As I became more and more anxious I began to rely upon alcohol as a crutch to get me through certain situations.
It got to the point where anything slightly outside of my comfort zone was enough to turn me to a bottle of vodka.
The thing with alcohol is that the effects are short term and they soon wear off leaving you feeling much worse than you did when faced with the situation that gripped you with fear in the first place.
The knock on effect of that is that you open yourself up to a vicious circle and I would find myself making sure I had a bottle of vodka or a few cans of strong lager in the fridge before going to bed if I had taken a drink in case I had a bad panic attack due to the excessive alcohol when I awoke.
The lows were certainly outweighed by the highs of a night out as well as I wouldn’t want to leave the house the day after a good drink and would still feel somewhat anxious the day after that.
Since I started on the road to recovery I have not had another drop of alcohol and the fluctuations in my mood and levels of anxiety have notably reduced. I would definitely pin point the removal of alcohol from my life as one of the key factors in ridding myself of anxiety and panic attacks.
Again this isn’t necessarily going to be the case for everyone but you should look at your mental state in the periods immediately after consuming alcohol and if you feel particularly anxious, and perhaps even a little depressed, then surely leaving alcohol out of your diet for a period of time to monitor any improvements is a worthwhile exercise.
When anxiety is at its peak and you are in constant fear of panic attacks you will try anything to rid yourself of these awful feelings so even if you really enjoy alcohol and see it as a necessary release from the stress of modern life, as I once did, then surely it is worth trialling a dry period.
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