Are You Using Alcohol To Cope With Anxiety?

Has alcohol become the way you try to cope with your anxiety? What may have started out as a way to try and relax or to numb the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings can soon start to create more and more problems in your life.

It’s definitely not uncommon with people I work with, and in the wider community, for alcohol to be used as a way of trying to switch off from thinking and to try and quieten your mind for a bit. Many people have a drink or two in the evening just for this purpose. Having used this external means to change how they feel for so long, without that drink, all the stress, anxiety and overthinking can soon take over.

Alcohol can have this sort of calming effect but it can come at a cost. The quality of your sleep can diminish making it harder to deal with things the next day. Those empty calories can also have an impact on your health and your waist line. And, of course, that crutch to reply on means you never find effective ways to be able to manage your own thoughts and feelings successfully.

As happens with most substances, that need for a drink can creep up and up. To try and get the same effect of switching off from anxious thoughts and feelings you can find yourself consuming more alcohol. You can find that you reach for that drink to cope with any other difficult feelings too, such as any feelings of lowness and stress. Sometimes, even after your anxiety has calmed, the drinking habit persists. You know it’s a depressant, you know that it can exacerbate anxiety and you know it doesn’t help solve any problems yet that pattern still happens whether you want it to or not. And still you may not have found the healthier and more beneficial coping strategies that you need when you don’t or can’t drink for some reason.

Back when I struggled with anxiety and low self-esteem, alcohol would be my way of seeking to calm down the anxiety so I could try and relax and enjoy myself socially.

Using Alcohol To Calm Anxiety

Back when I used to struggle with social anxiety, I would always get nervous before social occasions, even if I was going to be spending time with people I worked with all day, every day. I would worry about everything beforehand, from what to wear to what time to turn up. I would doubt myself and overthink every little detail. I lived in dread of somehow messing up or making an idiot of myself in some way because of something I might say or do. Luckily, most of the events were going out and alcohol based. And somehow that first drink upon arrival seemed like the most important first thing I needed to do before I could even think about joining in.

A couple of drinks would ease my sweating and bodily tension and allow me to relax for a while, engage with others and enjoy myself. There would then be that ‘sweet’ period where I felt alive and free. Those moments where. because I was calmer I could relax and be the person I felt I really was deep beneath all my anxiety. That positive effect wouldn’t last too long because the dehydrating, bloated, depressing and tiring impact of the alcohol would kick in.

And then, the next day, the anxious overthinking would kick back in. I would feel physically worse for wear from the alcohol and also mentally anxious. I would worry about what I’d said and done and what others may have thought. I would distort these things more and more negatively inside my own head. The alcohol didn’t help me to deal with anything, it just gave some respite before it hit harder. I’m so much happier these days without needing alcohol to be confident and happy (not that I don’t drink at all, just that I usually choose not to bother with it).

For a lot of people, their drinking starts as a way of handling anxiety. You struggle with those anxious thoughts and feelings and find that the thought of a drink can seem to offer the hope of some release. Maybe having a drink helps numb your anxiety for a bit yet then the anxiety can come back with renewed force. The alcohol makes you feel lower, your sleep is less refreshing and you find it even harder to deal with your own thoughts and feelings. The urge to have a drink can then easily kick back in.

Alcohol may mask the anxiety sometimes, yet the anxiety remains in place and just as problematic. And the pattern of using alcohol to change how you feel can become a problem in it’s own right. You may binge drink, drink to excess or even secret drink. You can end up with both unhelpful anxiety and alcohol related problems and issues. And if you drink to excess, it can lead to arguments, saying things you don’t mean and work performance and relationship issues.

If you are struggling right now with anxiety and/or alcohol issues then it is very possible to change those unhelpful patterns to thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are more helpful and that benefit your life.  By understanding what is going on psychologically that keeps the same things happening in the same way, you can learn how to interrupt those things and to bring in more helpful habits and patterns. You can take back control over your anxiety so that you feel calm, confident and in control, feeling equipped to handle whatever challenges may come your way. Reducing your anxiety will weaken the underlying driver of your drinking so that you no longer need it as your coping strategy. And you can very much interrupt and change those drinking habits themselves too.

To your health and happiness, 

Dan Regan

Award Winning Hypnotherapy for Anxiety Ely & Newmarket

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