Alcohol and Anxiety

Every once in a while I drink a little tooooo much and suffer the consequences of a hangover. 

Ouch!

Read to the end for a habit hack to reduce use or quit drinking all together. 

Often times people with anxiety use alcohol, tv, and other drugs, to numb out the intensity of your feelings. THEN the next day the anxiety comes back even worse because you've changed your serotonin levels and left yourself depleted.

I used to feel so ashamed when I did this. I would never want you to know this about me.

I used to beat myself up, globalize doom and gloom thinking and tell myself that I will never drink again etc etc. 

Of course, that didn't work and I would still do what I do to relax. I have learned through loving myself to take such incredible care of my body.

Our behaviors are patterns of cues, unconscious action and reward. So when you want to make a significant change you have to work with the cues or the rewards. During the habitual behavior itself your brain activity literally drops! So here is that habit hack I promised you: I started to work with my hangover shame in addition to the drinking itself. 

1) Find a replacement behavior for the habit. I drink fizzy waters instead of wine. There are lots of great calorie free drinks that make great replacement drinks. 

2) Focus on changing one part of the entire pattern. If you zoom out the pattern might be larger than you were originally seeing. For me it was the hangover shame. I decided that when I got hungover I would treat myself really sweetly, love myself, talk to myself. 

As a result of shifting my shame I now drink a lot less often, drink less when I do drink, and if I do over do it and get a hangover I take good care of myself so I am not feeding into the larger pattern of stress. 

Let me know how you are shifting your patterns to live a healthier life!

​