Anxiety/panic attacks the day after drinking

[bvjens31]

This isn't really a question, it's more or less a walkthrough of what I am going through with anxiety problems and alcoholism in hopes that it might help someone out there. Had I read online about how common anxiety attacks after a night of drinking are, maybe I could have started my road to recovery sooner, and maybe some of you can.

Anyways, I am a 25-year old college student (receiving my 2nd BA tomorrow actually :D) who had never experienced anything related to anxiety or panic attacks ever in my life. I've always been a laid back, easy-going individual. Last May, after a weekend of beer pong and partying, I woke up on the following Monday and instantly felt dizzy and out of breath, like I was going to pass out or fall over. I didn't know what it was. I thought maybe I had hit my head during the previous weekend's festivities. A couple days later I still had a dizzy feeling so I had my ladyfriend drive me to the ER for fear of having post-concussion syndrome or something. They gave me something for my nerves (Loreazapam maybe?) and did a catscan and everything was A-OK. I had no idea why I was feeling like this, but I finally told my mom about it and she googled it and thought maybe I was having some panic attacks. Over the next couple of months during the Summer, my roommates and I's drinking continued, and so did my anxiety issues (always the day after going out). At first I tried blaming them on stress or my girl or anything else besides drinking. I didn't want to think for ONE SECOND that my favorite past-time (drinking and being social with the wonderful people in my life) was actually the crux of my least favorite past-time (anxiety attacks.)  

Before I had my first one last May, I had heard of people having anxiety problems (my ex-girlfriends mom took meds for them) but just scoffed at people actually having to take medications to control their thoughts. What pish-posh I thought to myself. Well, after 1 year of having these #$%^$@ panic attacks, it's not pish-posh anymore. I have finally come to terms with the fact that it IS my drinking that is causing these (and smoking a pack of marlboro lights on the weekends in the bars does not help!!!!)  I don't even really get typical hangovers anymore like I used to, well maybe I do, but they are being over-shadowed by the PURE AGONY of the anxiety attacks. Sometimes they go on for the whole day. There are several different reasons about why people have panic attacks, hypoglycemia is one, but I have finally realized that it is my drinking style. Thank God I'm getting out of college so I won't feel the need to go out and get belligerent drunk with my buddies anymore. I know that being in college is no excuse, but hey, it's fun!!!

All this being said, I am working on curing myself. I have always been a type of person who needs to be in control of my own life/mind/health and this anxiety **** has got to stop!!!! I am going to start taking daily doses of St. John's Wort and B complex, to see if that helps. I am also going to get back into my workout routine once my job starts in a couple of weeks. I know that an active lifestyle will help me on the road to recovery, as well as those supplements. But I am starting to realize the #1 thing that will cure these attacks is to stop drinking. Every time I have one of these day-long attacks, I swear to myself that I'm done drinking. But the truth of the matter, is that after a few days, I feel my equilibrium has returned to a pretty awesome level, and I forget about how the major anxiety attack I just had a few days ago made my life complete hell. That's how **** works. Out of sight, out of mind. If I don't have one for a few days, I start thinking I'm invincible again, and we go party. I need to grow up and realize that there is a cure to feeling this PURE AGONY! And it's in the form of alcohol abstinence. It's going to suck and I'm sure I'm gonna miss the bars. But I will not miss these anxiety attacks.

I will keep my progress updated on this forum, because I now know that there are TONS of people out there who are suffering through the same problems that I am currently faced with. We all know the cure, deep down, we just don't want to accept it. To those reading this, hopefully I have calmed you down a little. I know it's hard. It sucks. It's hell on earth, in your brain, and it feels like there is no way out. There is. I think. So I'm going to try the B complex and the SJW and try to keep the drinking and smoking under extreme control.

Peace and love and freedom of YOUR MIND.
Take care,
C

[viktor_raul]

hello, I am Brazilian and not mastered English very well, I'm using google translator sorry, I had anxiety problems the day after a binge, dizziness, fuzzy thinking, fear, I felt very strange, one day I read an article on the Russians can drink an entire bottle of vodka and not faint of drunken, they eat fat, before and after drinking, I did this test and it really worked for me, it helped me a lot, eat fatty foods before and during consumption alcohol and you'll notice the difference in their levels of anxiety, in my case it worked, I hope it can work for anyone who is suffering with this problem also, hugs Raul

[NinersFan05]

I just want to share my story on this discussion.  I like reading these posts because it does give me a piece of mind and also stay focused on living a healthy lifestyle.  I've experienced plenty of addiction in my life mainly alcohol and pills.  I was a pretty heavy drinker up until this past September when I basically had to stop due to me getting in trouble with my 2nd DUI.  I had to go to jail on the weekends for 15 weekends straight starting this past June but I was still drinking during the week to deal with my stress and it just made it all worse.  Well after completing my weekends I started my house arrest in September and I stopped completely consuming alcohol.  I obviously am not allowed to drink due to being on probation but I could get away with it if I wanted to.  But thank the lord above I am now 80 days sober without a drop of alcohol.  I had severe anxiety attacks after drinking heavily and just drinking two drinks in the past.  My problem I was dealing with is that I always felt guilty drinking because I felt like I was weak and I couldn't stop on my own so that also made me have anxiety.  Also I was abusing ADHD meds (Adderall) on top of my drinking so if you think your hangovers were bad imagine abusing stimulants on top of the alcohol.  WHEW!! It was a nightmare.  Since I've been sober I still get urges from time to time and I'm still on a lighter stimulant for my ADHD but I can tell you my anxiety AND depression has subsided by at least 80 percent.  Its hard to quit on your own But I PROMISE you once you go a LONG period of time being healthy and sober you will get a great peace of mind knowing you are strong.  It took me to getting in trouble to finally have my wake up call and know that I can make it.  When your sober you look back on all the times you partied and think to yourself why the hell did I do that to myself!!  Its a crazy and amazing feeling at the same time.  Addiction is a terrible thing to have and when you deal with addiction you pay the consequences by putting your body through hell.  The older I get obviously the wiser I get and trust me there is more to life then a big party.  Listen to your brain and body and really focus on how you feel when you put stuff in your body.  I still struggle with depression/anxiety due to other stressors in my life because I LOST a lot due to this 2nd DUI.  I lost my gf because of my selfish jealous ways because I was not fun to be around because of how depressed I was.  I still have my job of 4 years and I am thankful for getting my peace of mind back.  I hope all of you find a piece of mind soon and hopefully it doesn't take something bad to happen for you to realize that you need to change.  I went to the ER a couple times due to severe anxiety but that didn't stop me sadly; it just made me "Cut" back but I still had anxiety due to the guilt I was facing.  Stay strong and no one said life is easy.  Don't be to hard on yourself.  I was always an athletic/active person but when you are completely sober being active and getting in shape its a totally different high and you feel amazing about yourself.  I got addicted to running and being somewhat healthy and It does wonders to your life.  Once I'm done with my house arrest (January 13th) I'm going to live my life doing different fun things that make me feel good about myself.  I'm still going to enjoy some good tasty beers (I love me some IPA's) but I guarantee you I wont put my body through the **** I did in the past.  Just got to be smart like I said earlier.  Anxiety is one of the worse feelings anyone can face especially severe attacks in life but YOU are in control of it so DO IT!!!  GOD BLESS EVERYONE!  PRAY EVERYDAY AND LISTEN TO THE MAN ABOVE AND GIVE YOUR PROBLEMS TO HIM!!  If you read my whole post the above statement is probably the most important of all that I said.  YOU GOT THIS!!

[NervousWreck01]

I get the "beer Fear" a lot and this past 5-6months it has got a lot worse. I am a heavy drinker. Would easily have 8-10 pints then start on vodka or whisky afterwards on a friday/saturday night. I'm 26 now but when i was younger (16-18) I would never get embarrassed after I done/said something silly but even the smallest thing now would have my nerves flaring. Same feelings as most of you - impending doom, "everyone hates me", "why am I such an *******". A lot of nights I don't say anything out of turn or bad about people but after a good few drinks and the conversation is going that way I let all loose and thats what cripples me the next day. I find that I need to apologise to everybody I talked too. It was only a few nights ago when it was the night after a heavy weekend that I felt as if my nerves were being pulled form my body, my heart racing and I was hyper ventilating all becasue I took a **** outside a local bus station and there was maybe 30 people around. If my friends done the same thing they couldn't care less about it. I think I get nervous because of the things that could have potentially happened for example in the case of pissing outside the bus station maybe a police officer could have seen me and arrested me. When I get into this line of thought all I can think about is my parents being really disappointed and other people thinking I'm a dickhead. I like to drink or used too and I guess I should quit but my friends and some family all like to go out and have fun through drinking and for the most part just going out to get hammered. I am reading what I have written in this post and realise I a bit all over the place but I put that down to being really nervous right now and this is day 3 after my big weekend.

[NervousWreck01]

I get the "beer Fear" a lot and this past 5-6months it has got a lot worse. I am a heavy drinker. Would easily have 8-10 pints then start on vodka or whisky afterwards on a friday/saturday night. I'm 26 now but when i was younger (16-18) I would never get embarrassed after I done/said something silly but even the smallest thing now would have my nerves flaring. Same feelings as most of you - impending doom, "everyone hates me", "why am I such an *******". A lot of nights I don't say anything out of turn or bad about people but after a good few drinks and the conversation is going that way I let all loose and thats what cripples me the next day. I find that I need to apologise to everybody I talked too. It was only a few nights ago when it was the night after a heavy weekend that I felt as if my nerves were being pulled form my body, my heart racing and I was hyper ventilating all becasue I took a **** outside a local bus station and there was maybe 30 people around. If my friends done the same thing they couldn't care less about it. I think I get nervous because of the things that could have potentially happened for example in the case of pissing outside the bus station maybe a police officer could have seen me and arrested me. When I get into this line of thought all I can think about is my parents being really disappointed and other people thinking I'm a dickhead. I like to drink or used too and I guess I should quit but my friends and some family all like to go out and have fun through drinking and for the most part just going out to get hammered. I am reading what I have written in this post and realise I a bit all over the place but I put that down to being really nervous right now and this is day 3 after my big weekend.

[thbestofme]

my friend..
I got 2 examples for you..
my elder brother who is in IT and me myself..
my elder brother is sober doesn't drink whatsoever but am an alcoholic
we bot got solutions in different ways..
he suffered heavy anxiety the same way u did and tried meditation and got of it..
while me on the other hand.. lousy stupid dumb went doctors care for 5 times.. I got my liver damaged to an extent of 40%..
I used to be ok when I used to be off hospital.. but started back again.. guess was compulsive drinker..
now my solution for drinking and anxiety are 2 things..
1 if just anxiety .. try meditation..
2 if u drink last night and suffer anxiety the next day.. slow down a bit .. I dont say stop it.. if u take 2 pints.. take 1 .. but do that for a week with one thing in mind.. I want to get off this..
If u got this feeling that you want to get off this without doctors help YES U CAN.. I did..
enjoy life my friend.. life is full of enjoyment apart from alcohol

[soozarella]

This explains so much!! After 20 years sober in AA I got so fed up with the "program" I left. I chose to try experimenting with moderation. I've read lots of people with drinking excesses learn to moderate. So it went well the first time I drank 2- 5oz glasses of white wine. The second time about the same and the next day some anxiety- blamed a lot of other things. The 3rd time I had a brandy after dinner. That night I kept waking up with very negative thoughts. The next two days horrible anxiety. My therapist says it's rebound anxiety and happens to those prone to anxiety. She said don't get a script for anti-anxiety meds as the rebound will become full blown panic attacks. I never knew I drank to control anxiety. I can't believe after all these years there's no way I can drink. I've stopped experimenting. I've built a good life with a family I love and getting a buzz now and then is not worth it.
Also, now I get why I was always so paranoid as a kid smoking pot - anxiety.
My therapist says when anxiety gets going visualize yourself in a pool slowly doggie paddling around and know you will eventually make it to shore. Like many of you I'm using exercise, less sugar and caffeine. I may go on a low dose anti-depressant as they can help.
I'm grateful to know what it is that's caused this anxiety. I never really understood how much I've always suffered with anxiety, booze worked for a long time. I was able to maintain for a while.
I realize I'm a lot older than a lot of you, but for what it's worth not drinking is really a nice way to live. I learned to find joy in simpler things in life and to have real connections with people. This bout with bad anxiety has helped me to be more patient and compassionate with other people.
For the past 20 years I've done a lot of work with professionals and on my own and came to realize I have good reason to have anxiety and I learned to live with it very well. I've survived a lot of trauma and that's where my anxiety comes from. That having been said, I still have anxiety, especially if I drink. It was fun to try again and I'm glad I did, cause now I know.
Thanks to all and best of luck.....sooz