boots45

Much of my alcohol consumption comes from a tremendous feeling of guilt (past mistakes and judgement from others). As I have been trying hard to get a grip on my anxiety it has occurred to me if I could switch off my guilt emotion, I wouldn't be anxious and I wouldn't drink.

My question is...does alcohol give one a heightened sense of guilt (not necessarily about drinking per se but life mistakes)? Could it be the excessive drinking has caused this extreme reaction to past mistakes or inadequacies? For example, I notice others in my life brush off parenting mistakes fairly easily whereas I can rumminate and become distressed to the point of panic over what normal people would consider part of life. I still have sleepless nights and panic attacks over losing my 5 year old in the supermarket (this was 15 years ago and both my children are adults). I have to rely on my husband and mother to give me perspective on my past misdemeanours. Alcohol or me??

MantaLady

It did for me. My guilt and anxiety was amplified by a thousand and seemed so overwhelming and all consuming that I drank more to try and get rid of the feelings.

Once I stopped drinking after a month or two that overwhelming darkness and heavy anxiety and guilt just disappeared. I spent so long drinking to stop feeling this way when eventually it was the drink that was causing it.

So glad I don’t have to feel like that anymore xx

Action

People forget that alcohol is a depressant.

NYCDoglvr

What I know about myself is there is only one reason I drank: because I'm an alcoholic. We learn to deal with guilt after we stop drinking. For me it was the steps and acceptance.

NYCDoglvr

What I know about myself is there is only one reason I drank: because I'm an alcoholic. It didn't matter what emotion I felt -- or none at all -- I still drank. We learn to deal with guilt after we stop drinking. For me it was the steps and acceptance.

WeThinkNot

I believe alcohol consumption is a reaction to feelings of guilt rather than a cause.

Addiction is a complicated illness but if I had to condense it down to a short description I would say addicts are people that have never learned to love themselves. When we don't love ourselves we don't practice self care. That manifests itself as beating yourself up over an incident that happened a long time ago. Then turning to a bottle to numb the feelings which perpetuates the cycle over and over and over again.

ScottFromWI

This is just my personal experience, but i had to treat my addiction as a distinct and separate issue from my mental health issues - which also required treatment.

Trying to figure out which one caused which is a never ending "chicken or the egg" argument. Bottom line, I am an alcoholic and I also suffer from GAD distorder, so I have accept and treat both of them - which I will add that you can do quite successfully if you put your efforts into it.

tomsteve

.does alcohol give one a heightened sense of guilt
not for me. not making amends for the mistakes for many years did that.

Gottalife

It was my behaviour that caused the guilt. Cleaning up the mess I made and making amends to those I hurt, AND changing my behaviour, removed the guilt.

RecklessEric

Maybe you're just feeling guilty.
I say do what you can to put it right.
Or maybe there's no need at this stage.
Point is, don't let it drag you down.