Social Anxiety Support Forum banner

Anyone find alcohol makes you feel better?

84K views 87 replies 83 participants last post by  SpiderInTheCorner 
#1 ·
Anyone find that you feel loads better after having alcohol? Like after a few drinks all your anxiety and worries slip away, and you are able to do things socially you never would be able to do normally? Like at a party recently I got drunk and i was able to carry on a conversation with a girl and even hooked up. Normally i'd be so anxious and timid i'd barely be able to utter anything and just pretend i'm busy doing something else. I'm not saying that you should become an alcoholic, but it raises the interesting question if we do have something interesting to say but its just the fact we're so damn nervous all the time and worried about what people think that makes our mind go blank and what we say to come out as weird.
 
#34 ·
Alcohol hmm....

Well it depends on the environment and who Im around. If I'm with my party friends, when I drink I find myself to be more social and brave to talk to others but when I'm with people like me, who are withdrawn and shy and nervous and all, then I'm even more cautious if that makes sense.... :um oh and it also depends on what I am drinking too
 
#35 ·
Yes, alcohol helps me relax and able to carry out conversations. I am able to open up and tell something about myself, which in turn help others relax too. When Im sober, some people can sense my anxiety when I'm talking to them and they get anxious too, creating a lot of silent gaps during conversations.
 
#36 ·
A good number of alcoholics are using it to mask social anxiety, or any kind of anxiety. That is the problem - we don't get to the issue underneath. Whether we like it or not, if we want to get a handle on our anxiety, we have to learn the skills in working through how to manage it.
 
#37 ·
drinking is really the only thing that helps me to feel better.. alcohol is the solo that can make me think I'm almost normal or content. there's some alcoholism on my dad's side of the family so I need to be extra careful. I've blacked out many times and went through periods where I felt the anxiety and doom was so severe that I had to drink in order to socialize. I wrote a poem about it one day lol, had a job interview the next day and was ok.. I wrote another poem about trying not to become an alcoholic a couple years ago.
I think that drinking is sort of like cheating at life.. sadly, it's what most of my peers do.. I want to do it too, but I want to be comfortable without it.. And I get horrendous hangovers, wherein I usually feel a lot more anxious and pitiful than usual. hmm so I guess I just wanted to say that alcohol helps me to feel better but it's a sketchy thing
 
#39 ·
I do not have a problem with being social. I have an anxiety problem. If I am in a panicky state, alcohol makes it much worse, and a drunk panic attack turns almost into psychosis. So IF I do drink, I make sure I'm in a normal state of mind and not self-medicating.

Be careful if you are mixing alcohol with either Antidepressants or Benzodiazepines. I'm sure you know that can be a deadly cocktail.

Kaley
 
#40 ·
Yeah, that's pretty much how I function in society. I can't hang out with anyone unless it's to drink. I become comfortable but I wish it made me happy. Someone mentioned that they get this euphoria feeling but that just isn't me. I'm jealous, I really am. If I get euphoric it's because I drank WAY too much and I'm not gonna remember it anyway. If only I could be on painkillers 24/7. Now THAT's some euphoria.
 
#41 ·
Yes definitely, and i would love to always remain in my tipsy/drunk state forever, i'm a fun person when i've only drank a few cans.

However, like everything fun in life, it comes to an abrupt end the next day, and reality hits. This is the hardest thing for me imo, as i get depressed after the fun, so that is the only thing that stops me from consuming alcohol regularly
 
#43 ·
I don't recommend alcohol for SA. I drank a 12 pack almost every day after work and more on weekends, for about 20 years. The panic attacks got so bad I had to stop drinking. Now I have PAWS (post acute withdrawals). Look it up, it is awful. Confusion, dizzy, memory problems etc. PAWS makes SA many times worse. I am sober 77 days now and I still feel hung-over every day. Although I can say every day seems a little better. I don't know the answer for SA but I wish I never picked up a bottle. Also read "Am I hearing things" in 30+ forum. That's what happens when you drink too much. Good luck.
 
#46 ·
I try to be cheerful and fun-loving on my own, but having a buzz makes me act very jovial I've noticed, though it might depend on who I'm with. I do not like to get drunk though because I don't want to start bawling about things from the past like I did last time. That was embarrassing and I couldn't make it stop.
 
#52 ·
Alcohol reduces my social anxiety significantly. Of course, we should try to avoid consuming alcohol often, because alcohol screws up your liver and other organs if you're addicted. In my view, consuming alcohol in only extremely few occassions can't hurt.
I am going to separate the health issue with the anxiety issue, however. Alcohol is great for my anxiety. I give less of a damn and talk more.
 
#53 ·
ive been fully functional while drinking, like you said, talked to girl i thought to be 'way out my league', and started dating! but then as soon as they realize im not always like that, the relationship quickly dries up.

but on the other hand, me personally, alcohol is a coin flip, sometimes i get the social affect, others (esp, when in a bar or club with loud music, maybe when i cant hold the conversation) i seem to get overly defensive, maybe even aggressive.

it all subjective really, at the end of the day. it depends on your personal situation, and how you think about yourself.

for me, it all depends on the circumstance. there's nothing wrong with drinking socially, at all, it helps if anything (as you said) as long as your not in a situation where, provokes the negative side of it.

and @agape, (just read your comment after writing this) i think your probably right. at least in my experience at least.

but then again ive never been diagnosed, but i have a history that has seemed to complicate things.
 
#55 ·
Yeah, until you develop alcohol addiction. It used to take away my anxiety for a few hours and then for days my anxiety would be through the roof. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Trust me, social anxiety disorder makes life hard enough without adding alcohol addiction to it as well.
 
#57 ·
Drinking never makes my anxiety worse but it can make my depression worse. It turns you into an overly sentimental idiotic mess and you might say things you'll later regret.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top