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Anxiety Community
This patient support community is for discussions relating to generalized anxiety, anxiety and eating, anxiety and sleeping, mood swings, and phobias.
alcohol and anxiety
by littlemoe, Jul 02, 2008 12:49PM
After excessive drinking, I sometimes have a day or more of being in a constant state of panic. It's not a true panic attack, as I understand them, in that it isn't a 5-10 minute bout; rather, it's constant. I feel like I'm going insane and going to die. I've gone to the hospital with this feeling on more than one occasion. Once, it lasted for a week. I saw mulitple doctors, had MRIs, C-scans of the brain, etc. I was prescribed Alprazolam, and now if I get this feeling, I take one-half to one pill and just fall asleep. Obviously, the origin is the drinking, but what exactly does it tell me? Am I more susceptible to the effects of alcohol? Is this a common effect? Is the effect a sign of alcoholism? I've spoken to many doctors and shrinks. I suppose it's possible that nothing is wrong, but I just don't see how that can be seeing as how what I'm describing appears to be so isolated to me. Anyone? Oh, and yes, this is not an invitation to the easy cop-out quick fix of "stop drinking." The point of the question has to do with alcohol and the effects and what it might be doing to my brain/nervous system/etc.
Alcohol can do, just about anything to a person. My husband almost died from drinking. I myself have been use to drink. I do not think you are any more susceptible than any other person who fights an addiction. Our bodies react difrently, at any given time to a host of different symptoms.
The effect is not a sign of alchoholism that i've evr heard. I think possibly your system is reacting to the with drawl from excessive drinking. This can give us racing thoughts for few days, which in turn..gives us anxiety. Did the doctor say what the Alprazolam is to be used for?
Hopefully someone else will also reply, as to give you their take on this. One way to find out is to actually go to a support group you find comfortable going to and get there fast! Lotta good stuff out there. You can always ask your family doctor his opinion.
Good Luck!
Snooze
Anyway, I think it has to do with the withdrawl of alcohol. That doesn't mean your an alcoholic. You're just more prone and sensative to body changes. So you analyze them.
Also, alcohol is a depressant. This obviously effects peoples moods. Up and down.
My advice, try yoga and eat breakfast every morning, even hung over. Never drink hard alcohol. Stick to beer and wine, this will help with the hangovers. Go for a run and work up a sweat in the morning, I know this is hard. And most importantly SLEEP. I've noticed if I get drunk and sleep in the next day, my anxiety is not bad. But, I rarely get a solid sleep because of the drinking. Do your best to get some sleep. To help you sip some chamomile tea.
If none of this works... grab another cold one. ;)
That last part is a slippery slope of course (and a joke), so be careful if you ever decide to do that. It's probably best to HAVE the hangover even if it causes anxiety.
If I could offer you any advice....it would be to either stop drinking all together....or at least only drink in moderation. I never noticed the post-drinking panic as much when I only had a "few" versus getting sloshed.
Good luck.
Everyone here have made excellent comments/suggestions and I agree that the alcohol is probably the cause of your condition, although tere could be another psycholgical issue involved. Only a qualified mental health professional could tell you that.
And, as nursegirl said, alcohol is a depressant and withdrawal from it can simulate the effects of a panic attack.
Take the suggestions to either drink in moderation or, although, you don't want to here it, stop deinking completely. Obviously, you are using to self medicate so I think there are deeper issues that need to be addressed or you may be predisposed to acoholism.
Regardless, seek the advice of a professional and be truthful about your drinking habits(i.e. quantity, number of times a week, etc.) otherwise don't bother with the visit.
This may be harsh, but coming from an alcoholic himslef(I've been sober over 6 years) and one who knows about self medicating, I suggest you seriously consider what has been said in this forum.
Finally, don't use your medication with alcohol. It's a dangerous combination and can lead to even more problems.
Michael(Jikan)
I'm done discussing your alcohol intake. Only YOU can make that change.
But what I WILL get on you about is taking alprozalam as some sort of "hair of the dog!" Do you have any idea just how stupid that is? How bloody dangerous?
If you had been a member since before yesterday, you would know that those of us on this forum recently lost one of our members when she got drunk and took too many Xanax. It was a tragic error that cost her her life.
I don't know why you have anxiety for days after one of your excessive drinking bouts except to echo what has already been said on here. You know that alcohol is a depressant, makes you feel good while you're high, but the landing is ALWAYS a crash. You are probably dealing with a certain amount of alcohol poisioning, dehydration, lack of restful sleep and a host of other ailments that your body is desperately trying to deal with. Time to listen to your body.
I hope you take a good long look at your present lifestyle.
And yes............I DO drink.
Greenlydia
Good Luck
I hope that littlemoe is at least reading and taking all of this in. I used to be a heavy binge drinker when I was in my early 20's....and I remember just how out of control my anxiety was. While I DID seriously enjoy social drinking in moderation...I mostly gave that up as well....b/c it just wasn't worth it to me to have to deal with all of the anxiety.
Of course everyone is different....but if there is overwhelming evidence showing that alcohol is a significant trigger...I would try to avoid it at all costs. And, yes...using Xanax in the manner you are is not only inappropiate and will end up ineffective in the long run...but it could also be dangerous. Give that some thought, please.
Good Luck!
Oh, and by the way...clearly your reading comprehension is low, but to reiterate....my doctor prescribed the Xanax to take when I have the anxiety after the nights out, and part of the query was to ask why anyone supposes he did that. Your vile response, while a true non sequitor to my post, lets me know you think that's a bad idea, but...again, I was wondering about the "why" of it because I don't know much about anxiety. I will forward my questions to my primary health provider. Read a book.
That your doctor has prescribed a med like Xanax to help you cope with your "excessive drinking, anxiety driven hang-overs," is just short of being a bloody quack! No, I take that back. He IS a quack. A stern lecture about binge drinking, prescribing a couple of aspirin and encouraging you to get into some therapy for your anxiety issues would be the better course of treatment.
I would also spend some time educating myself about anxiety, its causes and symptoms........reading some posts on this forum will give you a good head start on that. And you suggest that I read a book. (Such a witty repartee!) What do you suggest? Perhaps I'll finish "Binge Drinking for Dummies."
Peace
Greenlydia