Anxiety on top of Anxiety
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 47
Anxiety on top of Anxiety
hello everyone. first of all, please excuse my lack of capitalization, i'm far too lazy to use it. secondly, i found this website when googling alcohol withdrawal, and i think it's fantastic. as selfish as it sounds, it's comforting to know others have gone through far worse than i have yet have been successful fighting the good fight. you guys and gals are truly amazing.
today is my 7th day without a drink. however, i don't feel in the least bit proud of myself.
i feel my situation is a bit unique in the fact that i don't crave a drink in the slightest. in fact, even thinking about taking a drink makes me gag. but unlike many here, i only drank for about 3 or 4 years, no more than 7 beers a night. the reason i decided to quit is because i've been missing too much work from getting sick so often and i assumed alcohol is a factor. no, my problem isn't the cravings. it's the anxiety!
i am already on medication for anxiety...i was before i started drinking. they are not helping. i constantly have a god-awful taste in my mouth, nausea, and the muscles in my stomach are literally always clenched, making me walk hunched over. when i'm at work, i'm anxious about being able to sleep once i get home (i haven't been able to due to the anxiety). and when i'm at home, i'm anxious about whether or not i'll make it through the next day at work.
i guess i'm just wondering if anyone else has had bad anxiety issues like i have. and if anyone has any suggestions. and i also wanted to become a part of your community.
will it ever end? i feel so guilty for putting my family through this. my kids are 12 and 9, my youngest is autistic, and my poor wife is basically on her own as i am useless.
today is my 7th day without a drink. however, i don't feel in the least bit proud of myself.
i feel my situation is a bit unique in the fact that i don't crave a drink in the slightest. in fact, even thinking about taking a drink makes me gag. but unlike many here, i only drank for about 3 or 4 years, no more than 7 beers a night. the reason i decided to quit is because i've been missing too much work from getting sick so often and i assumed alcohol is a factor. no, my problem isn't the cravings. it's the anxiety!
i am already on medication for anxiety...i was before i started drinking. they are not helping. i constantly have a god-awful taste in my mouth, nausea, and the muscles in my stomach are literally always clenched, making me walk hunched over. when i'm at work, i'm anxious about being able to sleep once i get home (i haven't been able to due to the anxiety). and when i'm at home, i'm anxious about whether or not i'll make it through the next day at work.
i guess i'm just wondering if anyone else has had bad anxiety issues like i have. and if anyone has any suggestions. and i also wanted to become a part of your community.
will it ever end? i feel so guilty for putting my family through this. my kids are 12 and 9, my youngest is autistic, and my poor wife is basically on her own as i am useless.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: South
Posts: 226
"i guess i'm just wondering if anyone else has had bad anxiety issues like i have. and if anyone has any suggestions"
Stop wondering - the answer is a lot of us! Between anger, resentment, fear, anxiety - I think you cover 99.999% of us (5) 9's.
The first thing you need to embrace / reconcile is that drinking only drowns out the anxiety for a point in time - while you are drinking and sleeping it off. The problem is, that instead of dealing with your anxieties, you only hit the pause button. By the time the morning rolls around, not only are you dealing with a hangover, but you also feel the weight of those issues that give you anxiety 10 fold. Why? Because you didn't deal with them, you only deferred them. And while deferring them, you wasted time you probably didn't have. I'll give you an extremely simplistic example to prove the point. You have a big exam at the end of the week. The subject matter scares you because you are just not very good at it. You can start studying everyday from Monday till Friday comes, and expose yourself to the subject matter that gets you anxious, or you can give your mind temporary amnesia, so it forgets you have the test. The only catch with the amnesia, is that your memory comes back every morning. Guess what happens if you choose plan b? Every morning, you wake up realizing that you lost the 12 hours from the day before in an abyss, and you are no smarter for the test, and actually have much less time to get prepared.
What am I doing about my anxiety? I'm forcing my self to face my fears and demons. 99% of the time, the issue is never as bad as my imagination lead me to believe it would be. 1% of the time, I amaze myself with how well I can actually deal with a bad situation. I'm going on over a year sober - best decision of my life.
PS - My stats:
1. Never drank before 5
2. Never exceeded 2-3 glasses of wine on a weekday
3. Never missed a day of work
4. Never had a DUI or other complication of liquor
5. All my relationships were in tact while drinking and not drinking
6. ALCOHOLIC TRIED AND TRUE!!
Stop wondering - the answer is a lot of us! Between anger, resentment, fear, anxiety - I think you cover 99.999% of us (5) 9's.
The first thing you need to embrace / reconcile is that drinking only drowns out the anxiety for a point in time - while you are drinking and sleeping it off. The problem is, that instead of dealing with your anxieties, you only hit the pause button. By the time the morning rolls around, not only are you dealing with a hangover, but you also feel the weight of those issues that give you anxiety 10 fold. Why? Because you didn't deal with them, you only deferred them. And while deferring them, you wasted time you probably didn't have. I'll give you an extremely simplistic example to prove the point. You have a big exam at the end of the week. The subject matter scares you because you are just not very good at it. You can start studying everyday from Monday till Friday comes, and expose yourself to the subject matter that gets you anxious, or you can give your mind temporary amnesia, so it forgets you have the test. The only catch with the amnesia, is that your memory comes back every morning. Guess what happens if you choose plan b? Every morning, you wake up realizing that you lost the 12 hours from the day before in an abyss, and you are no smarter for the test, and actually have much less time to get prepared.
What am I doing about my anxiety? I'm forcing my self to face my fears and demons. 99% of the time, the issue is never as bad as my imagination lead me to believe it would be. 1% of the time, I amaze myself with how well I can actually deal with a bad situation. I'm going on over a year sober - best decision of my life.
PS - My stats:
1. Never drank before 5
2. Never exceeded 2-3 glasses of wine on a weekday
3. Never missed a day of work
4. Never had a DUI or other complication of liquor
5. All my relationships were in tact while drinking and not drinking
6. ALCOHOLIC TRIED AND TRUE!!
Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: UK
Posts: 5,678
Welcome to SR EnderWiggin 
I had awful anxiety from drinking but it mostly all disappeared once I stopped. What I'm left with now is a walk in the park compared to my drinking anxiety and is easily managed by CBT and mindfulness techniques. Have you tried any talking therapies for your anxiety before? Maybe something like CBT or NLP could help you.
And well done on 7 days! That is something to be proud of. Drinking certainly couldn't have been helping your anxiety so things can only get better from now on if you get the right help for you x
I had awful anxiety from drinking but it mostly all disappeared once I stopped. What I'm left with now is a walk in the park compared to my drinking anxiety and is easily managed by CBT and mindfulness techniques. Have you tried any talking therapies for your anxiety before? Maybe something like CBT or NLP could help you.
And well done on 7 days! That is something to be proud of. Drinking certainly couldn't have been helping your anxiety so things can only get better from now on if you get the right help for you x
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Dancing in the Light
Posts: 61,491
Many, if not most of us here, have experienced anxiety. My anxiety issues go back to childhood, long before I even knew what it was. There are many excellent books on how to deal with anxiety without medication. One of the best is by Lucinda Bassett "From Panic to Power", but there are many that give you tips and exercises to get through anxiety.
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