Give Up Alcohol And Cure Your Anxiety

Nearly seven months after giving up alcohol, I am practically free of panic and anxiety.

Over the seventeen years that I spent drinking alcohol I suffered miserably from what I thought was some kind of panic disorder.

I had huge trouble socializing while I was sober. Every day activities such as traveling on public transport, going shopping and being with other people just about terrified me.

For years I used alcohol to overcome these feelings. With the first few sips of alcohol came an immediate sense of relief  from the panic and anxiety that I was feeling, that seemed to be the only cure, even if it was only temporary.

Self medicating in this way was no easy feat. I had a life to live which meant that I had to plan my alcohol consumption around everything else going on in my life.

Life was a vicious cycle. Each morning I would awaken with the ever present feeling of dread, panic and anxiety. I would consume alcohol to help rid me of the panic and anxiety, then I could function and go about my daily business. As any drinker knows, the effects start to wear off after a period of time, so I would have to keep my alcohol levels topped up throughout the day to avoid a crash and feel the panic again.

There were times when the first few drinks to take the edge off felt so good and instead of just a few to make me feel better I would end up drinking way too much.

On mornings when I had a really bad hangover, the worse the panic and anxiety would be.

In hindsight, I have no idea how I kept up this lifestyle without having a complete breakdown.  It was terribly draining and made for a pretty miserable life overall.

Over the years I tried different anti-depressants but nothing really helped to rid me of the panic and anxiety. Nothing did it for me like drinking alcohol.

I am astounded by how much better I am now, just seven months sober. It is truly amazing. I can go anywhere, speak to anyone, look people in the eye, stand in line at the grocery store, walk into a crowded room, be with a bunch of strangers. I do not feel the panic and anxiety that I have experienced over the last seventeen years. The only medicine I am taking now is sobriety.

I can not say that I am 100% free of panic and anxiety. There are still some issues that I would like to work on but I have to say that the change is overwhelming. I feel like a different person.

I abused alcohol for such an extended period of time and I created the majority of my panic and anxiety. I always had an inkling that alcohol was not helping the issue but I had no idea that it was the cause.

I am happy to say that I wake up feeling the same way every morning. I am free from the debilitating panic and anxiety that I suffered from for all those years. The reason for this is purely because I have given up drinking alcohol.

For those of you who suffer from panic and anxiety, I came across a decent website that has a great deal of useful information as well as a program to overcome panic and anxiety. I have not tried this because giving up alcohol has been enough for me but it looks interesting.

www.stresscenter.com

Let me know your success stories and how alcohol has affected your panic and anxiety levels.

Thank you for visiting “Recovery Princess; Quit Drinking and Enjoy Sobriety”

Tags: Alcohol And Anxiety, Alcoholism And Anxiety, Cure Anxiety, Give Up Alcohol, Sober Living

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 5:38 am and is filed under Get Sober. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.