anxiety, panic, depression and alcohol!

[Chris24]

Well i am posting again a couple of months on from my last post. About 10 weeks ago my anxiety had peaked to an almost unbearable level, i felt truly awful, like most of you have or are experiencing. Nothing new to me just going through the same old motions! But i decided enough was enough and decided that alcohol, any alcohol was really not helping. From speaking to some of you and reading around its interesting just how many people self medicate with alcohol. It does bring relief to the symptoms of anxiety and panic in the short term and that’s how i used to cope with bad bouts of anxiety. But i usually found i felt much worse for a couple of days after and my anxiety turned to panic.

It would be interesting to open this discussion up to you all to see if you have had the same experiences. I am by no means an alcoholic but did enjoy the numbing effect of alcohol. Well i have not had a drink now for 3 weeks and feel fantastic. Very low levels of anxiety and no more panic!!! I now have the motivation to exercise which is helping me feel even more energized! Not felt like this for a long long time.

So many questions.....does alcohol contribute to anxiety? is it the case of depression leading to anxiety? does it prevent your meds from working properly? does it just mask the symptoms leaving the underlying cause still festering!!!!

My view is YES to all the above but what do you guys thin

[nomorepanic]

[Indiepoos]

Alcohol not only makes anxiety and/or depression worse but it can cause it. When I was 14 I went on a drank a little too heavily (as teenagers sometimes do) and gave myself DTs which then lead to me suffering with anxiety which I still have never really gotten out of. Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, junk food can all be used to worsen anxiety.
Not to mention although alcohol may seem like a way of dealing with depression and anxiety you must know by now that in the long run after those few hours of being drunk are over you just feel more depressed and more nervous.
A big congratulations on getting over your self medicating habbits, it's a big step that will change your life, I've seen so many people make the same mistake and they always end up worse but they don't see it because they're blinded by the drink.

I wish you the best of luck!! Good job :) x