Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 11/2/2009

Question
Age: 25. Gender: M

I think I'm probably drinking alcoholically, but I want to know how serious my drinking is.   I know many people who seem to be relatively functional alcoholics.   I think I'd be ok being a heavy drinking, and accepting things like dying earlier, etc.  if it allowed me to do live a much more anxiety-free life.

Details:

I drank pretty heavily for my age from 17-21, then abstained completely for about 4 years.  I've started drinking regularly for about a month now.  At this point I drink a little bit most nights of the week and most of the day o. Saturday and Sunday.  In many cases I don't drink all that heavily -  I use a bac calculator that calcs my bac based on weight, what I've been drinking etc, and in most cases i get in the .05-.08 range and just sort of cruise there.   On a few days or nights (e.g Friday when I have Sat. Off) I may start drinking more heavily towards the end of the night and my bac will rise to around .1-.13 before bed.  This is exception rather than the rule though.

One of the major things that concerns me is that I'm drinking mainly to combat anxiety.   I typically wake up without much of a hangover, beyond just feeling out of it and a little headachey.  After being up for about an hour or so I start to feel very anxious (more than normally), jangly, irritable etc.   If it's a day I can drink during the day, alcohol relieves these symptoms almost right away.

Today kind of scared me.  I got up and was really scared to go to liquor store (for no good reason).  I ended up having to go to a little restraunt to have 2 beers at lunch to be calm enough go to store and buy alcohol.

Obviously this isn't normal drinking, but sober life for me really isn't all that great. I live a relatively normal life (work, go out to do things, etc.) but have always experienced intense anxiety when I'm not alone.  This anxiety seems to impact my behavior enough that it's very noticable - people think I'm crazy because I'm acting weirdly, people get offended that I'm not more friendly, don't approach them etc, or misinterpert what I'm saying and think I'm angry at them.   (Probably because my facial expression reflect discomfort from anxiety.)

I've tried SSRI's, therapy and things like exercise to deal with this, but nothing so far has been very effective.  Popping a klonopin or drinking a few beers on the other hand has an immediate, noticable effect.  

Basically I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of being sober and miserable vs. Alcohol dependent but more calm and happy.

-John  

Answer
Hi John,

Many people resort to alcohol as self-medication against anxiety and all sorts of other mood disorders. The trouble is that alcohol although an antidote to excess adrenaline, will make things worse in the end. We need to treat the underlying causes of excess adrenaline production. Adrenaline functions to convert sugar stores in the body to glucose to feed the brain with biological energy. The lack of biological energy in the brain - required in the production of feel good neurotransmitters - is due to insulin resistance. Fortunately this can mostly be treated by nutritional means by the adoption of the hypoglycemic diet. Please read:

Why Alcoholics Drink? at
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/WAD.html

Alcoholism (Addiction) is a Treatable Disease at:
http://curezone.com/upload/PDF/Articles/jurplesman/alcoholism_treatable.pdf

Anxiety web sites at:   
http://www.hastingspress.co.uk/hypo/
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/beating_anxiety.html
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/psychotherapy/anxiety_phobias.html
http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/hypoglycemia.htm
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/silentdiseases.html
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/psychotherapy/anxiety_phobias.html
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/anxiety_SNS.html

that explains the connection between anxiety disorders and hypoglycemia. Going on a hypoglycemic diet should resolve the problems. If in doubt, please discuss with a Nutritional Doctor, Clinical Nutritionist or a Nutritional Psychologist.

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist
Hon. Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au
Author of "Getting off the Hook"
Freely available at Google Book Search
Skype: jurplesman