Can alcohol cause permanent anxiety even after sobriety?
Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Bklyn. NY
Posts: 1,859
I was full blown agoraphobic when I entered into recovery. In the last year of my drinking I couldn't get to the corner store to buy a quart of beer without having something in me.
I wasn't thankful then, but I'm thankful today that no medication (other than the librium they used to ween me off alcohol for 4 days) was offered to me in the hospital. I can't say why that is, but being almost 30 years ago it may have had to do with the fact that medications weren't as popular as they are today. Anyhow, I was only told that if I stopped drinking the anxiety and panic would go away. It didn't. Well, not immediately. And I knew drinking at that point meant death. My choice was to learn how to get over this, or die. I'm still here.
I think the important thing for me was the realization that while the absence of alcohol over time would lessen my anxiety and panic, it wasn't going to cure it. But I couldn't live with it. Fortunatly again, I was lead to the right people and started to apply every tool I was given to help heal me. Felt that the bigger and more full the toolbox, the better off I'd be. That meant lots of things. I didn't do these all at once, but incorporated them as best I could over time as I learned them.
Breathing exercises, reguarly. A therapist convinced me that it was like building muscles. If you do it once it's not going to do anything. I had to make a practice of it.
Relaxation exercises. I read a couple of books on it, now we have the internet and there's tons of info.
Meetings.
Quitting processed sugar. I had no idea that sugar caused anxiety until someone was buying me donuts and coffee for breakfast for a few weeks and I almost drank. Anxiety and panic came back into my life as though I had just put down a drink, and I was sober a while at the time.
Eating healthfully. Educating myself on what it means to eat healthfully.
Drinking lots of water. Dehydration, or just not enough water, causes depression. And doctors rarely mention that.
Therapy.
Exercise.
Reading positive literature. First self help book I read was the power of positive thinking. Still think it's one of the best. Kind of grounded me for the rest of my journey.
VItamins and supplements, especially B complex. Somebody in my early days also turned me onto brewers yeast and I took it religiously for a while. I believe it helped, if even in just a plecebo fashion.
The 2 most important things for me however were I think first becoming unafraid of the anxiety and panic. Walking through it knowing that I will survive. I was taught through a book that a good way to do this is by entering any other thought into our mind when we're stricken. One positive thought is enough to remove the crippling edge that panic can take, and while still uncomfortable it made it manageable. That one thought for me was pretty much always a prayer, which is the second important thing I was going to mention. A belief in a power greater than myself saved my butt with this stuff. I was told to replace alcohol and valium with God, and while I was skeptical, as I stated in the beginning of this post I really had no choice but to listen to what people suggested. I got on my knees and prayed, begged, and pleaded for God to help me with this horrible stuff I seemed to have no control over. And I found that by doing that I was able to walk through impossible situations. The anxiety didn't always go away, but I always found myself somehow on the other side of whatever it is I had to do that the anxiety was preventing. At times is was just walking a few blocks. Years later it was with stepping out on a stage for my first lead role in a college play. I have thousands of stories and instances I could write about where I prayed because the anxiety was crippling, and I always got through to the other side.
There's a lot I can and want to say about this stuff. I'll finish though by saying that it didn't happen overnight. It was a slow recovery for me. After celebrating my first anniversary I planned my first vacation with my GF in NJ. I'm in Bklyn. NY. We got to Staten Island, about a half an hour away, and the panic was too strong for me to go further. We cellebrated at at the staten island motor inn.
She was very undertanding. Years later I've traveled all over the US, and to many other parts of the world. Anxiety is not a life sentence.
I wasn't thankful then, but I'm thankful today that no medication (other than the librium they used to ween me off alcohol for 4 days) was offered to me in the hospital. I can't say why that is, but being almost 30 years ago it may have had to do with the fact that medications weren't as popular as they are today. Anyhow, I was only told that if I stopped drinking the anxiety and panic would go away. It didn't. Well, not immediately. And I knew drinking at that point meant death. My choice was to learn how to get over this, or die. I'm still here.
I think the important thing for me was the realization that while the absence of alcohol over time would lessen my anxiety and panic, it wasn't going to cure it. But I couldn't live with it. Fortunatly again, I was lead to the right people and started to apply every tool I was given to help heal me. Felt that the bigger and more full the toolbox, the better off I'd be. That meant lots of things. I didn't do these all at once, but incorporated them as best I could over time as I learned them.
Breathing exercises, reguarly. A therapist convinced me that it was like building muscles. If you do it once it's not going to do anything. I had to make a practice of it.
Relaxation exercises. I read a couple of books on it, now we have the internet and there's tons of info.
Meetings.
Quitting processed sugar. I had no idea that sugar caused anxiety until someone was buying me donuts and coffee for breakfast for a few weeks and I almost drank. Anxiety and panic came back into my life as though I had just put down a drink, and I was sober a while at the time.
Eating healthfully. Educating myself on what it means to eat healthfully.
Drinking lots of water. Dehydration, or just not enough water, causes depression. And doctors rarely mention that.
Therapy.
Exercise.
Reading positive literature. First self help book I read was the power of positive thinking. Still think it's one of the best. Kind of grounded me for the rest of my journey.
VItamins and supplements, especially B complex. Somebody in my early days also turned me onto brewers yeast and I took it religiously for a while. I believe it helped, if even in just a plecebo fashion.
The 2 most important things for me however were I think first becoming unafraid of the anxiety and panic. Walking through it knowing that I will survive. I was taught through a book that a good way to do this is by entering any other thought into our mind when we're stricken. One positive thought is enough to remove the crippling edge that panic can take, and while still uncomfortable it made it manageable. That one thought for me was pretty much always a prayer, which is the second important thing I was going to mention. A belief in a power greater than myself saved my butt with this stuff. I was told to replace alcohol and valium with God, and while I was skeptical, as I stated in the beginning of this post I really had no choice but to listen to what people suggested. I got on my knees and prayed, begged, and pleaded for God to help me with this horrible stuff I seemed to have no control over. And I found that by doing that I was able to walk through impossible situations. The anxiety didn't always go away, but I always found myself somehow on the other side of whatever it is I had to do that the anxiety was preventing. At times is was just walking a few blocks. Years later it was with stepping out on a stage for my first lead role in a college play. I have thousands of stories and instances I could write about where I prayed because the anxiety was crippling, and I always got through to the other side.
There's a lot I can and want to say about this stuff. I'll finish though by saying that it didn't happen overnight. It was a slow recovery for me. After celebrating my first anniversary I planned my first vacation with my GF in NJ. I'm in Bklyn. NY. We got to Staten Island, about a half an hour away, and the panic was too strong for me to go further. We cellebrated at at the staten island motor inn.
She was very undertanding. Years later I've traveled all over the US, and to many other parts of the world. Anxiety is not a life sentence.
~sb
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: MD
Posts: 15,967
The 12 steps helped to relieve me of my anxiety. Untreated alcoholism, or how to live life without drinking, is what I believe was what I had.
I also have to keep being aware of habits I had created, which can also create anxiety today, so I become aware and then I can change them.
Whatever works, find something to help!
I also have to keep being aware of habits I had created, which can also create anxiety today, so I become aware and then I can change them.
Whatever works, find something to help!
Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: California
Posts: 377
Well I gotta chime in here because this is very relative to my current situation.
Let me first point out no matter how bad anxiety can be alcohol will absolutely not make it any better. This is something I believe us all too know, but at the same time hard to convince our mind that. For a lot of us, alcohol covered up our anxiety for years and years. For people like me, it was always there, but was never allowed to fully manifest because of alcohol addiction.
Today at 1 year, and 8 months sober I now realize this. I realize I've carried anxiety with me pretty much half my entire life. Lately its been he'll on wheels. Just until a month ago I was doing alright. I attribute that to staying focused on something other than my own thoughts. I was working out 6 days a week, ate 5 meals a day, and really was health focused. Hell I even dropped 65 lbs in 6 months! I was a machine! Haha ha. Anyways, since I've took a break from that started to get loads of anxiety. Sleepless nights, fear of fear, and even now some agoraphobia whch makes absolutely no sense to me... Where this all of a sudden came from? Your guess is as good as mine... But it's here, and I surely don't like it. I take no medication, but finally seeing a doctor about this has crossed my mind. Sadly, I have no medical insurance..
SO! Anxiety sucks. I'm right there with you! The answer is not alcohol that's for sure! Just realize no matter how irreversible it seems, that's very far from the truth. It's an illness on how we think, and is fueled only by our own thoughts. As easy as it is to say that, it's not so easy to convince ourselves that though. Even I haven't been able to believe my own words completely even though I know them to be fact...... Was that just an oxymoron? Haha ha I think so, but it does make perfect since to people like us
Hang in there bud. Your not alone!
-Ryan
Let me first point out no matter how bad anxiety can be alcohol will absolutely not make it any better. This is something I believe us all too know, but at the same time hard to convince our mind that. For a lot of us, alcohol covered up our anxiety for years and years. For people like me, it was always there, but was never allowed to fully manifest because of alcohol addiction.
Today at 1 year, and 8 months sober I now realize this. I realize I've carried anxiety with me pretty much half my entire life. Lately its been he'll on wheels. Just until a month ago I was doing alright. I attribute that to staying focused on something other than my own thoughts. I was working out 6 days a week, ate 5 meals a day, and really was health focused. Hell I even dropped 65 lbs in 6 months! I was a machine! Haha ha. Anyways, since I've took a break from that started to get loads of anxiety. Sleepless nights, fear of fear, and even now some agoraphobia whch makes absolutely no sense to me... Where this all of a sudden came from? Your guess is as good as mine... But it's here, and I surely don't like it. I take no medication, but finally seeing a doctor about this has crossed my mind. Sadly, I have no medical insurance..
SO! Anxiety sucks. I'm right there with you! The answer is not alcohol that's for sure! Just realize no matter how irreversible it seems, that's very far from the truth. It's an illness on how we think, and is fueled only by our own thoughts. As easy as it is to say that, it's not so easy to convince ourselves that though. Even I haven't been able to believe my own words completely even though I know them to be fact...... Was that just an oxymoron? Haha ha I think so, but it does make perfect since to people like us
Hang in there bud. Your not alone!
-Ryan
Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: highland beach, florida
Posts: 649
Originally Posted by RobC420 
I had debilitating anxiety when I got sober. It took 6 days to get up out of a bed and 10 days to move back home. The first month and a half I could not work and I began taking Prozac and upped it every week or two until I was at 40mg per day. In that time, I also quit drinking everything other than water (which I believe helped tremendously, I cannot recommend this enough). Beginning in March 2012, 11 months in to sobriety, I went from 40 mg to 30 mg. In May I went from 30mg to 20mg. In August I went from 20mg to 10mg. This Friday (at 18 months sober), I am getting off the medication completely. I still have some anxiety, but nothing compared to my first two months of sobriety.
Originally Posted by onlythetruth
I'm 14 years sober. I suffered greatly from anxiety (GAD) during my drinking years and into sobriety as well. I found that while abstaining HELPED, it did not eliminate the anxiety. In fact, in my own case, I think my drinking was primarily a way of self-medicating the GAD. For a while, it worked, but toward the end it made things much worse.
Anyway, I found that I had to think of my anxiety as something separate from my drinking. Abstaining simply does not fix the problem for me, and I've accepted that I will likely need to take meds for the rest of my life.
Anyway, I found that I had to think of my anxiety as something separate from my drinking. Abstaining simply does not fix the problem for me, and I've accepted that I will likely need to take meds for the rest of my life.
.....but I ended up like Onlythetruth, in that I am still on Prozac . Tried going off the antidepressent, but my doctor finally told me I have a chemical imblance and will need antidepressents for the rest of my life.
Probably abused alcohol as self-medication for my condition.
IMOO--I would sugggest any alcoholic (under a doctors care) take an antidepressent that is right for them for the anixety. Your regulare doctor can prescribe this, and he will have your entire health history as a guide.
I truely believe if I had been diagnosed with general depression and been medicated properly. I would have never abused alcohol. Better to get the proper meds before the debilitating anxiety kicks in when trying to go sober.
I have been on a low dosage antidepressent since I gave up drinking some
25 years ago and have never felt anxious unless I go to parties where there is an open bar. Needless to say I stay away from those types of social events, and life has been so very good for me.
Congrats to RobC and Only the truth for their great resove in maintaining their sobriety.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Michigan
Posts: 111
I think for me my anxiety was at its worst within the first few weeks of sobriety, then got better for a few months, then got worse again - which I think was the often-forgotten-about PAWS (post acute withdrawal syndrome). I couldn't focus, etc... but after about 6 months sober it got a lot better. I am also on an antidepressant. Some of it may be physical, but you can't forget that alcohol was likely a coping method (it was for me, though it also made anxiety worse in the long run). Lifestyle changes are required to re-learn how to cope with life. It takes longer than a few months for most people. There are still things I wncounter that I don't knwo how to handle, and that causes anxiety - but it is a lot better. A LOT. I've been sober for 22 months.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 1
Originally Posted by behindblueyes
I quit for two months. I had the worst anxiety and some days could not even go outside. I have a therapist and benzos which I do not take. I do not want hooked on anything else.
My anxiety is all physical, panic diagnosed and ptsd by a doctor. I can not enjoy anything in life and relapsed for one day due to the attacks. I figure two months was enough to lessen the panic at least a little but it is unbearable. Did I put myself in a permanent panic state with alcohol abuse? I have tried 5 meds and now lost insurance so I can't see my psych. Thanks.
My anxiety is all physical, panic diagnosed and ptsd by a doctor. I can not enjoy anything in life and relapsed for one day due to the attacks. I figure two months was enough to lessen the panic at least a little but it is unbearable. Did I put myself in a permanent panic state with alcohol abuse? I have tried 5 meds and now lost insurance so I can't see my psych. Thanks.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 29
Funny I see this post today, my AH and I have been discussing this all week.
It has to be possible to cause permanent damage like this from drinking. Most alcoholics are thiamine deficient and a thiamine deficiency can lead to neurological defects. I think anyone trying to quit should take a B vitamin supplement and see if that decreases anxiety and such.
I am no doctor, but its worth a shot and makes sense if you really think about it. I've been looking into holistic therapy a lot recently (for my own chronic pain issues) and have been learning some pretty fascinating things. Maybe more natural therapies would help recovering addicts more vs just masking recovery symptoms with more toxins when symptoms and craving are probably caused by the initial toxin in the first place. Just a thought.
It has to be possible to cause permanent damage like this from drinking. Most alcoholics are thiamine deficient and a thiamine deficiency can lead to neurological defects. I think anyone trying to quit should take a B vitamin supplement and see if that decreases anxiety and such.
I am no doctor, but its worth a shot and makes sense if you really think about it. I've been looking into holistic therapy a lot recently (for my own chronic pain issues) and have been learning some pretty fascinating things. Maybe more natural therapies would help recovering addicts more vs just masking recovery symptoms with more toxins when symptoms and craving are probably caused by the initial toxin in the first place. Just a thought.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 1
I'm in Benzo withdrawal from 4 years of dr's prescribed xanax with celexa. I'm 10.5 months off and it's a roller coaster, I developed agoraphobia too along with bad panic attacks and anxiety. Before taking the benzo I had 2 isolated panic attacks but never feared going anywhere or doing anything, now I feel like I'm in a constant hangover with extreme fatigue, anxiety, dizziness,etc..
The crazy thing is that I feel totally normal once in a while per month and I can drive somewhere with no issue or do things, but it never lasts.
I wonder too if an SSRI or any herb remedies will help b/c I have no consistency
The crazy thing is that I feel totally normal once in a while per month and I can drive somewhere with no issue or do things, but it never lasts.
I wonder too if an SSRI or any herb remedies will help b/c I have no consistency
Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Posts: 10
Anxiey and Depression Treatment
I have been treated by a psyc nurse practioner since I have been sober (18 months). I take hydroxizine and mirtazipine which seems to work well. She recently retired leaving me with no referral advice. Anybody have a recommendation on the type of doc I should look for? I probably need some therapy to support the meds.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Cleveland
Posts: 83
I truly believe that anxiety symptoms will find relief without alcohol. mI don't think anyone can say it will go away, but it will get better. In my situation, it wasn't just the chemical causes from alcohol that exacerbated my anxiety, it was constantly being tired. I had no idea how totally exhausted I was until I stopped drinking. Even today, 5 years later, if I have a bad night sleep, I can feel the familiar type of anxiety that was present after a drinking bout - albeit not nearly as acute.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 1
I'm 35, I never drank in my life, like 2-3 glasses of wine a year. Thankfully I'm very health concern.
Last summer was long and I traveled, so I wanted to give alcohol a chance in my life at least for once, because like everyone drinks, you hear all the time, and you become an outsider if you don't.
So I drank for 2 months, some weeks everyday, some times allot when going to parties, sometimes less, but alcohol in the body for days in the row.
I was feeling good when the summer ended and I ended drinking. But even after I had a few small drinks when I met with people from my holidays.
So one day, just after some small drinks it hit me, anxiety occurred, specially in the mornings. I felt vulnerable, lost my passion for things, drive, and got depressed.
I then didn't suspect the alcohol and I kept drinking little once every month. Which I shouldn't, since I completely stopped I have been recovering, but not during the time before. Even after 4 to 5 months I still don't feel like I did before, I'm so much better but still I'm afraid my brain has been rewired.
Now I understand why ppl get PTSD in war, before it was something I couldn't understand, and thought are they so mentally weak that the become sick just because of seeing a war. But believe me in that state I was and where sent to a war I would have become mentally ill for the rest of my life.
I don't take medicine, I'm anti pharma, and belive in natural medicine. Yet with this I just let my brain heal itself and hope I be fully recovered, now I'm like 85-95% good.
There are scientific reports done to rats that shows this effect. But I can't believe it struck me as I never drank and just did it for two months. Think about all ppl that started when their brain still develops, kids, and those that frequently drink on pubs and nightclubs.
I will never again touch this toxic drink, stay away from it, specially you who never started.
Last summer was long and I traveled, so I wanted to give alcohol a chance in my life at least for once, because like everyone drinks, you hear all the time, and you become an outsider if you don't.
So I drank for 2 months, some weeks everyday, some times allot when going to parties, sometimes less, but alcohol in the body for days in the row.
I was feeling good when the summer ended and I ended drinking. But even after I had a few small drinks when I met with people from my holidays.
So one day, just after some small drinks it hit me, anxiety occurred, specially in the mornings. I felt vulnerable, lost my passion for things, drive, and got depressed.
I then didn't suspect the alcohol and I kept drinking little once every month. Which I shouldn't, since I completely stopped I have been recovering, but not during the time before. Even after 4 to 5 months I still don't feel like I did before, I'm so much better but still I'm afraid my brain has been rewired.
Now I understand why ppl get PTSD in war, before it was something I couldn't understand, and thought are they so mentally weak that the become sick just because of seeing a war. But believe me in that state I was and where sent to a war I would have become mentally ill for the rest of my life.
I don't take medicine, I'm anti pharma, and belive in natural medicine. Yet with this I just let my brain heal itself and hope I be fully recovered, now I'm like 85-95% good.
There are scientific reports done to rats that shows this effect. But I can't believe it struck me as I never drank and just did it for two months. Think about all ppl that started when their brain still develops, kids, and those that frequently drink on pubs and nightclubs.
I will never again touch this toxic drink, stay away from it, specially you who never started.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 508
Anxiety is worsened by alcohol abuse and the vicious circle of medicating anxiety symptoms with mind-altering substances gets deeper thus the need for 'rewiring'
I have to learn to 'sit with it', less it pass, as do all thoughts and feelings, so too shall these.
Be free
I have to learn to 'sit with it', less it pass, as do all thoughts and feelings, so too shall these.
Be free
Member
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 151
Well I got permanent anxiety from cannabis so i'd say alcohol can cause it too. Best thing to do is take medication so you can manage it and after a while its as if you dont have it any way while on medication
Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: meriden
Posts: 16
Originally Posted by behindblueyes
I figure two months was enough to lessen the panic .
i wish i could tell you it goes away, but as for me it didnt, all of a sudden one day drinking with my freinds next day hardcore panic attack, i was 3 states away from my house and made my freind drive me home... was not a fun time
every time i see a post like this, i say its your body and mind telling you something, stop please stop, took me a good 6 months to cope with being around it lost freinds because of it, but im happy my family is happy and now i dont have to have the horrible feeling of panic and not beloning and what do i do, nothing can help, please help me... make it stop, feeling....
first step is dealing with the booze, then try some anti anxiety medication, talk to a therapist, i been on it all, so i can tell you eventually you find one that works, but focus on the booze then everything will come together
Member
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 324
Originally Posted by Joe Nerv
I was full blown agoraphobic when I entered into recovery. In the last year of my drinking I couldn't get to the corner store to buy a quart of beer without having something in me.
I wasn't thankful then, but I'm thankful today that no medication (other than the librium they used to ween me off alcohol for 4 days) was offered to me in the hospital. I can't say why that is, but being almost 30 years ago it may have had to do with the fact that medications weren't as popular as they are today. Anyhow, I was only told that if I stopped drinking the anxiety and panic would go away. It didn't. Well, not immediately. And I knew drinking at that point meant death. My choice was to learn how to get over this, or die. I'm still here.
I think the important thing for me was the realization that while the absence of alcohol over time would lessen my anxiety and panic, it wasn't going to cure it. But I couldn't live with it. Fortunatly again, I was lead to the right people and started to apply every tool I was given to help heal me. Felt that the bigger and more full the toolbox, the better off I'd be. That meant lots of things. I didn't do these all at once, but incorporated them as best I could over time as I learned them.
Breathing exercises, reguarly. A therapist convinced me that it was like building muscles. If you do it once it's not going to do anything. I had to make a practice of it.
Relaxation exercises. I read a couple of books on it, now we have the internet and there's tons of info.
Meetings.
Quitting processed sugar. I had no idea that sugar caused anxiety until someone was buying me donuts and coffee for breakfast for a few weeks and I almost drank. Anxiety and panic came back into my life as though I had just put down a drink, and I was sober a while at the time.
Eating healthfully. Educating myself on what it means to eat healthfully.
Drinking lots of water. Dehydration, or just not enough water, causes depression. And doctors rarely mention that.
Therapy.
Exercise.
Reading positive literature. First self help book I read was the power of positive thinking. Still think it's one of the best. Kind of grounded me for the rest of my journey.
VItamins and supplements, especially B complex. Somebody in my early days also turned me onto brewers yeast and I took it religiously for a while. I believe it helped, if even in just a plecebo fashion.
The 2 most important things for me however were I think first becoming unafraid of the anxiety and panic. Walking through it knowing that I will survive. I was taught through a book that a good way to do this is by entering any other thought into our mind when we're stricken. One positive thought is enough to remove the crippling edge that panic can take, and while still uncomfortable it made it manageable. That one thought for me was pretty much always a prayer, which is the second important thing I was going to mention. A belief in a power greater than myself saved my butt with this stuff. I was told to replace alcohol and valium with God, and while I was skeptical, as I stated in the beginning of this post I really had no choice but to listen to what people suggested. I got on my knees and prayed, begged, and pleaded for God to help me with this horrible stuff I seemed to have no control over. And I found that by doing that I was able to walk through impossible situations. The anxiety didn't always go away, but I always found myself somehow on the other side of whatever it is I had to do that the anxiety was preventing. At times is was just walking a few blocks. Years later it was with stepping out on a stage for my first lead role in a college play. I have thousands of stories and instances I could write about where I prayed because the anxiety was crippling, and I always got through to the other side.
There's a lot I can and want to say about this stuff. I'll finish though by saying that it didn't happen overnight. It was a slow recovery for me. After celebrating my first anniversary I planned my first vacation with my GF in NJ. I'm in Bklyn. NY. We got to Staten Island, about a half an hour away, and the panic was too strong for me to go further. We cellebrated at at the staten island motor inn. She was very undertanding. Years later I've traveled all over the US, and to many other parts of the world. Anxiety is not a life sentence.
I wasn't thankful then, but I'm thankful today that no medication (other than the librium they used to ween me off alcohol for 4 days) was offered to me in the hospital. I can't say why that is, but being almost 30 years ago it may have had to do with the fact that medications weren't as popular as they are today. Anyhow, I was only told that if I stopped drinking the anxiety and panic would go away. It didn't. Well, not immediately. And I knew drinking at that point meant death. My choice was to learn how to get over this, or die. I'm still here.
I think the important thing for me was the realization that while the absence of alcohol over time would lessen my anxiety and panic, it wasn't going to cure it. But I couldn't live with it. Fortunatly again, I was lead to the right people and started to apply every tool I was given to help heal me. Felt that the bigger and more full the toolbox, the better off I'd be. That meant lots of things. I didn't do these all at once, but incorporated them as best I could over time as I learned them.
Breathing exercises, reguarly. A therapist convinced me that it was like building muscles. If you do it once it's not going to do anything. I had to make a practice of it.
Relaxation exercises. I read a couple of books on it, now we have the internet and there's tons of info.
Meetings.
Quitting processed sugar. I had no idea that sugar caused anxiety until someone was buying me donuts and coffee for breakfast for a few weeks and I almost drank. Anxiety and panic came back into my life as though I had just put down a drink, and I was sober a while at the time.
Eating healthfully. Educating myself on what it means to eat healthfully.
Drinking lots of water. Dehydration, or just not enough water, causes depression. And doctors rarely mention that.
Therapy.
Exercise.
Reading positive literature. First self help book I read was the power of positive thinking. Still think it's one of the best. Kind of grounded me for the rest of my journey.
VItamins and supplements, especially B complex. Somebody in my early days also turned me onto brewers yeast and I took it religiously for a while. I believe it helped, if even in just a plecebo fashion.
The 2 most important things for me however were I think first becoming unafraid of the anxiety and panic. Walking through it knowing that I will survive. I was taught through a book that a good way to do this is by entering any other thought into our mind when we're stricken. One positive thought is enough to remove the crippling edge that panic can take, and while still uncomfortable it made it manageable. That one thought for me was pretty much always a prayer, which is the second important thing I was going to mention. A belief in a power greater than myself saved my butt with this stuff. I was told to replace alcohol and valium with God, and while I was skeptical, as I stated in the beginning of this post I really had no choice but to listen to what people suggested. I got on my knees and prayed, begged, and pleaded for God to help me with this horrible stuff I seemed to have no control over. And I found that by doing that I was able to walk through impossible situations. The anxiety didn't always go away, but I always found myself somehow on the other side of whatever it is I had to do that the anxiety was preventing. At times is was just walking a few blocks. Years later it was with stepping out on a stage for my first lead role in a college play. I have thousands of stories and instances I could write about where I prayed because the anxiety was crippling, and I always got through to the other side.
There's a lot I can and want to say about this stuff. I'll finish though by saying that it didn't happen overnight. It was a slow recovery for me. After celebrating my first anniversary I planned my first vacation with my GF in NJ. I'm in Bklyn. NY. We got to Staten Island, about a half an hour away, and the panic was too strong for me to go further. We cellebrated at at the staten island motor inn.
She was very undertanding. Years later I've traveled all over the US, and to many other parts of the world. Anxiety is not a life sentence.Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 82
Originally Posted by Auchieshuggle
This might be an old thread, but I'm where this guy was all those years ago. I'm now in recovery and desperately trying to overcome anxiety, panic and agoraphobia. I read this thread the oher day and it's given me the impetus to carry on.
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Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 324
Originally Posted by Cobber3
I have two years tomorrow and I am right there. It does get easier, but i still battle it constantly. Nothing will make me drink though. Is that crazy? A change in the wind used to be enough...
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