Does anyone else get alcohol induced anxiety?

[Happy7711]

I dont drink much but the last 2 times my anxiety has been triggered the next day. I take celexa and am wondering if I should take a little more to try to level out the drop in serotonin from the alcohol.

[specialmom]

Well, it is a little concerning you want to medicate your way out of side effects of drinking.  I'm wondering if it wouldn't be a wiser decision to drink less (or no) alcohol.  That's such a vicious trap.  Any medication changes should always be supervised by your doctor.  Serotonin is involved with anxiety and depression.  And many drink to mask feeling and emotion.  It's such a common thread in addiction.  It can very well all be intertwined.  Do you, by the way, see a therapist?  That could be very helpful.  Here to help any time I can.  good luck

[Paxiled]

Well, just to say, serotonin is not known to be involved with anxiety or depression.  We do know that altering the way the body uses it can tamp down the effects, but it's not known to be a causal factor.  The main research these days into what causes anxiety is trying to figure out the amygdyla and with depression trying to figure out glutamate.  That's a bit technical, but when Prozac first came out, the manufacturer paid a lot of people to write things about how they had solved depression and anxiety.  The fact that nobody's ever been cured of it by playing around with it has completely disproved that.  The exception is in people, and this is rare, who have a problem synthesizing serotonin naturally from eating foods that contain tryptophan, B6, and Vitamin C, and can also happen with people who have dopamine deficiencies, etc.  If anyone out there knows what causes these curses, you're going to win the Nobel Prize.

[Paxiled]

No, no, no, antidepressants don't work that way.  Just as it took you some time for the celexa to start working, so would a higher dose.  Also know that serotonin levels are not the problem with mental illness and aren't what celexa is really doing -- it's not making any more serotonin than your body makes naturally, what it is doing is altering the natural way your body uses it.  The reason anxiety is triggered in many anxiety sufferers when using alcohol or other drugs is it disorients us to use them -- it's why we like them -- but when you're an anxiety sufferer, disorientation feels like what it feels like when you're really anxious so it triggers the same feelings.  Doesn't happen with everyone, but it does happen a lot.