Anxiety and alcohol

[SadTomorrow]

Hi all,

I have a pretty serious anxiety problem - I'm 28, married, no kids. It's something I have dealt with my entire life but it has really gone up a year in the last year since something traumatic happened at work.

I since have got a new job and I've not settled in. I'm having frequent panic attacks and sob in the loo at least once a week. I take beta blockers when this happens and I'm on a 4-month wait list for therapy on the NHS.

I've been having a really stressful time of late. My grandma is dying, work is utterly horrible (on top of the feelings about the trauma I went through last year and the not settling in, it's been crazy busy. I've worked from 9am-midnight at my desk most nights in the past two weeks). I'm not coping with this additional stress well at all.

Anyway, long story short is that I blew off some steam last night. I had 2 drinks and felt good, at ease. I then couldn't stop. I got very very drunk and walked home alone. My memory of the walk is patchy. I wet myself on the way home. DH came and found me after tracking my phone, and he got me to bed.

I'm not a regular drinker. I hadn't had a drink in 2 months before last night. I do, however, have a total fucking drunken nightmare about once a year and have done my whole adult life. My big thing is that when I get drunk I get lost - I lose all sense of where I am and how to get home. I know I'm putting myself in serious danger doing this.

I know that I need to get my anxiety in check, and I'm doing everything I can (that I know is an option). Private therapy isn't an option for me financially, unfortunately.

In the meantime, do you have any advice for helping me stop this annual binge drinking? I hate myself, I hate the way I feel today physically and my mental health is beyond poor today and will be for a week or so, as a hangover from the booze. I didn't even do anything that really embarrassed myself. I was too drunk but pleasant in front of my friends, but then I got lost on the way home. Only DH knows about this but I'm now convinced that everybody hates me and I'd be better off dead. I'm too much trouble.

Any help to get me through - practical coping methods, for example - would be really helpful whilst I wait for a professional.

Thank you.

Hello,

Replying to bump your thread and hope you get more replies. Do you have someone among your friends that you could confide in and ask for them to help you? Maybe have a code word they can use to warn you when you have a drink to remind you not to go overboard? If not, can you handle not drinking at all until you see a therapist?

I don't seem to be able to drink more than one glass of wine without being riddled with post-drinking anxiety the next day so try not to drink if I can avoid it. Is there another (safe!) way you can blow off steam that makes you feel good - that doesn't involve drinking? Late night Karaoke? Netflix guilty pleasures?

Hope you get the help you're hoping for soon. It sounds like you're trying your hardest and are dealing with an awful lot at the moment.

I have the exact same issue about once or twice a year I have a complete blow out and get really drunk then spend a week hating myself and feeling so anxious and feel like the only way out is to end my life. I always tell myself I will not drink again as drink affects me in a bad way.... if it’s more than about 3. I have issues in my relationship and when I’m drunk am horrible to my partner and tell everyone I hate him then feel embarrassed of my behaviour

Alcohol is a good servant, but a poor master. As alcohol aggravates anxiety, the best thing is to not drink at all. Easy to say, but hard to do, I know. Best take a few days off work sick. In the meantime some exercises might help. Mindfulness for the brain, and running for the body!! If you take a day or two off work each time to you feel too stressed, this feeling of stress should ease, as you can just put it away.