Alcohol Anxiety: Why Drinking Makes Anxiety Worse

Does drinking alcohol seem to make your anxiety worse?

You may have a drink or two as a way to relax. It can mark the end of the busy day and the transition into evening. You have a couple of drinks to take the edge off, to unwind or to feel more at ease socially. Perhaps you look forward to that first sip, or you long for that initial nice feeling it can give you.

But rather than helping you feel relaxed, you may have noticed the opposite effect happening afterwards. You experience a spike in worry, racing thoughts, poor sleep and that familiar feeling of dread. Rather than waking up the next day feeling refreshed, you drag yourself out of bed fearing the worst.

With anxiety and social anxiety you may drink at social situations to try and feel more comfortable and confident. It may work for a bit but it’s easy to drink too much, too quickly. The following morning you are filled with anxiety and overthink what you may have said and done. It’s well known that hangovers often come with anxiety alongside all the other after effects of drinking too much. And some anxious people avoid alcohol as much as possible because they hate the feeling of being out of control.

I’ve worked with many people who binge drink, drink excessively or drink too much. They promise themselves (and others) that they will cut back this time. But the same habits and patterns creep back in again. They are no longer in control over their drinking.

If you’ve ever woken up the day after drinking with a pounding heart, low mood and a sense that something is wrong, then that is the alcohol anxiety. Alcohol can significantly increase your anxiety, even in people who don’t usually struggle with anxious thoughts and feelings. And if you already struggle with anxiety, despite the promise of relaxation, alcohol often makes it much worse.

As my anxiety clients have discovered, it is possible to take back control over your drinking habits and behaviours.

 

What is Alcohol Anxiety?

Alcohol anxiety refers to the anxiety symptoms that appear during or after drinking. It’s something a lot of clients describe either as part of binge drinking or excessive drinking or when describing their anxiety.

Symptoms can include:

• Racing heart
• Shakiness
• Sweating
• Shortness of breath/tight chest
• Restless sleep
• Intrusive or racing thoughts
• A sense of dread
• Guilt or embarrassment
• Overthinking conversations and events
• Panic like sensations

Some people refer to these symptoms after drinking as ‘hangxiety’, a combination of a hangover from drinking too much with anxiety symptoms. It can link into social anxiety, low self esteem, confidence issues and generalised anxiety issues too. It may happen after a few drinks or after heavy drinking.

For some people, alcohol anxiety only lasts a day or so after drinking. For others, the symptoms can last for several days or even spiral into longer period of anxiety. What can make alcohol anxiety so unsettling is that it still happens even when the night before was relaxed and enjoyable. It leaves you tense, edgy and filled with dread.

 

Why Alcohol Makes Anxiety Worse

Alcohol works in two very different phases. The first phase can be pleasant and enjoyable, the second phase can leave you anxious and low. It’s the rebound effect that can make your anxiety worse.

1. The Calm on the Way In

Initially, alcohol slows activity in the parts of the brain linked to fear and inhibition.

You may feel:

• More relaxed
• More confident
• Less self conscious
• More ‘switched off’

This is the pleasant part. You can relax, your mind slows down a bit and you can get that jolly feeling. It’s an external means to change how you feel and is why some people have a drink in the evening to unwind. If you get anxious or tense in social situations, this is the part of alcohol that can seem to calm that anxiety for a while.

The relaxation, quieter mind and buzz can all feel like alcohol helps anxiety in the moment. However, these effects don’t last due to the second phase.

2. The Rebound on the Way Out

If you’ve ever had a hangover you already know that alcohol can cause issues after drinking.

As alcohol leaves you system, your nervous system rebounds in the opposite direction to the relaxation above.

This leads to:

• Increased adrenaline
• Heightened alertness
• Blood sugar drops
• Dehydration
• Poor quality sleep
• Low/negative mood
• A surge in anxious thinking

This rebound is the core of alcohol anxiety. The calmer you feel while drinking, the more wired and anxious you can feel afterwards.

 

Alcohol Anxiety and Panic Attacks

For some people, alcohol doesn’t just cause anxiety, it can trigger full on panic attacks, especially the following day.

If you have a panic attack after drinking, you may worry that there is something seriously wrong with you. You might feel so uncomfortable that you think you are having a panic attack or you feel the need to see a doctor. Your heart pounds, your body aches, everything feels funny and you are filled with fear.

Alcohol can make you much more reactive to heart rate changes, dizziness, hot/cold sensations and breathing changes. It can be frightening and overwhelming. One of the problems with panic attacks is that once you have had one in a situation, it makes it far more likely to happen again in a similar situation in the future. You start to worry about feeling that bad again and this adds to your anxiety. You drink and your mind fires off your panic response again the next day. It’s one of the reasons why you need to change those patterns.

If you struggle with alcohol anxiety then you may also struggle with panic attacks at Christmas, where disrupted routine, poor sleep, emotional pressure and alcohol all combine into a perfect storm for anxiety.

 

The Emotional Side of Alcohol Anxiety

Alongside all of the physical symptoms of anxiety, you will experience the emotional side.

Emotional is often brings:

• Harsh self criticism
• Embarrassment, guilt or shame
• Obsessive replaying of conversations and events
• Fear of what other people think
• A sense of losing control
• Upset, tearfulness and low mood

The emotional hangover may be the bit that you find the most distressing. It can link closely with end of year overthinking and reflection anxiety, when the mind already feels busy, self critical and future focused.

There are some factors that can make you more prone to experience alcohol anxiety, if you:

• already struggle with anxiety or panic
• battle with social anxiety
• are sensitive to alcohol or stress
• have a tendency to overthink
• have sleep difficulties
• use alcohol to switch off emotionally

These factors can make you more sensitive to the rebound effect of alcohol.

 

Hypnotherapy for Alcohol Anxiety

I help many people with hypnotherapy for binge drinking and excessive drinking. What starts as something seemingly relaxing, enjoyable and social turns into a habit where alcohol calls the shots. You decide not to drink or to drink less, and in no time at all you are back drinking as much as ever.

Alcohol habits can be all about stress regulation, emotional relief, switching off your mind, boosting confidence and coping with overwhelm. A combination of emotions and habits will always defeat your good intentions and willpower. It can all feel like a losing battle with the beer and wine.

Hypnotherapy can help all of these things. You can interrupt and calm stressful and anxious thoughts and feelings. You can learn how to cope with challenges and make better decisions. There is also a ton of research for hypnotherapy to change habits, cravings and urges.

Through hypnotherapy you can feel calmer and lower anxiety. You change your relationship with alcohol and discover how to mange your thoughts and feelings without needing something external, like alcohol. You can learn how to mentally switch off and feel naturally more confident. And you develop positive habits that encourage and support you as you move forwards healthy and happily, feeling totally in control over your drinking.

All of this helps you to break the alcohol- anxiety loop and to feel more free.

If anxiety is one of your main struggles, hypnotherapy for anxiety in Ely and Newmarket can help you overcome anxiety so you feel calmer, more confident and more in control over what goes on inside your own head.

And if you can’t travel or have time difficulty then online hypnotherapy for anxiety allows you to access support from your own home.

 

Control Over Drinking Habits

Many people have had the experience of cutting out, or reducing, how much they drink for a while. It could be through Dry January or at another time. You start feeling so much better in yourself. You have more energy, feel more alert and enjoy things more. Yet those drinking habits still creep back in despite how good you feel off the alcohol.

As alcohol anxiety reduces, you notice things like better quality sleep, fewer panic sensations, a clearer mind, more positive outlook and improved confidence. It feels good to be in control over alcohol and over your life. You get less negative emotions and less anxiety.

Hypnotherapy helps you to take control over your drinking habits. In their place, you build, create and enjoy thinking,feeling, acting and reacting in more beneficial and constructive ways. As you build more and more positive momentum, you feel better and better. This could mean stopping alcohol altogether, or it could mean having one of two drinks now and again and then leaving it at that.

You don’t have to live anymore in a cycle of drink for relief then experience rebound anxiety and worry. And then it’s like groundhog day as you repeat and repeat the same old things and get the same old anxious results.

If alcohol is increasing your anxiety then hypnotherapy can help you to change that pattern. You get to feel calmer, more in control and more like yourself again.

Hypnotherapy for alcohol anxiety in Ely, Newmarket and Online means you don’t have to keep chasing a drink for temporary feelings with days of anxiety following afterwards. You can end alcohol anxiety, build a healthier relationship with alcohol, and take back control over your habitual thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

To your health and happiness,

Dan Regan

Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

 

Find out more about anxiety hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket: Anxiety Hypnotherapy

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