Anyone abuse alcohol with Social phobia

I thought i'd found my cure for social phobia - it turned into a massive problem and i ended up drinking 24/7 to hide my nerves - hence i was pretty incapable of functioning on any level

Now i've given up completely but am left with this terrible SA, i'm much older now and people seemed to be less forgiving of an older person with severe nerves - it's mortifying, and i'm pretty much housebound - i wish they'd develop some super dooper non addictive non side effect drug to conquer this.....it's ruining my life

its kinda weird, cuz this is what i was gonna ask everyone in this forum just this moment. I know EXACTLY what u mean about alcohol and SA. I have a year now, that i just forgot about therapy,medications,and all that bull, i just live with it now and i just drink and drink, cuz at least i now that the beer is not gona let me down and it will at least get me thru any situation without having any anxiety, at least for me it works, everywhere i go, i gotta go with a couple of beers in me, if not, then i wont go, or if i now that i gotta go somewhere, i get prepared with some beers and drink them, and i get a little buzz, and gets me thru any situation, i dont really care no more about life, i figure the older i get the more anxiety im gonna have, and if i become an alcoholic, i dont really care cuz thats all i have in life, im just 19 years old, and i drink like a fucken maniac, like somebody older that drinks alot, but ohh well, i love it cuz it gets me relaxed, and i feel good, so i know exactly what u mean

LA323 said:

its kinda weird, cuz this is what i was gonna ask everyone in this forum just this moment. I know EXACTLY what u mean about alcohol and SA. I have a year now, that i just forgot about therapy,medications,and all that bull, i just live with it now and i just drink and drink, cuz at least i now that the beer is not gona let me down and it will at least get me thru any situation without having any anxiety, at least for me it works, everywhere i go, i gotta go with a couple of beers in me, if not, then i wont go, or if i now that i gotta go somewhere, i get prepared with some beers and drink them, and i get a little buzz, and gets me thru any situation, i dont really care no more about life, i figure the older i get the more anxiety im gonna have, and if i become an alcoholic, i dont really care cuz thats all i have in life, im just 19 years old, and i drink like a fucken maniac, like somebody older that drinks alot, but ohh well, i love it cuz it gets me relaxed, and i feel good, so i know exactly what u mean

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I tried getting drunk last sunday for the first time in my life, It was a very new thing to me. I never had anxiety and was like another person. but after the effect of beer got out, It sucks I had manic depression and was dizzy and anxious :?
however I can't prevent my self from trying it again and again because It looks a great thing to get ride of all social phobia feelings even for few hours

oh my god!! how great is this forum...really.

sad sad thing happened to me last week.
I was at work and feeling sad about who i was and felt ashamed to be living..especially with soical phobia./

so what did i do...i did something really stupid.. I drove over to the local alcohol store, bought a huge bottle of absolut citrus flavored vodka (silver bottle)..drank half of it and ended up vomiting in the office bathroom for the rest of the day. Due to that incident, I won't touch vodka anymore. It makes me feel sick to smell it..especially cuz i was vomitting it up for 3 hrs.

no one in my office knew where i was..it's not like i was surrounded by people when i did it either!
The good that can possibly come out of something like that is the trip to the alcohol store. At least then you have contact with people.

but yeah, alcohol is not recommended when you are with sa. it will make it worse and can lead to paranoia (according to my shrink) in the end.
Please share your stories with me here..
http://www.lonelyclubber.com/index.html
I am anxious to here if there are those out there who don't like to mingle with people, but have a deep urge inside to be with others and feel like they need to get drunk or take drugs to do so.. :roll:

ps. jss..are you into dance music? have you ever been to the new mos club in egypt?

^^ yep, anythin more than half a glass of vodka means you'll probably be spendin the rest of the day by the toilet puking ur guts out! vodka is nasty but i still drink it for effect

i drink every single morning b4 school till i'm pissed out of my head! the buzz is just great and i actually feel like ME for once. i even got ppl talkin to me more - maybe cos they could see i was on a high and wasnt lookin anxious or down like i normally did w/o the alcohol

i too know it will just add to my problem of SA but i'm so desperate i dont even care right now. anyway im probably only drink for 2 more months till i leave school for college so hopefully i can start fresh - meet sum new ppl and have a good time - without alcohol!

Social phobia and alcoholism: a complex relationship.

Lepine JP, Pelissolo A.

Hopital Fernand Widal, Paris, France.

The relationship between social phobia and alcoholism is complex. Alcohol problems typically develop secondary to social phobia, with patients reporting that they find alcohol helpful in coping with the symptoms of anxiety. However, excessive alcohol consumption may actually precipitate anxiety symptoms, and thus a vicious circle of anxiety and alcoholism is established. The clinician must consider the possibility of comorbidity in patients presenting with either alcoholism or social phobia. Only when both components of the condition are adequately assessed and treated can the cycle of social phobia and alcohol abuse be broken.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9851575&dopt=Citation

sorry worrydolls i sort of stole your way of posting information because i think its quite useful even though its also geeky. sorry im not calling you geeky. its a compliment.

good luck mariah!

..college...oh college...

i hate to say it but when you get to college the temptation to drink is everywhere. in fact, it's where most people begin their drinking. I was a good girl..in that I stayed away from drugs and alcohol all throughout highschool...then college smacked me in the face and i fell on my ass!
alcohol was everywhere! it was the answer to everything!

a reward after studying
a great dorm room party starter
great during card games
frat parties

..please let me k now hoe you manage when you get to college!
god knows it wasn't easy for me..and i was on meds at the time too!

well done for giving up though, weighing up the possitives of alcohol isnt easy compared to the damage it can do.
All it is is a false hope.... not reality.

I know what its like to give up, ive tired...and still trying. ive been on a young persons subtance misuse course for about 2 months now.its made me come to terms with the fact im a alcoholic, Its very draining!
i wish you luck with everything, your alot better off even though it may not seem like at at the moment.

I've never drank in my life. I don't have any friends because of my SAD so I don't get peer pressured into drinking. same with drugs.

I sometimes wonder if psychologists are saying no to alcohol since they would be out of jobs if everyone simply used it

I used to use or overuse alcohol to help me cope with social events. No, it's not a solution

I did drink some alcohol as a teenager. But then I thought that it's too risky, since when I feel lonely, I might drink it at home too. And alcohol addiction destroys ones life very quickly. So I decided in my early 20s to never drink alcohol, at all.

That works for me since a decade, no problems there.

I use to use it like that, like when I go on first dates etc. Now I just binge drink to kill my boredom and lonliness as I dont have anywhere to go anymore. I have terrible self control as well so lately I'll drink 1 litre of spirits to myself and then wake up in the morning and spew. Ive also started chain smoking when I drink now. I am a certified mess atm.

No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to become an alcoholic :sad:

Joking. Addiction runs in the family, so maybe it's a reason for me to be very careful. But I've never even feared that I was becoming dependent on it. Some weeks I'll drink 2-4 nights (not necessarily in a row), and sometimes I don't drink at all one week. I rarely get drunk. When I do, it's unintentional. I've used one other substance as well, and that was never an issue either. I can take them or leave them. I don't use alcohol to cope with social events because I'd be afraid of people smelling it on me (unless it's a party or something, but then just about everyone there is using it as "social lubrication"). I get mean hangovers as well, so that is ample motivation to set the limit on 2-3 drinks in one session.

Tl;dr -> no, I think I have a very healthy relationship with alcohol.

Edit: although, I have to admit I did entertain the idea of having one drink before work for a while because this job was just that awful. But I realized that not only would they smell it on me, it would wear off in an hour anyway and then I'd feel crappy and gross, so I never did it.

Yeah, alcohol is a great short-term bandage, but it leads you on a cycle of depression, anxiety and general ill-health, so then you feel that you have to drink more to 'snap out of it'.

Use it in moderation and it's fine - use it to mask your anxiety and it's not.

I used to drink alcohol all of the time--but in the long-term it actually increases anxiety.

Alcohol is probably the worst way to cope with any sort of problem (Except open wounds).

There's also a few SA medications that interact badly with it.

I used to enjoy having a good buzz going for the whole weekend but I have other priorities now. I used to get the cheap half gallons of vodka in the plastic jug with the handle on the side and go through two of those a week. I'd get to work and fill my thermos up with vodka and then re fill the thing at lunch time. Some weeks I'd have moonshine instead of vodka, that was way better. I still keep a bottle of Jim Beam under the seat of my vehicle just in case it's needed (or wanted). None of that helped anything that I could tell, it just made interacting with co workers easier. It puts a whole new outlook on the day. But I don't do this anymore.

I think anyone with any sort of mental problem should stay away from drugs of any kind as much as possible.