Published on 12, July, 2020
hi all. On my way to assessment (16 months and counting). One thing I’ve realised as I’ve reflected and made sense of the last 30/40 years (47yo) is my relationship with beer. I’ve always drank beer and often too much (no off switch) but I’ve now made sense of it. I promise I’m not making excuses for the beer drinking - but made sense to why I think I’ve always gone to it to help me.
as soon as I have the first drink I feel everything inside change. In essence it’s all about the noise/senses that start to calm down. And I’ve always drank in social occasions - and this takes the anxiety away that’s been building up all day.
I think what I wanted to ask is… is this familiar to anyone? And is there another option that a drink currently provides?
I can completely identify with where you're coming from with the feeling of everything 'calming down inside', for me its shutting up the never-ending monologue in my head and dulling the external stimuli. it's why I've used alcohol all of my adult life as a coping strategy but it is only within the past 6-8 months that I've realized this effect and that it is probably the reason I do drink. I also struggle with the 'off switch' but don't usually have more that 2 or 3.
I now try to keep drinking to friday and saturday nights because although it quietens everything inside the effect is quite short lived then I'm dealing with the everything going on inside and being a bit tipsy and it affects my sleep which is poor anyway.
I wish someone would invent something (legal) that does the same thing without the drunk-ness! I think I remember seeing something on TV about someone developing a drink which had something to do with GABBA and had a similar affect to alcohol, so who knows, maybe one day soon we will have a solution!
Yes - I wish there was an alternative too. I read something last year about oxytocin and there being some research into developing some form of that to help with anxiety and especially social anxiety. I suspect that in the future they’ll develop something that works and has less side effects and addiction than the drugs currently used to help relax people.
I think that alcohol is ok though - in moderation. I think that wine is a healthier option as apparently it’s better for the gut than spirits and beer. Apparently the state of the gut has a big impact on mental health - I read the other day that 90% of our serotonin is in our gut.