In dealing with panic attacks, I try to rely on my Xanax as little as possible. It occurred to me that I’ve never had a full-blown panic attack while having a glass (or three) of wine or a cocktail. People who are sluggish in the morning routinely drink cup after cup of coffee to “wake up,” get energized or whatever. Why would it be wrong for someone with Generalized Anxiety Disorder or something similar to have ONE alcoholic drink in the morning? Not going to do this or anything; however, given the choice, Xanax would have a much greater negative affect on my driving and cognitive abilities than one drink, that’s for sure (in fact, it says on the bottle that one should not drive after taking a Xanax.) Hmmm, it IS a holiday weekend. Maybe an experiment is in order. Anyway, not looking for the legalities of the situation or opinions on alcoholic tendencies…just curious.
I like a good drink as much as the next guy but I think I’d be very hesitant to ever have a drink to fix a medical or psychiatric problem, I fear the path that leads one down.
There have been times when I’ve been on camping or fishing trips where I’ve cracked open a beer before noon, though, because I was going to be sitting by a lake all day anyway so no reason not to have a few cold ones when the sun comes up. I don’t buy into the stupid concept that if you have any alcohol go into your body before noon you’ve got a problem.
That being said, if you feel like “man I can’t wait until it is noon so I can have my first drink” then that’s a bit worrying. But if you’re in a situation where it’s like “hey it’d be nice to have a drink right now” and it happens to be morning, no problem. But if you’re doing it because it makes you less depressed or helps with anxiety, I’d be wary of it.
Well, personally I think people should drink alcohol because they like the taste and it goes with a meal they’re having. A nice glass of wine with dinner, a beer with BBQ on a hot day or a pre-dinner caesar is lovely.
Drinking because ‘I need it to get through the day’ is, uh, different.
God no.
I dealt with panic attacks in my mid 20’s for myself drinking made it worse. Not to mention your setting yourself up for other problems down the road. Next thing you’ll be doing is needing a drink at lunch time, eventually mid morning, late afternoon etc.
What helped me back then was to go for a jog in the morning come back shower eat a good breakfast with little coffee.
For your anxiety attacks do you have anticipatory anxiety thoughts ? Do you in the morning think to yourself over and over again oh geez I’m going to get in the car her come the anxiety attacks ?
If so you have to try and stop that and when you do get in the car and feel an attack coming on, just ride through it . Reassuring yourself it’s no big deal the attack will pass. Eventually they will stop.
What **Martin Hyde **said.
You’re right that Xanax is worse for your driving than alcohol. That doesn’t make alcohol a safe alternative.
The hazard with either drug is that you control the dose. If one doesn’t get me through the day, I’ll try two. etc. With Xanax at least the cost & the need for a prescription acts as a brake on the self-destructive spiral. With booze it’s very easy and cheap to go buy more.
My bottom line is that viewed in isolation, it’s *not *a bad thing to do once. It *absolutely **is *a bad thing to do more than a few times.
But considering the big picture, there’s never a reason to try a remedy that you know you can only use once or twice. If it doesn’t work, it didn’t solve your problem . If it does work, you can’t use it again (much). So your problem still isn’t solved for the long term.
I don’t think anything is wrong with a drink in the morning in isolation. The myth that having alcohol in your system before noon–people who buy into that have the same blood in their veins as old church ladies who believe in strict enforcement of Blue Laws.
But using it as self-medication is a dangerous thing, morning or not. IANAD, but I do suffer from depression myself and I have been down that road where I “just needed” vodka or gin to get me going in the morning. One drink turned into two, then two into three or four–it may not necessarily happen that way for you but it may be better to look into other ways to build coping skills. Besides, alcohol is a depressant. You may find that after a period of time, instead of serving as a tonic the booze just makes you feel even more anxious.
Hazle–have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy?
The anti-anxiety effects of alcohol also don’t last very long. If your anxiety is so bad it’s hard to leave the house at eight in the morning, well, it’s going to be back at 11, and then again at three.
I had a friend who had frequent panic attacks, and once got some very bad advice to “just have a drink and it will go away.” She did have a drink, and it did make her panic attack subside, but fast forward a few years and she’s “self-medicating” to the tune of a fifth of [insert any type of liquor here] every day.
I’m not saying this is necessarily going to happen, in fact it’s pretty much a worst-possible-case scenario, but the lesson remains as others have already stated, not a road you want to start down.
As has already been aptly noted, alcohol isn’t a great anti-anxiety drug. It is short acting, and the rebound anxiety after the alcohol wears off tends to be worse than the initial anxiety. That can lead to rapid increases in dosage amount and frequency, and also rapid physical dependence, with life-threatening withdrawal symptoms when the alcohol is stopped.
Drinking the the morning isn’t always bad.
Drinking alcohol to self-medicate a significant disorder is almost always bad.
Rule of thumb: If you think that alcohol is the solution, then you’ve got a bigger problem than you realize.
Ah yes! The ‘Eye-Opener’
Are you on the 24hr release xanax? Doc’s got me on this stuff and it works great for me. I take one before bed and wake up in a very mellow mood, loving life.
Like you, I take them sparingly. I only take them on work days. Which is three to four days for me since I work a compressed work shift.
I was in the same position as the OP a few years ago. I had crippling anxiety and the only thing that made me feel normal was alcohol.
As a temporary solution, while you’re waiting for an appointment with a therapist, I say alcohol is ok. Two or three weeks of drinking one glass a day won’t hurt you.
What you have to worry about is building a tolerance for alcohol. One glass a day won’t work forever. If you do this for about a year, you’ll need much more than one glass to get through the day. You do not want to find yourself in that position.
I used alcohol for about a month or two, and then I stopped because I started going to law school. A few months later I started cognitive behavioral therapy and now I’m in much better shape.
I would use alcohol as a temporary solution only. Don’t think you can rely on it forever. While you’re drinking, I would start working on a long term solution to your problem.
As someone who has dealt with panic attacks, even Xanax will build up a tolerance, and you’ll need more and more. Antidepressants are surprisingly effective at ending anxiety. Paxil is a good one, but if you want the older ones like Imipramine are just as effective, though they have a few annoying side effects (like constipation and dry mouth).
Xanax and Valium and the like will get you through the period till the antidepressants take effect.
And don’t be fooled by the name, people think antidepressants are uppers, which they are not. People think if you’re depressed you’re “down” so you need an upper. But that isn’t what an antidepressant is and it’s not how they work.
I can’t really handle caffeine. Not at all, in fact. But I like to have something in the morning, sitting on the balcony, while my husband has coffee. I crack a breakfast beer four, maybe five mornings out of seven. It’s one beer, and it’s mostly the carbonation I like. I find it relaxing. Then I hop in the shower and head to work. I take the subway to work, so it’s not like I have to drive. I never drink more than one on work mornings. But I’m starting to wonder if this is ok behaviour? Mostly because I know no one else who does it.
I find alcohol extremely effective in dealing with narcolepsy-style exhaustion and it probably would help if I had a drink in the morning. But the downsides would be worse - encouraging dependancy, not being able to do certain tasks (I don’t drive, but if I did then I wouldn’t be able to), having alcohol in my blood making me look bad if something terrible were to happen, probably more that I haven’t thought of because I’ve never seriously considered this as an option.
And that’s if you were able to stop at ONE drink.
The answer to the subject line of the OP, without any context, is “Not a goddamn thing.” Then I read the OP and thought, “You really shouldn’t rely on the sauce in order to start your day out well.” Then I thought about it some more and wondered what the BFD, exactly, was. There might be some concern about health and/or dependency problems, but if we are honestly only talking about a single beer, greyhound, or glass of wine at breakfast daily to relax --which is very possible-- I have great difficulty seeing the problem. People on this board have very, very, very strange ideas about drinking, and don’t seem to think there’s ever a such thing as “one drink,” tending to associate all drinking with alcoholism in a way I’ve never seen anywhere else.
Granted that the OP isn’t written with any delusions, I’d really like to hear what, specifically, the issue is with having one drink with breakfast.
MoL When it comes to drinking; usually, you and I are on the same page. In fact, that’s how I identify with you as a poster.
I think the problem here though is the OP is asking about using alcohol to treat a medicle condition . As QTM points out. This is almost never a good idea.
Aside from that. You’re right, one drink in the morn isn’t a BFD.
I know what you’re saying and I, resident boozehound, had a negative initial reaction, with the thought drinking to resolve his issue was a bad idea. Then I honestly wondered how one daily morning drink was worse than anything else. I mean really. How? Obviously one drink isn’t going to ruin his health, and isn’t an example of alcoholism, and if it stops the panic attacks, good. Yes, this is under the assumption that “one” means “one.” I dunno, maybe I need to think about it some more. I just kind of shot off at the keyboard there.
One isn’t a big deal but what happens when the effects wear off and over time you need more and more? That’s the danger.