One of the hardest battles with alcohol is letting your fear loose, feeling the loss of the alcohol, and learning that your strength is right there, in that feeling that is hidden beneath the pain, the sorrow, the anger, the shame, the guilt.

With anxiety and alcohol, changing the thought pattern is a single word, single movement piece of the pie.

Being in patient helps with the symptoms, however, it is temporary, and it's hard to take the step outside. It is.

Please know you are not alone, and that each step you take will help, one way or another.

There were about 4 years in my twenties and early thirties when I needed to use alcohol to calm down. Not sure what program you are in but my husband did AA and it saved his life. He is now one of the most wise people I have ever met in my life and he still quotes so many things from AA all these years later so please get a sponsor and see if it will work for you too. I will keep you in my prayers!!

Sorry to hear this. Have you tried telling your doctor and see what they suggest? If you have a family that cares you have a reason to do it. Many of us have no one. Good luck

Alcohol causes anxiety attacks.

I'm going to steal an allan carr example, because it's so perfect.

Imagine you've got a pimple and so you buy this pimple cream and put it on, and it makes the pimple disappear. But next day, the pimple is back, bigger. So you put more cream on, and it disappears.
But next morning, it's back, even bigger. And so you go on, buying this cream, putting it on, and the pimple goes away every time; but every next day it's back bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

What would you do? Would you keep on with the cream? or would you decide to live with the giant pimple for a little while, for it to go through the unattractive process of having this giant pimple pop and heal slowly - but permanently?

This is your choice. Alcohol creates the short-term temporary cure from anxiety and depression. But it creates them tenfold while you dry out.

If you let yourself dry out fully and don't take any drink the anxiety and depression will cure. And then you will be normal again. You will feel normal the way you only feel normal now, when you have a drink.

I agree with bridgie101 100%, I self medicated for about 13 years before I decided to dry out ( wanted and needed better for myself) and my anxiety went haywire I am dealing with it now with medication and therapy its hard but I know I will come out better in the end. Alcohol is not the way to go its a lie in liquid form and all the help you think you are getting from it in reality is only harming. and You can do it, there is power in the tongue speak it in to existence even when you feel opposite. Hang in there

I just wanted to respond to Bridgie's comment -- I actually notice even now that when I have a beer (super rare due to breastfeeding but when I can get the timing right) I feel AMAZING and then about 2 hours later my anxiety returns way worse than it was even before!! I definitely notice rebound anxiety. I never noticed it when I was a heavier drinker, but now I really see the correlation.

The first step is the hardest. As everyone mentions, accepting help through AA is one long-term method to help you manage the process with known tools that effectively help you.

Best wishes!

I just want to say that I have used alcohol to control my anxiety as well. Thankfully, I can control myself to not drink in excess. I haven't had any alcohol in probably 3 weeks, and no more than 2 beers in one night for at least half a year. I have been worried that I might become alcoholic with my depression. I don't plan on ever getting drunk unless I am in very good company who can catch me if I get down afterwards. Alcohol just isn't worth it for the most part because of the reasons stated by others in this thread.

i stopped drinking three years ago after being an alcoholic for twenty and have found that my anxiety decreased dramatically when i was no longer worried about whatever drunk out of control thing i might do.

I'm a recovering alcoholic sober 23 years. I still go to 1 AA meeting a week. AA may not be for everyone, but give it a shot; as has been previously stated, it is a life saver for many of us!! Even though I've been sober a long time, I still struggle with anxiety at times. Hang in there, my friend; stay grateful and hopeful!!

I drink alcohol sometimes too, usually in social situations when everyone else is drinking alcohol, talking excessively loudly, and I'm trying to calm myself from being overstimulated, irritated is a better word. I drink to better merely tolerate others' presence.

I'm learning to more effectively express myself emotionally. Usually there's an anger or passion under the anxiety that is better expressed than bottled up.

Are you more anxious around others or by yourself? If with others, if you can articulate exactly what another person is saying or doing, how their thought process and the delivery of that thought process works, that annoys you or otherwise makes you feel anxious, your verbal expression doesn't have to come out as anger, but as careful, thoughtful, contemplative analysis. If you're more anxious alone, there are other ways to quell this anxiety, these racing thoughts, like vigorous physical exercise, which pumps positive endorphins into the brain, and, quite frankly, exhausts us, so that we couldn't feel anxious if we tried.