[GreyGoose]

Hi

I was just wondering how many of you use alcohol (even in small amounts) as a means of coping with anxiety, panic attacks, depression and other disorders. Anyone care to share?.

I have been dry for 2 years now but whenever my anxiety got too bad, I would confine myself to the bedroom where I drank an entire case of beer, chain smoked and listened to loud rock 'n roll music. For over a year and a half this became a daily routine for me as a means of drowning out reality.

Anyone else have a similar story to tell...anyone else use alcohol to cope?.

- Regards

greygoose....i had a short period during my divorce when i drank more than i had in my entire life.......finally, the headaches got so bad that i decided to quit it.....pat

[Wants2Fly]

Goose -- I became a blackout drinker and got clean and sober in 1988. I think the rooms of AA are filled with people who have trouble coping.

I know that I used alcohol to self-medicate.

[SS8282]

Sometimes I do. Unfortunately, I'm usually at work when I drink. The more stressed I get the more I 'need' one, but sometimes, I think I'm developing a habbit of wanting a drink even though I don't feel so stressed out. Like wanting to have juice or pop. I guess that's bad? I dunno.

[GreyGoose]

When I think back to those years I was drinking, I can honestly say that I never had an anxiety/panic attack and I was'nt nearly as prudish, conservative and inhibited as I am now. Back then, I'd have a round of beers, followed by a pizza, another round of beers, light up a big cigar and make love far into the night while listening to some nice music. I was a great socializer too and got out a lot more. Of course, a lot of that was the alcohol and if I had continued down the road I was on, I'd probably have a really chewed-up liver by now and other health probs. Still, when I drank it was about the ONLY time I ever felt "sane".

[Myzen]

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When I think back to those years I was drinking, I can honestly say that I never had an anxiety/panic attack and I was'nt nearly as prudish, conservative and inhibited as I am now. Back then, I'd have a round of beers, followed by a pizza, another round of beers, light up a big cigar and make love far into the night while listening to some nice music. I was a great socializer too and got out a lot more. Of course, a lot of that was the alcohol and if I had continued down the road I was on, I'd probably have a really chewed-up liver by now and other health probs. Still, when I drank it was about the ONLY time I ever felt "sane".

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Hi Greygoose,

That's my story too, alcohol was the 'loosener' for me, but as you say it comes with other problems.

Cheers, Myzen.

[JayL]

Yes, i have to admit there was a couple of occasions when i've had a small glass of wine when feeling depressed just because i wanted to feel it. But hey i'm a minor and can confidently say i only drink maybe two occasions a year during the hollidays. It's powerful though, couple sips and i'm feeling it because we brew our in yo!
But hey I do agree that you shouldn't drink as an escape. I know a few people who suffer from this myself, I advise against it. Drink to cellebrate something but not to drown your feelings. : ) peace -J>L

[silver_queen]

I do occasionally... sometimes it makes me feel really happy and funny, and I know I end up acting stupid here, lol... other times, it just makes me feel worse. The past few times, it has just made me feel more depressed so I think I'll be avoiding it for a while.

Good Lord did I ever use booze to cope. My poison... a fifth of vodka or whisky warm and straight from the bottle. The problem is that I used this to cope with depression. Well, mix depression with a depressant and what do you get? You see where I'm going with this. I've come to realize that self medication in this sense is very self destructive. I still have intense urges to run to the store, get that bottle, and guzzle every last drop when I'm in the throws of depression. Recently I have found the strength to resist. And good on you for doing the same. Take care.

Ry

[friedgreymatter]

Oh, man. I've been self-medicating with alcohol for years now. My internal organs probably resemble swiss cheese. If my liver could talk, it would probably curse me out for abusing it for all these years.

I don't know what's better; booze or antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds. Both will take it's toll if not used properly.

We need friends to help cope with the pain that we experience in life, but they don't come in a prescription bottle or... a glass bottle... or..um... a plastic one, if you are on a tight budget.

I've had an easier life taking prescription meds with the guidance of a psychiatrist.

Shrinks don't use alcohol therapy, do they?

Be careful and be good to your internal organs. Make friends and keep them. That's all I have to suggest.

-friedgreymatter

[GreyGoose]

I'm seriously wondering, is there a good (non-alcohol) subsititute for benzos or antidepressants?. I'll be going to a new clinic next month and I don't know if the new doc will prescibe them (benzos). I need something to fall back on in case he does'nt. There's NO way I can deal with my anxiety/panic without taking something and "deep breaths", yoga and "green tea" just don't do it for me. I need somthing that will definately work (and fast). Thank's again for all the input so far!

[friedgreymatter]

Hmmm... Don't know what might to suggest, Greygoose. I've been cooped up indoors with serious anxiety and depression for years. Not sure how I'll react if I get a response from a job application I sent in a few days ago. I'm gritting my teeth and biting my nails apart with worry.

I don't want to "hit the sauce" just to get to work, but I'm desperate for income and don't want to blow another job over fear. The loathing over the type of work can be dealt with, but it's the anxiety that causes me to run away and hide.

I've only had limited experience with benzos. They didn't help me much.

Ughh. I must be chewing my cuticles apart when I'm asleep. This is too strange. Alcohol is upsetting my stomach and i've got some funky gastrointestinal thing going on.

Basically, I'm falling apart mentally and physically.

If I weren't such a horrendous mess, I might have some helpful suggestions for you, Greygoose.

Got any suggestions for me???!!!!

Sorry, Greygoose. All I can say is to hang in there, bite the bullet and... plead to the doc. to help you!!!!!!

Must find a way to be functional.

Take care, Greygoose.

-friedgreymatter

[GreyGoose]

Fried, I hear you. I wish there was something I could do for you but I'm in such fragile shape myself, I'd have a difficult time unsticking myself from a piece of flypaper right now. Maybe we can have a virtual beer together or something and figure out this thing called "life". I dunno.

[Wants2Fly]

Because the last time I drank I had an alcohol seizure, the kinds of medications I can be on is always a serious consideration.

When I fell apart in 2003, I was prescribed neurontin to help with nerves. This is a non-FDA approved use. I believe it is used for epilepsy, and it is a good med bec. it is not processed by the liver, gets flushed out pretty quickly. I am taking it at a much, much lower dose than an epileptic might. I still take an almost minuscule dose if I've been sleepless a few nights and want to sleep. I am tring to phase it out for that.

As for using alcohol for job nerves, I drank some vodka (ha, how young I was, hadn't yet graduated to tequila, my booze of choice which I remember o-so-fondly) out of the glove compartment of the car before I went in for the job interview that got me my first reporting job. "False courage, Dutch courage, who the heck cares where the courage comes from," I remember reasoning.

But alcohol is a bad friend, charming at first, but ruinous in the end.

Good luck, both of you, finding what you need to work with you and for you.

[GreyGoose]

I agree. Alcohol comes on nice and smooth in the beginning and makes you feel like "yourself" again but it later turns on you like a mad dog. Not to get off the subject but I have another question...

If you go through a week or two of intense stress and anxiety, can it make you feel "exhausted" at the end...like you just went to hell and back?. I'm just totally spent from stress. The last two weeks have just ground me down to nothing.

[Wants2Fly]

Hi GG -- As I understand, stress is the result of adrenalin and similar biochemicals flooding the system. Humans developed the "fight or flight" response to fear/danger so that the body would get a chemical boost to fight that woolly mammoth or run like the dickens.

Today, the fear/dangers we encounter do not require us to respond physically. Yet, the system is still flooded with these chemicals that rev us up for battle or speedy retreat.

Short answer: yes, both stress and depression can cause/contribute to exhaustion.

So sorry you are feeling used up.

I seem to fight a perpetual cycle of not being able to sleep, pulling myself out of bed by a reasonable morning hour so that I don't sleep half the day away; then wind up exhausted til afternoon; work; and can't get to sleep. . . . .

[GreyGoose]

Wants2Fly - My gosh, you sound exactly like me!. I sleep in till noon most mornings because life is just too painful and depressing to face, nothing to live for, etc. I'm on Celexa but I feel like it's beginning to lose it's effect.

[Wants2Fly]

I'm wondering if the Effexor is losing some effectiveness for me. For a while, I felt like I was on a high once in a while, and with many good days in between. Lately I feel as if it just masks the worst part of the pain, but underneath, I have not built the "infrastructure" of self-acceptance, self-esteem, faith, economic security/solvency, and nurturing relationships and connections that support people.

Alcohol and drugs also masked the bankruptcy of that infrastructure. I remember being in treatment and a man in the group said he got sober because his family meant so much to him, he couldn't trash that part of his life anymore. I said, well, I had nothing that meant that much to me.

For a while in sobriety, I had a career that I wanted, a long-standing relationship, my dogs, and a beautiful home that surpassed my expectations of what I'd "have" in life. It was all ripped from me over the course of 5 weeks. I am not wandering around in a cognitive daze anymore, but I am still struggling to create meaning. And I think about the "good ole days" of tequila and pot and more -- and I know that I could wind up in a seizure or dead if I ever go that route again.

Oh, GreyGoose, it does sound like we are clinging to rather similar life rafts, doesn't it?

How and why did you wind up giving up the booze and arriving where you are now in life -- not just physically, but emotionally, psychically, physically, if I am not too forward to ask. Feel free to PM.

[GreyGoose]

Wants2Fly -

Yes, it does very much sound like we are on the same path. It seems that when I'm not walking around in a depressive "fog" or buzzed out from the meds, I am panicking my head off about some disease, looking at my body and freaking out over symptoms. It would'nt take much for me to pick up a bottle of Gin (or whiskey) again sometimes - especially if I was ever turned down for benzos.

A little while ago the tingling in my back and neck got so bad that I freaked out and finally had to take a couple of Xanax's. Maybe it's from sitting so much or perhaps from the anxiety. My abusive father is in total denial over the past and trying to tell me it's "all in my head" and that I have a "vivid imagination". He is so full of it. then he lays a big guilt trip on me like it was all MY fault. So we have been arguing about this for a week now and I am so totally stressed over the whole thing. Sometimes I hate him!!.

Celexa, like a lot of meds do loose thier effectiveness over time and new meds must then be found. I have even wondered if taking sleeping pills might help "relax" me but I see now that the ingredient in them is nothing more that the same ingredient found in Benadryl. I might as well eat a piece of candy.

Well, gotta go eat. Thank's for sharing and anytime you wanna talk, I'm here

SORRY, EDITED FOR TYPOS
- Regards

[SpazKatt]

*blushes* I guess I do a bit

Hey there Grey. I understand the desire for meds other than alcohol and the issues with sleplessness. For that matter, I understand wanting a particular med. I hoped to high heavens that I was given lamictal and my prayers were answered. If you're not givin your poison of choice, I'd recommend taking a nice helping of Benedryl. For me, it's worked pretty well from time to time with the sleep issue. And you can most definately become exhausted from the anxiety. For that matter, you can become exhausted from most any emotion that over exerts itself, therefore over exerting you. When I've had a particularly rough cycle I find myself needing to sleep for at least a week or two. If you can, try not to feed these feelings. They only become worse. What I mean is that when you're anxiety is getting out of control, make an honest effort to do something that relaxed you. If you can't then it's ok. At least you tried. And who knows, if you make an effort every time you feel this way, who knows, one day you might become the "Distraction King"... the guy who can ride out the feelings and not let the feelings run his life. Good luck talking with the doc. I hope everything goes well.

Ry