Many times sufferers of anxiety seek the "treatment" from alcohol as a temporary solution to anxiety. This is unwise and the worst solution to a usual problem that a person can seek. Many people believe, correctly so, that minor stress, not like anxiety disorder, can be lived without medical treatment.



These days, more and more, we have to deal with all sorts of stress and we have to cope with it in our everyday life as well as we can. Luckily this can be learned over the years. For many anxiety sufferers living with this stress can be more difficult than it seems so they look for a temporary fix. Few classes of Tequila, bottle or two of nice wine, cold beer...these are all cheap and fun ways to make everyday stress seem to be little less overbearing and for a while it seems to ease the pain as well.

Some feelings of anxiety can be taken away with alcohol, but at the same time one must remember that alcohol is addictive and can have dangerous side effects physically, especially if a person becomes drunk often. Some studies show that when consuming alcohol there can be very nasty side effects like irregular heartbeat and lowering blood sugar levels which in turn might increase anxiety symptoms.

Worse yet, a person who self-treats their anxiety with alcohol will start to become dependent on this form of pseudo-medication. If you buy alcohol to temporarily escape your anxiety, then you are basically buying a prescription-a large dosage prescription without doctor authorization that could prove harmful.

There's also another problem when a person suffering from anxiety starts getting relief from alcohol or any addictive, temporary forms of substances, like self-cutting, smoking or OTC pain relievers, they are not treating the problem of anxiety itself. The main reason to use these quick fixes is to escape the real cause of anxiety and they even risk their health doing it. The same can be said to certain extent when anxiety is treated with prescription medication like Valium or Xanax.

Many psychotherapists (according to the father of psychotherapy Sigmund Freud) believe that we maintain anxiety in our lives because of previous trauma. Therefore, whenever we observe something in the present that reminds us of past traumas, anxious feelings continue to arise.

Avoiding the anxiety by depressing or stimulating the mind with drugs, alcohol or other forms of addictive behavior teaches us only how to deaden the pain, not to confront and resolve the source of anxiety.

One can say that the current raise of alcohol drinking for pleasure is actually a hidden addiction and many times anxiety can be the real reason for even pleasure drinking.

Only in the case of alcoholics is the addiction ever made manifest; in the case of people who drink enough to escape the pain but never get totally drunk, the truth of the matter may not be realized for years to come.

If you believe you may suffer from anxiety and an alcohol addiction to boot, test yourself and see how many days you can go without drinking.

If you start to go through withdrawals, or find the anxiety increasing to an abnormal level, then you may need to seek help in overcoming the addiction and treating the anxiety disorder, not avoiding it.