Anxiety disorder is one of the most complicated health problems known to doctors. The reason for this is because anxiety disorder is not a specific thing to every person. Anxiety disorder can be one set of symptoms in one person while completely different in another. When you add alcohol into the mix as is so often the case with anxiety disorders, the volatility and danger of anxiety disorder grows exponentially.So what are the added dangers of mixing anxiety disorder and alcohol?
Alcoholism
Certainly the danger of addiction to alcohol is higher in a person with anxiety disorder than in those that do not suffer from it. The reason for this is because of the insidious effects of the symptoms. Anxiety disorder is often very difficult to treat, and many suffer in silence. Because of this, many anxiety sufferers tend to attempt to self-medicate. This leads to frustration, and addictive options such as drugs or alcohol can look like easy relief. The truth is, alcohol actually makes anxiety disorder much worse in the long run. The temporary high one gets while drinking wears off quicker and quicker, and the symptoms of anxiety disorder usually return even stronger than before. This causes the sufferer to drink ever more alcohol in an attempt to maintain that “high” and leads to addiction.
Medication Reactions
Because alcohol relaxes the nervous system, it can have devastating effects when mixed with the medications commonly prescribed for anxiety disorder. This can lead to serious medical complications to include coma and even death. Mixing alcohol with any medication can be dangerous and anxiety disorder medications such as valium, xanax and the like are among the worst.
Panic Attack Nightmare
Alcohol is actually something that causes panic attacks. Oddly enough, panic attacks are near the top of the list of symptoms that occur with generalized anxiety disorder. When you drink alcohol, your central nervous system is depressed and it causes agitation and anxiety. This can easily escalate into a panic attack. Why drink alcohol if it is going to produce the very thing you are trying to suppress?
Alcohol and anxiety disorder are two things that should never be mixed. There is no situation in which it is beneficial to “have a drink or two” if you suffer from anxiety disorder or panic attacks. They are a bad combination and should be avoided at all costs.
