CriticalMass

I've used it on multiple occasions when I felt a panic attack coming on because I thought it would calm me down. It was just a quick fix and just ended up with more anxiety the next day. I know it's difficult. I have my prescriptions as well that were prescribed to me specifically to meet my needs so now I try to use those instead.

Draciack

Yeah, after a certain point, every drink just relieved the pain caused by the previous drink--anxiety included. Terrible cycle.

I don't know if I cope with anxiety in the literal sense...I just try to see it differently. Anxiety means I'm stepping outside of my comfort zone, growing as a person, usually trying new things. It's not good or bad, just a natural reaction to a changing environment.

But anxiety never really goes away unless I do the thing that scares me. If I'm scared of public speaking, I have to give a presentation. If I'm scared of heights, I have to skydive. If I'm scared of clowns...

Then there are the anxieties below the anxieties: fear of social rejection, fear of growing old, fear of emotional intimacy, etc. Those are a bit tougher and require (for me) some spiritual principles: seek people's approval and you will become their prisoner, accept things I cannot change, forget yourself, etc.

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers helped me immensely.

RobertHugh

I see this thread as fundamentally about symptoms and causes.

Conventional wisdom holds that alcohol and drug abuse are the problem, and that if I can eliminate their use, I will solve my problem.

12-step recovery holds that alcohol and drug abuse are a symptom of a greater underlying spiritual malady, and that only treating that root cause will bring about sustainable recovery.

Do I drink because I'm anxious, or am I anxious because I drink?

Clearly there are symptoms that must be treated with medication. But for the alcoholic and addict-- the one with the spiritual malignancy-- a spiritual program of recovery is essential for dealing with core problem.

This doesn't mean "finding God." It means clearing a path through inventory and amends so that a power of your conception can be present in your life.

traderjane

I'm a person who experiences very little anxiety when sober -- normal amounts, but nothing serious.

The last few times I drank I experienced anxiety like never before. I would wake up in the middle of the night several times (alcohol does not allow me to sleep) in a full blown panic attack over something, or nothing at all. It was terrifying. I would have to use calming techniques on myself in order to try to get back to sleep. I have never experienced anxiety/panic until I started abusing alcohol and I can say it is simply horrible. It seemed to be getting progressively worse, each time I drank it got worse. Just another reason why I know I can never drink again.

Without alcohol I'm generally happy and optimistic. So crazy!

Dee74

Yeah I know...back to the fear of what might happen.

The fact is drinking only ever helped my anxiety in the short term...and it bought with it a whole lot of other problems.

And then...it stopped working at all.

And then...drinking made me more anxious than anything else.



Whatever the answer to my anxiety, it's not alcohol - and I was glad when I finally realised and accepted that

D

stayinsober

I would wake up around 4ish a.m., after having gotten totally drunk the nite before, and blacked out and/or passed out,trying to remember what I had done then just a small piece comes to mind and I instantly push it away and jump outta bed to run and find a drink before any one gets out of bed. The drinking is what cause my anxiety I never had them before,well that I know of anyway. But who knows I can't remember half of my life.

FindingDawn

I was also one who drank to feel less anxious, which worked while I was drunk...BUT after It wore off and I had a hangover, the depression and anxiety where 3 times as bad.

I just have to learn to feel whatever I am anxious over and let the fear of that feeling pass through me...I think so many of us lack the feeling of self worth we should have. Don't think we can handle things without the booze or drugs...I know we can. We just have to do it..

ElegantlyWasted

Hi happy, I've always had some social anxiety/stage fright issues. I know part of my drinking pattern was self medicating for those issues. Are you doing any CBT as well? Many people are able to drop the medss after a while with the right program. Meds treat the symptoms and CBT rewires you with no med coping mechanisms. Vodka in a water bottle? How Nawty!

tofls

I feel like I wrote this post,for the most part!! I drank to feel relaxed and not as edgy. Guess this place is a good place to read and see I'm not as nutty as I thought. I'm not sure I will continue my meds yet,Will see what the doc says if she returns my call today. Anxiety sure can be a pain!!

FarawayFromCars

Hi Happy,

I have anxiety / PTSD and take medication for it (Lexapro). What has helped me the most with my anxiety is therapy (CBT and "talk" therapy) and learning what triggered me to develop PTSD and processing that experience (still in progress)...I find that vigorous aerobic exercise (road cycling) has helped quell my anxiety in general, and yoga / meditation helps as well.

Sending you good thoughts!

sazza

I too could have written this post!! I suffer from GAD and used wine to medicate, which of course made me more anxious the morning after, which in turn made me watch the clock for my 9pm watershed.

A vicious circle. It's horrible. The only way I could drain the anxiety was to drain a bottle or two.

Anxiety is terrible and so hard to explain to people who don't suffer from it. Day 10 sober and still have high-anxiety (have meds from gp to help). Can hardly remember a time in my life when anxiety didn't control nearly every moment of it.

ItWillBeWorthIt

My life of crap began when I was under a huge amount of stress, causing sever aniexty, obsessive compulsive disorder, psychosis, and major depression. At this time, I had successfully quit drinking for 7 years... that's right seven years. Still all this stuff was going on in my health.

The anxiety and insomnia got so bad, a lot of it was caused by the psychosis, wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I started to have a drink to "calm down". Well, we all know what happened next, it became an ongoing drinkathon. Now, it did calm me down initially, but the drinking got worse and the anxiety in the mornings were out of control. Thus reaching for a drink in the morning.

I was seeing a psychiatrist, more so for the psychosis... they did a Cat Scan and major blood work and all was fine. Gave me medicine, which I hated, made me tired, shaky, and dopey... and a few other side effects. I have now got off all medication and quit drinking... the anxiety has really mellowed... and I manage the psychosis by getting as much stress out of my life as possible and by understanding what psychosis is.

All in all, stopping drinking after two years of body abuse has been the best "medicine" I could ever have given my body, and for my mental health situation.

Take care everyone!

mariellen

The anxiety for me when coming out of a binge was horrible. I would sleep at night and wake up with such a severe pain in my chest it took my breath away. This always happened when i stopped the booze. The first time i thought i was having a heart attack. That goes on for a couple of days when im coming clean, as soon as it stops i know im on the mend. Exercise has always been a big part of my life, so usually day 2 if i was feeling well enough i would drag myself out for a walk or run, and then usually hit the gym on day 3, made me feel like part of society again, and normal.

SweetCityWoman

This is a great topic and as someone else said, it is fundamental to why some people begin to drink and keep drinking. I think drinking to calm (self medicate) anxiety is different from anxiety related to chronic drinking. I drank to chase away anxious feelings which were generalized. Sometimes it is not easy to pinpoint chronic anxiety - sometimes it is. I was in psychotherapy to understand this anxiety. Even understanding the cause doesn't mean it will suddenly just go away! Drinking just is a temp. fix as we all know - so when we wake up the anxiety returns. After years of drinking I started becoming worried about physical damage to my body which made me very anxious when I drank - but this was very different from the underlying anxiety that caused me to drink to self-medicate.

I like this thread not only because this issue is so fundamental to drinking but because people started talking about what are things people do to deal with the anxiety now that we are not drinking. The anxiety won't just one day up and say, "Good-bye, I'm going to inhabit someone else now so you can relax and live a calm peaceful life"!! So most likely people may need to develop methods that they use each day to calm the anxiety so it becomes a comfortable routine. We all know the suggested things like exercise, get plenty of sleep, limit caffeine, keep busy, do yoga, ride a bike, walk a dog or 2 or 3, etc. Also therapy is good for some.

For me I learned to recognize the patterns of when anxiety. Often transitioning from work to home (no, it is not the DC traffic either)!! I learned more of what this was about but this didn't make it go away. I developed routines that I could depend on - routines are great because I didn't feel suddenly lost as what to do - which made me more anxious. So I would fix dinner, put it aside, walk the dogs, watch "Hardball", eat dinner and do some yoga stretch.

Whenever I quit drinking a new form of anxiety sets in which is very specific - between about 5:00-7:30 or 8:00. If I can make it past 8:00 without drinking I feel totally safe and no anxiety for rest of evening. I have all sorts of ideas about this other than the obvious but won't bore people with all of this.

So very interested in people continuing to talk about anxiety, drinking/not drinking and ways to deal with anxiety.