Alcohol anxiety

[mufc1982]

This isnt the first time im posting here and probably wont be the last!i do this every couple of weeks i drank to oblivion and now my head is a complete mess with panic.i suffered a brain injury years back so i shouldnt drink anyway and im on paroxitine as well which you arent supposed to drink with.my mate had a bbq and everyone drank wY too much and fights kicked off and now im sat staring at the ceiling panicking.i lost where my girlfriend went last night when all the fighting started and ended up storming home in a temper.she understands that ill be in bed now for another day lied here depressed and panicking so she will have to see to the baby on her own.its definately not worth it but in a few weeks i will have forgot how bad this is and do it all over again.this morning i carried on drinking because i knew the dreads where on the way but now ive stopped and they are back in full force.i feel so soft and useless i dont know why my girlfriend puts up with me

[Kmac1286]

Like you, I used alcohol to quit the nagging in my own brain for several years, but I recently stopped. I never was an alcoholic, as I only drank to quiet the noise of my own inner fears. I got on Lexapro to help with anxiety and depression, and the anxiety went away, so I quit drinking. Then I felt like I was better, got off the meds, the anxiety started back up again, so I started self medicating again.

It sounds like you're seeing the correlation between alcohol and depression and anxiety. Alcohol is a downer, and over time alcohol suppresses the chemical serotonin in our brains, which is responsible for keeping our moods level and not down. In short, it messes with our brain chemistry and fools us into thinking we're happy and carefree, but in reality when the alcohol levels drop again, our brain is even more confused and panicked.

You already know that drinking with brain damage and on medication is dangerous. Have you considered trying anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medications instead of the alcohol? I completely understand wanting to quiet the noise in your own mind. But it's a terrible trap to get yourself into.

[mufc1982]

Hi.ive tried all sorts of different medications none of them seem to make even a slight difference.it seems so simple to just quit drinking but its the only way i will socialize.i know i need to sort it out i dont want my son to grow up having to see me in one of my nervous wreck modes him and my girlfriend deserve more.i got brain damage in the first place from getting hit while i was drunk and my head landed on the kerb so now i hate trouble and panic about it constantly i wish i could find a way through it

[Fishmanpa]

So, for the last year and a half, you've posted here pertaining to the negative effects of alcohol has had on you. You're spoken of taking meds and it's documented that alcohol in the quantity you've partaken in conjunction of meds has been equally detrimental.

I don't know what you expect in terms of advice as the solution is obvious.

I guess you have some decisions to make.

Positive thoughts

[MyNameIsTerry]

Alcohol actually causes your Serotonin to be spiked. Then there is the Dopamine issue to with it giving you a little reward to get you to carry on drinking. So, I think the issue with the Serotonin is more how the spike leaves us with a crash the next day since our body needs to build more of it...and that's from food and guess which types of foods we don't tend to be consuming?

Some balance here, Paroxetine with alcohol is NOT considered dangerous. It is advised to avoid or reduce alcohol. If it were dangerous, the manufacturer would have to state that and they don't.

Also, the brain damage is perhaps more for a medical professional able to determine whether that is a danger. I have a cousin who has brain damage from childhood and he has not been told drinking it dangerous for him, so lets not assume.

Personally I think there are issues here that can be tackled separately to each other. For instance, I've done the cocaine scene and when it was time to change, I dumped all the people in that scene as they were not going to change. I wasn't an addict, I only used when drinking with certain people, not all of my mates. So, my issues were environmental, I needed to change my environment.

Part of addressing this situation is addressing things than may be toxic to your recovery. So, can you reduce your intake with them or is there peer pressure? If they cannot accept you don't want to get hammered then that's a fairly typical problem with a lot of blokes who grew up in this culture. I used to be one of them.

If they won't accept it, you may need to cut your ties.

The anxiety is a different concern and this can be addressed with meds, therapy, etc. But I feel the excessive alcohol is just reminding of the bad and then you need support. Wouldn't it be better not to need that?

[mufc1982]

So, for the last year and a half, you've posted here pertaining to the negative effects of alcohol has had on you. You're spoken of taking meds and it's documented that alcohol in the quantity you've partaken in conjunction of meds has been equally detrimental.

I don't know what you expect in terms of advice as the solution is obvious.

I guess you have some decisions to make.

Positive thoughts

I know it seems so simple but i must be too weak or something because i keep doing it over and over.i just like to come on to speak to others about it i dont need advice or reassurance or anything i know im shit and theres only me can stop this

---------- Post added at 09:15 ---------- Previous post was at 09:05 ----------


Alcohol actually causes your Serotonin to be spiked. Then there is the Dopamine issue to with it giving you a little reward to get you to carry on drinking. So, I think the issue with the Serotonin is more how the spike leaves us with a crash the next day since our body needs to build more of it...and that's from food and guess which types of foods we don't tend to be consuming?

Some balance here, Paroxetine with alcohol is NOT considered dangerous. It is advised to avoid or reduce alcohol. If it were dangerous, the manufacturer would have to state that and they don't.

Also, the brain damage is perhaps more for a medical professional able to determine whether that is a danger. I have a cousin who has brain damage from childhood and he has not been told drinking it dangerous for him, so lets not assume.

Personally I think there are issues here that can be tackled separately to each other. For instance, I've done the cocaine scene and when it was time to change, I dumped all the people in that scene as they were not going to change. I wasn't an addict, I only used when drinking with certain people, not all of my mates. So, my issues were environmental, I needed to change my environment.

Part of addressing this situation is addressing things than may be toxic to your recovery. So, can you reduce your intake with them or is there peer pressure? If they cannot accept you don't want to get hammered then that's a fairly typical problem with a lot of blokes who grew up in this culture. I used to be one of them.

If they won't accept it, you may need to cut your ties.

The anxiety is a different concern and this can be addressed with meds, therapy, etc. But I feel the excessive alcohol is just reminding of the bad and then you need support. Wouldn't it be better not to need that?

I know i should just come out to everyone and say that im done but i dont want to be called soft.my mates are not nearly as important to me as my son and girlfriend so i dont know why i Care?my gp told me not to drink while on the meds but they dont affect me whilst drinking but the brain injury is another issue.i was told not to go over a few pints and ive not listened from the day i came out of hospital.i was in a coma for 2 months and when i woke up i had to learn to walk and talk again and thats when this deppression and anxiety started.im lucky to be here and feel selfish for using it as an excuse but this brain injury has made me a mess in the head

[MyNameIsTerry]

That's a hell of a lot to go through.

My dad was run over as a child and dragged 100 feet. He was in a wheelchair and had to learn to walk again. He lost out on a lot of school and never caught up but he fully recovered thankfully. He said it was a lot of work so I can imagine how hard that was for you after hearing him talk, even more so in your case.

It's perhaps a remnant of that experience? Do you perhaps feel you need to be drunk because of the anxiety of that memory, that you could be attacked? I don't know, it's just a possibility but therapy seems more needed than just meds to me. Maybe with some therapy aimed at a PTSD angle, you might get beyond it?

[mufc1982]

Im Glad he made a full recovery.they say no brain injury is alike ive mainly recovered physically and everyone thinks im near enough back to normal now but my head is in a mess 90% of the time.i was punched outside the pub when i was bladdered and fractured my skull on the kerb and had a bleed on the brain.youd think that would scare me away from drinking but its done just the opposite.i cant stand trouble it makes me anxious beyond belief but when ive had a drink it doesnt bother me its the only time i can relax.when im in a pub im allways worrying about something kicking off unless im allready drunk so now i drink at home before i go out

[MyNameIsTerry]

That makes sense, so the root cause is the attack itself (obviously) and the anxiety has built itself around the triggering environments, so more a PTSD thing? Unless you don't get flashbacks, but either way obviously anxiety of some nature and you just don't feel safe in those environments anymore. That could happen to any of us, such shocks in life can be the start of these disorders.

Thanks for my dad. I guess sometimes things are more easily recovered from in our heads when we are kids.

My cousin had brain damage from food poisoning and had to be moved to Birmingham Children's. He didn't have to learn as you did but he had some struggles but it has never affected him so that's something to be very grateful for. I think it was the fits he started having which caused his and his behaviour changed for a time which they had to work on.

I bet it has really shaken your confidence. Therapy could help you rebuild this and work on your memories, thoughts about the triggering places, etc. It's worth considering if you haven't had it and maybe it can get you past needing the alcohol to face these situations?

I can understand the mentally behind how this affects us, I've been attacked as well but nothing like what you went through. It shook me for a time.

[mufc1982]

I suffered from fits myself for a while i was on anti epilepsy meds for a couple of years but they subsided thankfully.i know that im lucky to have survived and many dont pull through it but i dont feel very lucky to be left like this to be honest and that makes me feel so selfish.ive never thought of it as ptsd before i dont remember anything for a few weeks up until the event happening.maybe theres something there in my subconscious ?ive been to a few different phsycologists but never got any good from it i paid one privately and it cost me quite a bit of money for nothing.its left me unable to work and im worried my son is allready going to think me less of a man without seeing me struggle with all this i need to get on top of it quick time

[MyNameIsTerry]

You get flashbacks with PTSD, but even if not that you have issues around scenarios where it could happen again and that's very typical of anxiety and panic disorders. The thing is, the subconscious does record all this data together so if someone has a panic attack in a certain place, it can happen again and so they start avoiding it. Use of alcohol to reduce the liklihood of you feeling like that is like avoidance.

If you recall the event then then obviously your subconscious will able to associate that horrible trauma with similar scenarios. If not due to the damage, I'm not sure on that. But certainly the use of alcohol to avoid feeling anxious will be keeping it going and you need some help in exposing yourself to these places without it. Or with it being trauma based, maybe something like EMDR could help reprocess the memories?

[georgewing]

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