Hi all. Question for anyone who can help.

I am a passionate oenophile (aka a very big fan of wine in all its varieties). I love it. I have a glass almost every evening, and frequently go on wine tours and even tech some local community classes.

However I also have suffered from anxiety disorder nearly my entire life. Every single day I wake up and feel that dull rumbling in my stomach. I never feel at peace. It's like, if a regular person is at a 1 or 2 on a stress level of 1 to 10 all the time, I am at a 5 or 6...and when small stressors would just start to worry a regular person, they get me to a 9 or 10 and I start to lose it.

I have always tried to avoid taking medication. I just dont like being under the influence of a chemical so dependently. I also, as a 35 year old man, am horrible at remembering to take things regularly. However, about a year ago I finally sucumbed and decided to try Paxil. However, I explained my wine situation above to my doctor and she said that 1 glass of wine should be fine. Whatever.

Long story short...after taking the medication for about 1 month, I had a glass of wine with dinner one night when out with friends. I ended up passing out, and giving myself a concussion, smashing my head on the sidewalk.

I took the medication for another month or so. it helped some, but very minimally...but probably would have needed to be tweaked if I wanted to continue on it, Thing is, I was a little depressed, having lost one of my passions. Eventually, I asked the doctor to phase me off of it (it was a VERY low dose, so it was done easily and pretty quickly).

In recent months, we've been going through some hard times for so many reasons (health of the kids, money nightmares, etc.) and I gotta admit, its been really hard for me to cope. I've been thinking about whether I need to give up this love of mine and finally succumb to having to fo on a regular med.

My question here is...are there any meds at ALL that don't need to be taken every single day, but instead, can only be talen when the stress level is very high? You hear of people "popping a valium" when stress is particularly high (pardon the term...note, I am not asking about Valium in particular...its just a common expression...I have no affinity for any particular med)...Is this a valid and medically viable pharmacological treatment option? or is the only effective way to pharmacologically manage stress to take a pill every single day?

Sorry if this is a silly question.

Any help would be appreciated...
- t