Quote:
Originally Posted by Epimetheus
Does anxiety and alcohol have a close relationship at all. I have not been diagnosed with anxiety, but the more I read about it, the more I say to myself "this happens to me" but it is usually present with alcohol in some way, i.e., drunk, hungover, waking up from passing out, etc.
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Hi Epimetheus,
Before I was correctly diagnosed as bipolar, I had been misdiagnosed for years with major depression and I also have PTSD. I self-medicated with alcohol for a very long time, probably close to 18 years. For me, it helped with anxiety and it also countered my hypomania. It was definitely not a good thing when I was depressed and exacerbated that badly. After 18 years, I looked in the mirror one day, decided I didn't like who I saw, and went to my first AA meeting. I was an active AA member for 9 years and loved the program dearly.
When I moved from Kansas to Arizona, I no longer attended meetings but do not today have the cravings for alcohol that I once had. I do occasionally have a drink socially but this is rare. This change also seemed to coincide with being correctly diagnosed as bipolar and medicated properly so that I no longer have hypomanic episodes. I do occasionally have flare-ups in anxiety, but we treat those with medication as opposed to self-medicating with alcohol.