Can alcohol increase anxiety attacks?
Ah, booze – the ubiquitous social lubricant that helps us dance like no one’s watching and sing like we’re recording a multi-platinum album. However, as much fun as Alcohol can be, it can also serve anxiety on a silver platter! As someone who has personally battled with Anxiety, I can attest to the fact that Alcohol does exacerbate your anxious thoughts when you least expect them.
What is anxiety?
Well for starters, Anxiety is fear or apprehension about what’s to come in our lives; an excessive worry may become challenging to manage if it starts interfering with our daily activities. Some common symptoms of Anxiety are constant worry over unknown reasons and things which might not even be true. Leading up to physical signs such as rapid heartbeat or sweating profusely etc
The Effect of Alcohol on Anxiety Attacks
Now that we know what Anxiety is let’s dive deep into how alcohol impacts anxiety levels.
How do Different Alcoholic Beverages Affect Your Brain?
Firstly different alcoholic drinks have varying effects upon your brain because they contain different amounts of Ethanol (alcohol). Liquors usually have higher ethanol content per standard serving making their effect on lowering inhibition much stronger than beers or wines thence leading more towards getting horribly intoxicated (also known as getting ‘wasted’). This intoxication leads itself directly to increased Anxious mood swings.
What Happens Inside Your Body When You Drink?
Alcohol activates channels within our nerve cell membranes leading them towards neurotransmitter targets selectively inside the central nervous system by increasing activity related feelings (muchlike opioids) such as euphoria-increased confidence/apathy thus leading people into consuming much more liquor!
Since drinking lowers inhibitions those voices pop up louder in your head driving rampant at full speed brimming forth your worst fears affecting mental well-being creating vicious cycle spiraling downwards instead f having fun with your friends.
Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms
To make matters worse, when you consume excessive amounts of Alcohol, and if you tend to be doing it frequently for long durations, the concept of withdrawal occurs. This event causes an increase in Anxiety levels because basically alcohol gives our brains a lot of pleasure by increasing production related Gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) which works as an inhibitor in brain cells leading to anxiety relief much like benzodiazepines but once those fun times are over BAM! Depression-Heart Racing-More Anxiety attacks come pouring down like a rabid waterfall without any barricades.
How To Determine If Alcoholic Consumption Is Causing Your Anxiety?
So how do we determine that Alcohol is causing this rampant episode? Well the answer lies within yourself – Are there any sudden Mood Swings towards being petrified or worried after consuming Alcohol compared to other times when not drinking? These fluctuations can help one decide if their Anxious behavior is triggered due to excessive consumption of alcohol.
Another way would be keeping exact meticulous notes about the timeline regarding your alcoholic indulgence relative to your mood swings. Happy Hours/Tailgate parties more like Harrasser attacks on mental stability making you question life’s great mysteries.
Can Quitting Drinking Help Control Your Level Of Anxiety?
We should always remember that everything in moderation is good for us; however, life doesn’t always stick by that rule. Thus quitting drinking altogether helps immensely with controlling erratic unruly mood swings/removing elements outta lives triggering problematic triggers/anxiety-related issues lurking dormant inside us until further provoked by something ridiculously smallmaking it difficult at first.
Here’s some bullet points explaining why quitting drinking would be essential:
- Helps mitigate potential situational anxieties.
- Keeping Hormonal balances intact reducing cortisol secretion
- Better decisions made as sober!
Conclusion
In conclusion, I’d love-to-love-to-love(not really) to tell you that drinking doesn’t affect anxiety levels what-so-ever. Afterall a good merry time drinking with our closest friends makes life just slightly better right? While it may be partially true, excessive alcohol consumption does lead to an increase in anxiety attacks and overall, detrimental well-being of one’s mental health! So make sure the next time you’re at the pub or wine-tasting party, Monitor yourself – Cheerio mate!