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Treating anxiety with alcohol

Transcendence

Transcendence

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Messages
2,505
What are the problems with treating anxiety with alcohol compared to benzodiazepines? I'm talking about short term, so cirrhosis doesn't count. I don't like alcohol much as a recreational drug. However, it is the only substance widely available without a prescription that gives me relief from my increasing anxiety. This is a pretty straightforward question but I'd like to make sure I'm not overlooking anything. I'm scared to use benzos because I think I'm more likely to become addicted to them than alcohol (this may be naive so feel free to correct me) and they also make me drowsy while booze has the opposite effect (ie, makes it impossible for me to sleep).

I adamantly don't drive while drunk despite the extreme inconvenience, btdubs.

EDIT

A few more notes: I also exercise and am getting into meditation. Exercise helps a lot but it's not always possible to exercise as much as I need to so this is referring to a last case scenario...
 
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I've been forced to resort to this before. I've been having some anxiety for 3 years now, during that time i've been scipted lorazepam for occasional use ( 10 1 mg pills per script). After the script ran out a few months later my doc woud only give me 1 more & said that was that.

So after the pills ran out if i was starting to feel too anxious to bare i'd buy a beer & wash it down quick. It worked! Very well.

However i have qualms over using booze this way since i used to be quite a heavy drinker, not too bad but bad enough to know this wasn't smart.

Thing is if you decide to have more than enough you can wind up feeling horrendous when the drink wears off; worse than you were before, plus like you said booze keeps you from sleeping. I cant imagine a worse way to feel anxious than lying in bed feeling sick, head pounding, hanging out your ass with anxiety & insomnia.

So in summary, stick to between 1/3 beers for such a need. All the best
 
When I got off benzos to treat my anxiety I switched to alcohol. Now I am an alcoholic and when I stop, rebound anxiety occurs. Alcohol is more addictive than benzodiazepines as it makes you feel good and affects serotonin activity.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro00/web1/Kim.html

With alcohol, the neuron's and chemical messengers involved in signaling is depleted and interfered. Specific chemical messengers effected by alcohol are the neurotransmitter serotonin (5 HT), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and dopamine.

The role of neurotransmitters in the brain is to either stimulate or inhibit the flow of an impulse between neurons. The GABA is an example of a neurotransmitter that is used as an inhibitor, where the 5 HT and dopamine can have either function of stimulating or inhibiting impulse, depending on what area of the brain it is at. All three neurotransmitters are involved in influencing some type of behavior through their inhibition or stimulation. The 5 HT for example, is known to have the most diverse functions in influencing all kinds of behavior. The influence of behavior is caused by the binding of the serotonin to its receptor, which then stimulates small molecules to form within the cell, which then in turn act with other proteins to activate various cellular functions. These cellular functions result in either stimuli or inhibition and "through these mechanisms, serotinin can influence mood states, thinking patterns, emotion and motivation." (2). The 5 HT also "appear to involve control of appetite, sleep, memory and learning, temperature regulation, mood, behavior, cardiovascular function, muscle contraction, endocrine regulation, and depression."
 
Personally, I don't think either are a good path to follow at all. However, I don't have chronic anxiety, just occasional bouts so I am absolutely no expert on this subject and this is just my subjective burble.

With benzos, I found myself slipping into taking a 1/2 or 1 every time I felt anxious about things (driving my car, going to parties). Then I'd take a half in the morning because I was feeling nervous about work, then a half because I was freaking out about my cat being eaten by the dogs next door, and so on and so on.

When I realized this was becoming a serious habit, I stopped and learnt to try to confront the specific thing causing anxiety. My ex-boyfriend had a serious addiction to benzos - he ultimately hung himself - so they really helped him out...

Drinking is no answer either - this is my current form of self-medication for I guess just general stress, and its definitely getting out of control and actually feeds my anxiety. On nights when I don't drink, I wake up feeling fine. On the nights I do drink (which are becoming just about every night) I wake up with a feeling of deep dread in the morning (same feeling I used to get when using crack).

Red wine does seem to work well at relaxing me to the point of sleep after only 2 glasses, but you have to stop at 2.

Chamomile tea is surprisingly effective. Eating good food and taking vitamins also help me. Cut out caffeine, and as much sugar as possible. Meditation sounds excellent (I tried but failed), if you don't have time to exercise, how about some yoga exercises and breathing you can do at home?

I don't really understand the part of your post about "I'm talking about short term". Short term turns into long term pretty easily. Please be careful.

best of luck to you
 
I've been treating my anxiety with alcohol for a few months at least now and I can tell you that you will have more bodyfat and a lighter wallet, not to mention a larger tolerance. It is easy to slip into alcoholism. I used to be prescribed benzos but stopped getting my scripts because they are addictive as well, not to mention potentially dangerous if you like to mix drugs like I used to.

Relatedly, in fact today I decided I am not going to drink any more because of the consequences. I do not recommend it as medicine of any sort. Alcohol is a toxin. Please, try some other routes of action first.
 
I just don't know what else to do. My anxiety is entirely somatic. I don't excessively worry about things...really. I am very happy with the way my life is going. I don't have any drug habits. I have good relationships with my friends and family and am fine in social situations. I don't have any external problems looming over me or any phobias.

I just have this feeling in my gut that eats me from the inside out, a feeling that I cannot connect to any particular behavior or thought or situation. I feel like I'm on a swing bridge and the ropes are twisting apart. It peaks in the morning, late at night, and sometimes early evening.

Running for 40-60 minutes uphill helps. I cannot do this (and do not want to do this) every time I feel like the world is inverted. I know all the breathing exercises and meditation techniques and calming tricks. I'm not trying to kill my thoughts or change my thinking in anyway; if the physical sensation in my gut would disappear everything would be peachy. That's all I want. I just want the feeling to go away. Alcohol only helps for a couple hours and then makes it worse, but at least that's a couple hours of relief from a really shitty sensation.
 
Maybe try beta blockers? Or kava?

I can't recommend anything that has personally worked for me consistently. I have had a striking panic attack even on moderate doseage of benzo before. Actually it was right around then that my alcohol usage increased in order to kill my anxiety effectively. But again, this is not a solution 8) It is great that you are able to use exercise, if you like meditation too long runs are good for that and in situations where this can't be done perhaps breathing exercises can take the place. I am glad to hear that your anxiety is somatic and not rooted in neuroses like mine. Just make sure there isn't anything tugging at you from your subconscious without ya realizing it. I hope everything works itself out for you because anxiety is so so lame :\
 
drugs are a slippery slope (i hate to use that cliché) and although yeah i feel what you're saying, generally it's more about a mental issue that begins to aggravate the body. so resolve it, ya know? i say this pissed as a curt gypsy myself but for fuck's sake don't get into benz or booze for your anxiety. they both begin as the best of paths and turn to muddy shite fast as a fucking moon rises.
 
Neither alcohol nor benzos treat the cause of anxiety, just the symptoms. Having tried both as a means of self-medicating, I can say that I preferred benzos, but in the end the anxiety will still be there when you stop taking them. And no matter what, eventually you will eventually have to stop.

See a psychologist, treat the cause rather than the symptom, and begin living anxiety free. My single biggest regret in life is that I didn't see a psychologist sooner. My 'teens and twenties were almost entirely wasted in a fog of social anxiety and depression. While I'm far from perfect now, thanks to my psychologist I've been able to make great strides on my own.
 
^^^You must have had a fantastic psychologist........I've been and they are just a paper champion who have studied other peoples' works, most of which will be obsolete soon thanks to figuring out the genome sequence. Unless you have some traumatic experience or something like that. Once we figure out exactly what everything is for anxiety will be a joke of the past. For now, masking the problem works and alcohol....although I hate it, does the trick. The only problem is that it isn't like you can drink and go to work :(
 
Kudos to starting exercise and meditation...these are what have helped me the most for anxiety. The benefits of meditation continue to increase with time so I think you may see more and more improvement if you stick with it.

How often do expect to be drinking? Daily? There are many times that having alcohol breath will not be acceptable. And if you found the benzos becoming too much of a habit, then the same thing could happen with alcohol as well.

I do like to drink when I go out, it helps with social anxiety, but I would be cautious of using it every day for any time you are stressed. There is also something to be said for learning to cope with the feeling of anxiety even if you are not able to make it go away. I find that there often times when my stomach is in knots, my chest tight, etc., and I just have to accept it. I can go take a quick walk or something, but sometimes the feeling is just gonna be there. If you are able to deal with the occasional anxiety, then you will not become dependent on a substance to mask it.
 
theotherside-- no, masking it doesn't work, and you've just proven my point by saying that you can't drink at work. If that were a valid and healthy treatment then there would be no problem with using it at work. Like depression, many (if not most) cases of anxiety are not biological in nature, and can be treated well by psychological therapies. Not all illnesses can be cured by a pill.

How many psychologists have you seen? I got lucky with my first one, but it is not uncommon for people to have to shop around for one that works well for them. If you don't have a near-instant rapport and comfort with them, and if the treatment they outline doesn't make sense to you, then you need to move on.
 
^^^Very true, therapy goes a long way in dealing with anxiety/depression, and has helped me tremendously. It seems to be popular to say that mental health issues are mostly biological and that they should be given proper medication like diabetes/cancer, but I don't think it's quite as simple as that.
 
Alcohol does not help anxiety, been there tried that and failed miserably .... In the end I went to my doc who sorted me out with the right meds. Counselling probably would've helped too but I'm not so good at talking to strangers...lol.
 
schmangle said:
Personally, I don't think either are a good path to follow at all. However, I don't have chronic anxiety, just occasional bouts so I am absolutely no expert on this subject and this is just my subjective burble.

With benzos, I found myself slipping into taking a 1/2 or 1 every time I felt anxious about things (driving my car, going to parties). Then I'd take a half in the morning because I was feeling nervous about work, then a half because I was freaking out about my cat being eaten by the dogs next door, and so on and so on.

When I realized this was becoming a serious habit, I stopped and learnt to try to confront the specific thing causing anxiety. My ex-boyfriend had a serious addiction to benzos - he ultimately hung himself - so they really helped him out...

Drinking is no answer either - this is my current form of self-medication for I guess just general stress, and its definitely getting out of control and actually feeds my anxiety. On nights when I don't drink, I wake up feeling fine. On the nights I do drink (which are becoming just about every night) I wake up with a feeling of deep dread in the morning (same feeling I used to get when using crack).

Red wine does seem to work well at relaxing me to the point of sleep after only 2 glasses, but you have to stop at 2.

Chamomile tea is surprisingly effective. Eating good food and taking vitamins also help me. Cut out caffeine, and as much sugar as possible. Meditation sounds excellent (I tried but failed), if you don't have time to exercise, how about some yoga exercises and breathing you can do at home?

I don't really understand the part of your post about "I'm talking about short term". Short term turns into long term pretty easily. Please be careful.

best of luck to you
Click to expand...

These are all great for supressing and hiding your anxiety, but in the long run none of em will cure it and you will have to live with it for the rest of your life. Instead of trying to supress your anxiety, how bout learn to build a tolerance with it. There are techniques that work miracles on treating anxiety, by simply accepting the negative emotions and then learning to live with them without them interfering with your social life whatsoever. If your interested, check out Selftherapy.org. It's free and could be the best time investment you will ever make.

Link to the audio lessons:
www.selftherapy.org/listen/
 
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