Erinleigh03

New to this site. Tried to quit drinking multiple times in the past. Been drinking since I was 18, but drinking heavily for one year now. I'm desperate to stop. My whole life feels like its hanging by a thread. My marriage, school and work are all suffering. I don't drink every day. I've been classified as a binge drinker. I drink two or three times a week and drink about an entire bottle. I often black out and can't remember what happened the night before. I wake up feeling horrible, always throw up and then have massive amounts of guilt and anxiety. I so badly want to just stop! I don't even like the taste of alcohol anymore. It's more like its a really bd habit I just can't break.

Can anyone help me with the anxiety? Some mornings I think I'm going to just die from the anxious guilty feelings. Also, any help with controlling cravings. By 4:00 in the afternoon my cravings hit and some days it's impossible to ignore them.

bryangt

All I can suggest is from my experience...as I too was not an everyday drinker. But the binge drinking lead me to almost death. Car accidents, DUI's...and eventually jail (I give thanks I never harmed another other than myself)...I did hit a bottom. I ended up going to rehab and now have almost 19 months sober through the help of AA...You got to want it, You have to surrender....sounds like you need to stop the madness...before something really bad happens. You don;t have to do it alone & this is a good place to start. I wish you well....

Anna

I also had horrible anxiety and panic attacks during my drinking years.

You don't mention whether or not you had this problem previous to drinking. If not, then for sure, stopping drinking will help the situation. If you had anxiety previously, as I did, then stopping drinking will still help. For me, the anxiety became manageable. There are some really good books on dealing with anxiety without medication. Mind Over Mood is a good one. And, do you know that simple breathing techniques can help a lot? If you take 3 slow belly breaths, you will feel much better. The anxiety causes you to breathe faster and more shallowly, which in turn makes you more anxious.

trikuza

Things get worse before they get better. I have a HUGE amount of anxiety as well. But I would rather push through it than drink myself to death and constantly screw things up with my friends and family. I try to focus on new hobbies that take my mind away from the partying lifestyle.

hypochondriac

Welcome to SR Erin

I had really bad anxiety from drinking, but thankfully it pretty much disappeared when I got rid of the booze. It was ruining every other aspect of my life and I had no luck controlling it while I was still drinking.

With the cravings I found AVRT made them pretty much nil and void. That might be worth checking out. It basically stopped me from engaging with the internal dialogue about my drinking and made it actually possible for me to quit. Also there are medications you can use like Campral. Have a chat with your doctor and see what they suggest. I found things like 'thinking the drink through' really helpful too.

Glad you're here x

walktheline1

My anxiety almost completely went away when I quit drinking. Stop drinking and the anxiety is almost guaranteed to stop too.

There are a lot of ways to stop. I quit cold turkey and on my own. Since you've tried that and it didn't work you probably need a program of some sort (AA, AVRT, etc). Hang out on here more and you'll get a lot of great advice and more suggestions.

qwerrt

I drank to cover social anxiety and a whole host of other phobias. Alcohol works only temporarily and then there is a rebound, especially when you binge. I had 7 month sober under my belt last year and felt great...I still had some anxiety issues but I was working on them with a counsellor and considering meds (I had tried meds before but mixing them with large amount of alcohol just made me really, really sick). Best of luck to you!

Erinleigh03

I have always had anxiety. Even when I was little. It seems that it's much worse when I'm under a lot of stress. Work or school stress. Or the stress I bring on myself by drinking.

hypochondriac

One thing that helped me with anxiety was CBT. I thought all the writing stuff down and rating it seemed ridiculous at first but it really did help me to be much more rational x

2granddaughters

I found the solution to my drinking problem along with the treatment for my mental, spiritual and emotional defects in the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Please Google and read AA's "The Doctors opinion", "How It Works" and "The Promises of Alcoholics Anonymous". See if you can identify.

I wish you the best.

Bob R

Dee74

Welcome Erinleigh

Have you ever seen a Dr or a counsellor/therapist about this underlying anxiety?

It's hard when we're self medicating with something that can actually serve to make the anxiety worse in the long run.

Sometimes I think it's useful to get an outside perspective on the problem...it's hard to deal when you're in the middle of it...or at least it was for me...

D

Needsassistance

Anxiety is a tricky thing, working on this a lot myself. I used to drink to "control my anxiety"- turns out in retrospect that the drinking was creating a lot of the anxiety and exacerbating that daily and work stressors for me. I've been sober now for 2.5 months and my anxieties are very much under control and manageable. I learned the hard way that the drinking wasn't helping a damn thing.

Avra

I suffer from life-long GAD (generalized anxiety disorder), with a few phobias thrown in for good measure. I take meds for it, but they havent been working well recently with all my drinking. Drinking just adds more anxiety too because then I am stressing about alcohol too. I once gave up drinking for 3 months (thats my longest) and I was amazed how much better I felt.

Maples

Same here, alcohol makes anxiety issues worse. No doubt about it. When I clean up for a week or so, it's clear that the hangover and the drinking did it to me. I can't even leave my condo without fear of what people think of me out there. What they might be saying, etc... Things that are out of my control and useless to worry about. When you get rid of the alcohol, the danger shrinks for me.

I look forward to saying 2.5 months in and having them under control, look up to you NA. Nice work.

artsoul

Welcome Erin!

Have you ever gotten help before to stop drinking? Most of us can't do it on our own - like you, I tried for years and never got anywhere. Glad you reached out today..... there are lots of us out here who have the same problem and understand how difficult it is to break.

Keep reading and posting!

Erinleigh03

Thanks everyone for your positive comments! I had an appointment with a counselor provided by my employer. It went really well. She recommended seeing someone on a regular basis, and I think I will. As for meds, I have tried a few, but hate the way they make me feel. I would be willing to take something to calm my nerves and help with the anxiety. Need to talk to my doctor about that.

How does everyone control their cravings. 4:00pm on the button is when it hits for me and I'm struggling to control them. Any advice would be helpful.

Telephonic

I had really bad anxiety in my younger years. Then in my teenage years the symptoms subsided quite a bit. It wasn't until I started drinking the way that I was that I started to see those symptoms re-appear again. It took me some time to realize that my anxiousness was manifesting itself in my constant guilt and anger over my problem. Stay strong.

Live2Run25

I was a binger too. I didn't think it was a big deal only drinking 3-4 times a week with my friends. I didn't realize until I quit how BAD the alcohol was for me. ALL of my anxiety lifted when I quit. I'm a much happier, easier person to get a long with now. Life is not worth ruining it to drinking. You can be sober if you REALLY want to be, and even then it won't be easy. It's still WORTH it.

PippoRossi

I have anxiety issues and take medication for it. I can honestly say that my anxious thoughts have almost completely disappeared since I quit drinking 46 days ago and the medication I take for it is actually WORKING now.

wpainterw

Erinleigh:
Way back, many, many years ago, when my alcoholism, binge drinking like you say you do, was starting to really kick in, I would wake up at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning and it seemed like I was going nuts with anxiety. Just this feeling of impending terror, like I was really going to lose control of myself. I've never been so frightened. If I'd known what I know now, and if I had done what I eventually did, about thirty years or so later (yes it took me that long to figure things out) it would have saved me and my family no end of heartache.
This thing is more powerful than anything you've ever encountered. But you can do something about it. Get professional help from a counselor who knows about addiction and join some group where you can relate to other recoverying alcoholics. It doesn't have to be AA but it can be.There are other alternatives (look at "secular recovery" on this SR website). But get help. Some folks have dug themselves out of this hole alone but my impression is that the chances are far better if you get help. Recovery is possible. I know that. I see it all the time. But I also see folks who fail to get help. You can do this. Good luck.

W.