changingman

My doctor has put me on anti depressants and beta blockers as my anxiety in particular was getting out of control. As a result I quit the booze (5 days now) because he advised me that alcohol would nullify the effects and I'd be effectively wasting my time taking anything.

My problem now is not knowing if the bizarre symptoms I am experiencing are AWS or the new drugs, I am going to ride it out as I think its the AWS but I'm not functioning properly at all.

My other quandary is, was my anxiety brought on by alcohol abuse and therefore do I need these drugs? I know no one is permitted to answer medical questions, just thinking out loud really. Its a chicken and egg thing...

Gottalife

Stick close with your doctor. If his treatment for anxiety works, and everything gets better, it could indicate, anxiety was the main problem.

While you have stopped drinking to comply with doctors orders, if you were an alcoholic of my type, nothing would get better. In fact you may feel a good deal worse, the further you get away from your last drink.
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If you have no trouble staying away from the booze and life gets better, the doctor has found the right solution for you.

Anxiety is part and parcel of alcoholism, but it can also be a stand alone disorder

Tooshabby

I went on antidepressants and experienced side effects for about 5 or 6 weeks, then they went away completely. I'm really glad I stuck it out because my anxiety has reduced drastically.

It sounds like you were anxious already when you were drinking, so the anxiety you are feeling now may not be due to withdrawal, but a stand alone disorder like gottalife says. I would keep rolling with the doctor's advice for a few weeks to give his course of meds a chance. It's awful having side effects that actually magnify the anxiety in the beginning, but well worth it in the long run in my experience. A lot of people have side effects for a shorter period of time than I did too. You may be lucky. You could also go back to the doc if it's too much and tell him/her what you are experiencing, because they can prescribe you something in the short term to counteract the side effects. Good luck :-)

Dee74

If you have any concerns about effects you're experiencing your Dr really is the person to talk to - they'll help to work out the cause.

As for which came first, for me I was anxious even before I started drinking - drinking helped for a little while but eventually of course it made things much worse.

It took a while for things to settle down after I quit but they did

5 days is great changingman but I have to be honest - it's really *way* too soon for you or anybody to be making any conclusions

See your Dr about the side effects for sure but otherwise you might find your Dr suggests you give it some weeks - you may find things have changed completely

D

ScottFromWI

Lots of good advice here changingman. During the end of my drinking, my anxiety was much worse because of my drinking. Quitting certainly helped to decrease it, but I found that I still had underlying anxiety even years into sobriety - so I had to treat it as a separate condition. Hopefully you can work through it with your doc, and maybe the meds won't be necessary after a while either...just work together on it.

NikTes

It was a huge discovery for me to learn that my generalized anxiety was a result of my drinking. For years I'd been self-medicating the anxiousness with booze... starting to drink first thing in the morning as a result. Common story of the cycle. Anyway, after quitting drinking, after a few weeks, I started to feel a whole world better. 7 months in sober and I barely feel it at all.

It's great you're seeing a doctor about it.

Anxiety is a horrible feeling -- debilitating. I wish you luck! Hang in there.

Holds1325

I myself wonder the same thing, if alcohol induced my anxiety. I really think that it has induced it, and if I had some type of anxiety before drinking, drinking only made it worse in the long run.

Anxiety is indeed horrible and I hope that whatever the doctor has going for you works.

Hang in there, you're not the only one that suffers from it, and please feel free to post about it especially when you are having those bad days like we all do, I find it helps me tremendously.

Soberwolf

I agree lots of great advice

D122y

Hi!

Anxiety is the worst. Deep breathing. Hold it for 4 seconds. Let it out slow. Hold it. Repeat 3 times.

Drink water. Eat some candy.

It works for me.

hopepraylove

Stay honest with your doctor and trust the process. Great job on 5 day sober!

Rar

I have suffered from GAD for years. As my drinking increased, so did the anxiety. I started to notice it was really bad in the mornings. Although I hadn't reached the point of drinking in the morning, I white knuckled it until I could start drinking at an 'acceptable' time in the afternoon. My anxiety seemed to worsen during the first week of being alcohol free. After the first week, the morning anxiety started to go away. Now, I'm experiencing very little in the morning. My morning anxiety was definitely alcohol related. Anxiety is indeed quite horrible. I hope you feel better soon.

NikTes

Wow -- this is exactly me, except I *did* start drinking in the morning, and did that for about two years.

Reset

What Dee said.