I too feel this way. First of all, i don't drink to relieve anxiety, i drink to become belligerent. And the older i get, the more trouble i seem to get in.

Drinking usually leaves me pissed off or in some sort of sticky situation, so yeah it definitely brings me down too much. Plus i can quite easily hit full zombie mode when i drink too much

With that said, i do not drink often at all anymore. When i am not hypomanic i would much rather smoke weed. Weed too "slows me down" a bit so i would not want to risk my mood for a temporary funny feeling in my amygdala