't realize that my anxiety was from my drinking and drugging.

Croissant

Walking...good endorphins...and I get to think through stuff.

Threshold

I think it's great to have some stress relieving activities as mentioned above, but also to look into ways to reduce stress from the outside, and to readdress how we react to life and see how much we can let go of from the inside.

I've found out that a lot of things I used to stress about weren't actually attacking me, I was turning them into monsters inside my own head. That was something I could stop doing.

There are a variety of ways to get a new perspective on life, different philosophies etc, and I don't know which one is the right one for you, but that particular thing has been a huge help and is saving my relationship right now!

I also had to get ok with feeling stressed. Learn to not run from it in a knee jerk reaction to make the feeling go away, but to look at it, own it, see if there was something appropriate I could do to address it.

deeker

This is a really nice relaxing video i watch to chill sometimes

Hope it helps

#1 HAWAII BEACH Video Relaxing Wave Sounds Best Ocean Videos HD HAWAII BEACHES Relaxation Sound - YouTube

thisisme

Exercise.

alphaomega

One of my greatest tools is just staying present. In the moment. When I find myself slipping into anxiety I ask myself, right now, in this moment, is everything ok ?

It has been said that depression is living in the past, anxiety is living in the future.

All we have is now. Just do the next right thing and you'll be fine.

Oh, and don't drink. Alcohol is a big, fat, hairy, life and blood sucking lie.

Croissant

So true.