Anxiety and Alcohol?!

[EHall_92]

Hi,

I'm 23 and been suffering chronic anxiety and major depression for many years. I'm taking a beta-blocker at the moment and was recently seeing a counsellor, though I have stopped going as I have been feeling great and just started to feel frustrated when I do go. 

In the last week or so ive suddenly had a bit of a turn and I can feel the anxiety coming. In this time it was my birthday and I drank quite a bit (which is never a good idea for me) which ended up with me being rude to my boyfriend and crying at the end of the night. This has happened quite a few times whether it be toward family, my boyfriend, or friends. Now I'm still feeling high levels of anxiety, I've also just run out of my medication and I probably can't get to the doctors till next week. I've been waking up depressed and embarrassed, but I know it's from the anxiety, over thinking, and the alcohol.

This weekend I will be seeing the same group of people at a bar one night and at a festival on another day. I don't want to drink but that is the only way I have any confidence. Now I'm considering not going to the bar and selling my ticket to the festival because of the crowd of random people is overwhelming, and I still feel embarrassed in front of my newish group of friends and they don't know my issues so they probably just think I'm an annoying over drinker!

My questions!.....Does anyone else rely on alcohol with their anxiety? Do you find it hard to not drink in social situations? And how do you substitute/replace it or avoid it in these types of situations? 

Any advice please!!

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[geoff]

dear EHall, thanks for joining the site, and yes I can relate to to your comment, so let me take you back to when I had depression in a bad way.

But first can I say that if your pharmacist knows you they will cover you with your medication until you get to see your doctor, because that's what mine does for me.

Now getting back to the drinking, well I used alcohol as a self medication, plus it gave me confidence if anybody called around, which I hoped that they didn't, but on the week end I had no choice, because my wife friends would call around.

There were times when I abstained for medical reasons, but if you don't want to drink you have to have made up your mind that your not going to, but this means that you can watch others drink in front of you, and you don't become agitated, anxious or even annoyed, and if this happens then your not ready to not drink in any social occasion.

To replace the alcohol with something else isn't really a good idea, but would love to hear from you. L Geoff. x

[EHall_92]

Thanks for your response Geoff! It's comforting to know there's others with similar situations. I agree I have to get in the right state of mind. I'm thinking I'll go ahead with the weekend and just try my hardest to not touch any alcohol but if im feeling really uncomfortable I'll just have to leave. Also as for the medication I will definitely do that tomorrow then.

Just wondering what you mean by not being ready to not drink in social situations? Would you just try having one or two instead of completely stopping? 

Thanks again! 

[geoff]

dear EHall, thanks for getting back to me.

By saying ' your not ready to not drink in any social occasion', means that if you decide that you don't want to drink alcohol when you go to a social function but then feel uneasy about other people drinking in front of you and become agitated, then you haven't convinced yourself that you can handle any social function and not drink.

Another example is if you have haven't had a drink for a couple of days, weeks but then walk pass a bottle shop, are you able to walk straight passed it and not go in and buy a can of beer.

So what I am saying is that when you really want to stop drinking, then there will no temptation what so ever to start drinking if someone in front of you is drinking, so if you can tolerate this without any agitation, then you have succeeded.

When I abstained I could walk pass a bottle shop, and watch people in front of me get drunk, without me drinking alcohol. L Geoff. x

[Chris_B]

Hi E.Hall92, welcome to the forums.

This topic has come up on the forums a number of times before, so as well as chatting to Geoff here you might want to check out the other related threads listed above, as there may be some insight that others have provided already - plus you might be able to help some others out.

Also, you might want to check out this thread in our Staying well forum, where a number of our members have committed to staying off alcohol for a while, and are supporting each other through it. You're welcome to join in.

[Erin79]

Hiya!

im exactly the same, but I can't socialise with anyone unless I've had a wine, I freak out! So dibilitating.