I have a question... maybe someone can help

Hi everybody--

I am a 24-yr old woman and I suffer from anxiety. I haven't been in therapy in awhile but I am currently drinking excessively. Every day. Some days all I do is sit at home and drink. I do this because every time I start to feel anxious or start to have a panic attack, alcohol helps. But then when it wears off I feel worse, and I get anxious again, so I drink again to suppress the anxiety. I was wondering if I get my anxiety under control if I will be able to control my drinking? Has this happened to anyone?

I had to stop my drinking before I could get my bearings on my anxiety...
because after a while I forgot what came first...was it the anxiety then have alot to drink?....or was it the drinking alot giving me the anxiety?

I'm pretty sure I drank first up to get some relief from the anxiety...but then it's suddenly in the future somewhere and I'm lost and simply have to have the drink!

....yeah...I stopped the drinking first to deal with the anxiety which is still here but not so lethal.

I hope you will be ok....I get where you are at completely.

HI there,

First off welcome to PC and the addictions forum. You ask a good question, and it's good that you're thinking about you're thinking about your alcohol use. I too used to drink to control anxiety & a host of other emotions.

From what you describe about your drinking, it sounds to me like you have a drinking problem. Very few people, once they have a drinking problem are able to go back to social drinking. Usually it means abstinance is required. That being said, I do know a few people, who developed drinking problems who were drinking very heavily who were able to cut back to just drinking socially again, but it took a lot of effort and support.

I'd suggest that as a first step you talk to your Dr. about your drinking and your anxiety, and see what they suggest.

Remember you're not alone, a lot of people self-medicate psych problems with alcohol.

Keep posting and let us know how you're doing.

splitimage

my experience with your situ. i had horrible anxiety and panic attacks during the time i was trying to get sober. often nothing seemed to set this off. amazingly those same symptoms were minimized when i got sober. and talking with your doc is a good suggestion too/split image.

Thank you all for your responses. They definitely help provide some insight to the question I posed. I definitely know that the panic and anxiety get worse if I get into a bad drinking spell, but I'm sad because I'm young and I'd like to be able to drink socially. The good news is that I have done really good today for the first time in two weeks on my drinking! And I feel good