drinking with anxiety

[iamlove]

hi all, i wen't out on the weekend for a few drinks for my 24th birthday, i have not drank in over 6months as it used to make my anxiety worse and i could not stop after a few drinks i would have to carry on until the clubs would shut. since it had been so long and my medication has been working great i thought why not just go out for a few since its my birthday, BIG mistake. i ended up not being able to stop drinking as it made feel great and anxiety free at the time, to cut a long story short i ended up smashed and threatening to kill myself outside the police station at 6am in the morning with a broken bottle to my throat. Now after all that hard work of keeping my anxiety under control and exercising and getting my life back together has been ruined by one stupid mistake of thinking i could go out and only have a few drinks without letting it take control of me. now i am going through all the fears and paranoia of what did i do, even tho i know i did not do anything bad to anyone, i still get that paranoia that i have done something terrible and people will be out to get me. this is what i used to go through every time i drank, i can't believe i thought it would be any different this time. now iv'e got to go through weeks of fear and bad anxiety again. at least i now know that drinking is a no no for me ever again. does anyone else get this terrible anxiety and paranoia after drinking.

[chloe83]

hi just read your post.this is excatly wat im like.the next day i wake up regreting going out

[BobbyDog]

I have been through this, drinking made me feel as though I could be the real me, but really I was still hiding behind it. And yes, the paranoia and guilt would always follow, what did I do that I shouldn't, or say that I shouldn't. Also, the terrible anxiety I suffered until the alcohol was completely out of my system. If you can abstain, please do. My drinking got completely out of hand and now I can't drink at all, if I did it would never stop.
All the best and I hope you feel better soon.

[Sunshine77]

This is exactly how I used to be too. I would drink to blot out the terrible feelings of anxiety and low self-esteem, then be unable to stop and behave really badly. The next day the anxiety and self-loathing would be ten times worse because of the shame I felt about my behaviour. The only way to deal with those awful feelings was to drink them away and hence the whole cycle started again....

Like BobbyDog I am completely abstinent and have been for 8 years but I needed help to stop and stay stopped. Today I know that however rotten I feel, alcohol will only make it a million times worse.

Hope you feel better soon.

[James_P]

I have had to stop drinking because of the horrendous anxiety and depression i got from it. I drank every day and regretted it every morning. saying that i still miss it terribly, and i haven't had a drink in 1 year 8 months, Im 26 so i feel hard done by as i find it impossible to socialise without drinking! Still saying this i know that my life is so much better without alcohol, being in rehab twice and going to AA a lot i can say with assurance that almost 100% of alcoholics have a bad anxiety problem, they go hand in hand.

Dont worry about trying a drink again, now that you know you absolutely cant drink again you might have got rid of that "maybe i can" thought that plagues alot of alcoholics and means they are stuck in limbo (cant live happily with a drink, cant live happily without one) If you are more certain that you cant drink now than you were before the slip, then the slip was worth it, and in the long run feeling that bad and causing that much of a scene would be much better than if you just got drunk and went to bed, cos then of course you would try it again!

P.s. Im not saying your an alcoholic by the way

[starlight78]

I find my anxiety is much worse with alcohol. I've decided to abstain for a while until I'm feeling better. X

[iamlove]

Thank you for the advice everyone i really appreciate it. I now know that i deffinatly can no longer drink, i am starting to feel a bit better now but i have still got slightly worse than normal anxiety. Like james p said tho, maybe it was a good thing this happend to me because if everything had gone fine i might not have leant my lesson and gone out in the future drinking with much worse consequences.

[GlobusGirl32]

hi all, i wen't out on the weekend for a few drinks for my 24th birthday, i have not drank in over 6months as it used to make my anxiety worse and i could not stop after a few drinks i would have to carry on until the clubs would shut. since it had been so long and my medication has been working great i thought why not just go out for a few since its my birthday, BIG mistake. i ended up not being able to stop drinking as it made feel great and anxiety free at the time, to cut a long story short i ended up smashed and threatening to kill myself outside the police station at 6am in the morning with a broken bottle to my throat. Now after all that hard work of keeping my anxiety under control and exercising and getting my life back together has been ruined by one stupid mistake of thinking i could go out and only have a few drinks without letting it take control of me. now i am going through all the fears and paranoia of what did i do, even tho i know i did not do anything bad to anyone, i still get that paranoia that i have done something terrible and people will be out to get me. this is what i used to go through every time i drank, i can't believe i thought it would be any different this time. now iv'e got to go through weeks of fear and bad anxiety again. at least i now know that drinking is a no no for me ever again. does anyone else get this terrible anxiety and paranoia after drinking.

Your explaining me in a nutshell, alot of your posts sound so familiar. I really relate.

[tamo]

I,m in too , better off without the booze . i never do anything daft while drinking but it puts anxiety off the scale next morning and all day , head and body vibrates inside , hearing loud humming noises , its just not worth it .