Anxiety and Healthy Drinking - Bad Idea?

[DavidLang]

Hi All,

This subject might have been done to death. Problem is, when people talk about alcohol and its effect on anxiety, depression, OCD etc., they’re almost certainly talking about alcoholics, heavy drinkers, binge drinkers, people who drink to get over their conditions! They forget that there are people who consider themselves genuine casual drinkers. These are people who drink socially, who drink when they go out to chill and relax, drinking no more than say twice a week, a pint per time. It’s common knowledge that this kind of drinking is even healthy. So how does healthy drinking affect anxiety, depression? Does it really exacerbate symptoms? Might it even be helpful, in that it might promote relaxation, mindfulness, extraversion?

Regards,

[katykaty]

I'm in no way a big drinker, very rarely have any to be honest - the odd drink here and there, maybe 3 or 4 big nights out a year...and I suffer from anxiety for which I take Citalopram for. I haven't noticed a change in my symptoms during or after drinking - sometimes I do before drinking as I wonder how I'll be affected but that's a different thing altogether. My boyfriend has very mild anxiety and often finds that for about 48 hours after a big drinking session he becomes highly anxious and paranoid.

I think there are too many factors to take into consideration for there to be a definitive answer. I've found that I can gauge how much I can drink based on my levels of anxiety.

[Bruno58]

I'm not convinced that any alcohol is a good idea for these problems, having said that I'm guilty of having more that a few whiskys, it was my way of escaping from the depression etc! many times I've overdone the drink and of course felt a lot worse the day after

I still have a bottle or two of one of the old style ales in the evening to help me sleep, Badgers country crafted 'Fursty Ferret' tonight !!!, my doc won't give me any sleeping tabs despite knowing I'll be up 2-3 times with severe leg pains and he knows I have a beer to help me sleep, I have a long history of severe depression etc

I'm quite stable at the moment but even with just one beer I'll have a short depressed feeling in the morning when I wake up but it soon passes, something of a tightrope but I've not fallen off for a couple of years.

Interesting post by the way...

[Anxious_gal]

A drink or two won't have any more effect on anxiety than a cup of coffee will.
It depends too on how your body reacts.

[Bruno58]

Hi mishel,
its complicated because we are all different and our reactions to what we drink be it gin coffee or tomato juice may not be the same, look at the anti-depressants!

I've told the doc not to put me in one box along with others, I have low sodium so add a bit of extra salt to food...the reaction from him was 'salt is bad for you'! I take no notice of most of what he says...if I did I'd have gone a long time ago I think!!!

[M155anthr0p3]

It's a fine line in my opinion.
I used to drink every night to "relax" but it actually made my issues worse looking back. Now I stick to weekends only.

As with everything.....
A little bit of what you fancy....