I am 30 years old and since I was 9 I have suffered from severe anxiety. The symptoms of my anxiety are as follows:
1. Fast heart rate/pulse – feeling like I am going to die of a heart attack.
2. Dizzy and Numb in hands and face.
3. Shaking and feeling like I have to move around but want to sit still.
4. Felt like I was a walking zombie at times.
5. Scared of EVERYTHING!!! Anything could trigger a panic attack.
6. If I wasn’t have a panic attack – I had anxiety that just lingered.
What I learned…I used Xanax and Alcohol to cope with a lot of my anxiety (I also took anti depressants for years). All these combined seemed to make it worse. Like I said I have had anxiety and depression since I was a child and later turned to drinking to feel worry "free".
I am now in recovery and do NOT take anything…I am happy to report that since I got sober (after rehab) and worked the 12 steps of a recovery based program I have not suffered from anxiety or panic attacks straight for 2 years.
When trying to figure out how to work on your anxiety you have to first ask yourself…could it be something else?
You see with our without a drinking I have the disease of addiction and would still get panic attacks even when I wasn’t drinking.. But doing steps in recovery program is the only thing that worked for me in fixing my anxiety problem.
Post if you have any questions 🙂
Ur like me but my anxiety is still here. It used to be quelled by drinking. I quit in 06 but still get attacks. Maybe I am still healing. Meds made it real bad. Alcohol used to help but then one day the hangover anxiety was more than I could bear. How did u do it? I need all the help I can get.
Hi Veritas144K,
I worked steps in a 12 step program (I will message you the program as to not break tradition) and help others in the program (as it was shown to me). I treated my anxiety like my Alcoholism. Clean House, Pray, & Help Others. I can say that my Anxiety was lifted not when I stopped drinking because Alcohol for a long time was my solution (BTW: The same thing happened to me that happened to you. I started having really bad anxiety & panic attacks when the booze would start to leave my system making them unbearable!!!). The Anxiety and Panic Attacks were lifted when I worked the steps and started taking other women through the steps that suffered from Alcoholism. There was definitely a power greater then myself that not only removed the obsession to drink but also removed the fear and worry and anxiety.