jazzfish

I am interested in suggestions and experience at dealing with that odd anxiety that eats away in the pit of your stomach; that vague feeling of dread that either you have done something horrible or something horrible is about to happen. There is no reason for that feeling, but it is there nonetheless. The trouble is that it is one of my most uncomfortable feelings and one I would normally look to drink away. I am not tempted to, but I would like to be past it.

doggonecarl

I'd see a Psychiatrist.

phoebe64

I have anxiety, and deep breathing through it and logic help me. Is there really any threat, is there anything to really cause this feeling, etc... Ofte there is not, or if there is, I logically think through dealing with it.

I have a book that was very helpful, recommended when I was having treatment for the anxiety. "Mastery of oyur Anxiety and Panic" by David Barlow. It was helpful.

My phychatrist once said to me, about fears and anxiety I had re: health and feelings in my body, "Well, your not dead yet, are you?" At th etime it seemed cold, but she was right, lol. I had feelings, and we have feelings in our bodies, and i had been checked by the doctors, so I needed to learn to tolerate the feelings I have and get used to them. anxiety causes all sorts of awful feelings, like rapid heart rate, sweating, queasy tummy, etc... The book was very helpful.

soberclover

I believe that as alcoholics we became used to that feeling...because we were screwing up our lives and there really were things to be anxious about. It takes awhile for our brains to re-wire and become used to our sober self. It's just like they say as far as "old thinking". The anxiety are remnants of your old thinking. Or........maybe you have some type of reservation about your sobriety floating around in your subconscious.....maybe your AV wants you to drink again. The other thing that I learned in sobriety is that time takes time and I'm not always going to get what I want right away

lorelei

anxiety can be an awful psychological condition with serious physical side effects id see a dr, theres a lot of ways they can help, maybe look into mindfulness as well x

Mentium

How long have you been sober? I am a 'naturally' anxious person and I found that from about day 3 to day 12 or so my anxiety levels were going through the roof. Things seem to be a bit more settled now and everything I read suggests my anxiety will abate slowly, though I don't expect it to go completely. I wouldn't be the person I am I suspect if it did.

I have been reading up on relaxation and meditation techniques, which I will probably take up when I am at one month.

serious

been plagued with he same anxiety/panic issues forever (for years).
what has helped me:
- drastic change in diet (organic only, raw and clean). nothing that needs a label of ingredients
- exercise (!!!)
- yoga
- learning meditation... still working on that, but i had a couple of "holy sh*t" moments.

good luck.
anxiety and panic is a torture. but it is also a reminder that we need to fix some underlying problem not mask it with alcohol or pills.

p.s. after about 2 months of sobriety, things got dramatically better at least for me.

aasharon90

Anxiety can be a cause of a chemical
imbalance in your system. When I got
sober 23 yrs ago, I concentranted on
staying sober and working on my
program of recovery and learning how
to build and live upon a solid foundation
for yrs. to come.

It wasn't until many yrs later after
seeing a commercial about anxiety,
depression, referring to it as possible
chemical imbalance and to talk it over
with your doctor about your symptoms.

That was when a light bulb went off
in my brain allowing me to bring my
worries and anxiety to my physician.

He was made aware of my continued
recovery for alcoholism and knew how
important it was that if anything was to
be prescribed that it not be narcotic nor
habit forming.

It took about a yr. to find one that worked
with my system. When we are going from
one chemical placed in our systems to
another, it takes time to clear one out
completely before placing another one in.

Our bodies have to take time to adjust
to whatever we put in our system, so
patience and time is required.

We work with a recovery program for
our addiction, a physician for illnesses
and sickness, phychiatrists for mental,
emotion problems, your church, pastor,
minister for spiritual quidance and strength.

Each when used properly can result in
living a healthy, happy, honest, rewarding
life in recovery.

RobbyRobot

For me, when anxiety seems to just hang around, I know I'm already into using whatever justifications which are keeping those anxious feelings in play. So, I give up on the idea that I'm being transparent with myself, and get down to working on taking a good hard look at my fears of whatever. The other thing I do is admit to myself that my peace of mind is valuable and important to me, and I don't want it wasted on fear-based anxiety.

Fear-based anxiety is defined for me as anxiety which I can't readily source out and attach to current affairs - where as just feeling anxious about say things that I know are happening, but I'm not entirely sure of the end results - say like estimated car or house repair final costs - or health concerns too.

So, if I can't shed myself of just feeling anxious, I get serious about taking inventory of myself and my justifications based on my playing with my fears. Fears are something we all have, without exception, we all have experience with fears. Being brave and facing our fears is important. Being afraid while we search ourselves seeking the source of our fears is just being human, and its nothing personal worth getting bent out of shape about.

If these kind of feelings had you drinking about them in you past, and they are the most uncomfortable of kinds for you to experience , then perhaps a more transparent way of appreciating yourself may help you to more effectively deal with your anxious feelings while still being happily sober.

Perhaps its time to bring all that generalised vagueness experiences out into the bright light of reason and consideration so as to be done with them bothering you while moving forward with your sober living.

Bruce292

Anxiety controlled my life for ... well, most of my life. I know that feeling in the pit of the stomach. I also would feel like my body was full of crazy electricity. The one thing that is helping is mindful meditation. I've probably mentioned this 100 times in the various posts so please forgive me if you've seen this before. It takes time, it takes dedication, but it works. I'm starting to be able to control the constant negative chatter that plays in my head. It might not be for everyone and I don't think it would fix every cause of anxiety (I'm NOT an expert on anxiety) but for general anxiety it has helped me enormously.

Janis

From talking to other alcoholics in the rooms and reading about alcoholism and the after effects, it appears many alcoholics suffer from anxiety. I am one of them and am on medication for it. I originally went in while I was still very actively using because I wanted to know what was wrong with me. Well it turns out what is really wrong with me is that I'm an alcoholic. LOL.

This is what I have read and heard. Alcohol depresses the nervous system so after long term use your body compensates to get used to alcohol being present in the body. When not drinking your nervous system spikes causing the sense of anxiety. For me, I didn't get this way over night so I need the medication I'm on (non-habit forming and not a narcotic, my doctor is aware I'm an addict). It might help you to talk to a doctor about your issues so they may address it and explore various options to deal with how you are feeling.

Best of luck to you!!!

jazzfish

Thanks to all for the great feedback on this. It is eye-opening to me that it can become so serious. I will definitely need to monitor it, although, fortunately it is not debilitating for me. I think SoberClover and Robby Robot hit it perfectly in that it is a remnant of "old thinking" and fear. I have not been going to yoga or meditating in the last week, which is probably making it worse. Although, I will need to take a serious look at myself to identify if and/or what are the underlying causes and deal with what I find.

jazzfish

Yesterday, I closed out with a vague sense of anxiety. Well, this morning at about 2am, I woke up and thought, "vague anxiety? You don't have a job, your savings are dwindling, you have a string of burned references, a family to support, house repairs to be made, car is in the shop, wife is working evenings so I am in charge of the kids..." Hmmm, ready or not, I think that the generalized vagueness is being dragged into the light (even if it was the middle of the night). Oddly, I am feeling much better about it today.

Anna

I have generalized anxiety as well, and it definitely becomes very noticeable at times. I have found that, as Bruce said, mindful meditation works well. It's not easy to keep at it consistently, but it really helps.