Many sufferers of anxiety unwisely seek the “treatment” of alcohol as a temporary solution to anxiety. However, this is the worst solution to a common problem that an individual can seek. One reason alcohol is a popular solution is because people correctly believe that minor stress, unlike anxiety disorder, can be lived with without medical treatment. Stress is just a part of everyday life and so coping with occasional bouts of mental highs and lows can be learned. However, anxiety sufferers soon find that living with the stress is more difficult than it seems, so they seek out a temporary fix. A six pack of beer, a bottle of wine, several glasses of Tequilas…it’s cheap, fun treatment and it does seem to ease the pain.

Alcohol is a powerful depressant and so can take away some feelings of anxiety. However, alcohol can also be addictive and can result in dangerous physical side effects if a person consistently becomes drunk. Studies have also shown that consuming too much alcohol can lead to an irregular heartbeat and a lowering of blood sugar which will actually increase the symptoms of anxiety.

Worse yet, a person who self-treats their anxiety with alcohol will start to become dependent on this form of pseudo-medication. If you buy alcohol to temporarily escape your anxiety, then you are basically buying a prescription—a large dosage prescription without doctor authorization that could prove harmful.

Another issue is that when a person seeks solace in alcohol or other forms of addictive temporary fixes such as self-cutting, smoking, or taking OTC pain relievers, then they are not really treating the problem of anxiety itself. They are using the these quick fixes to escape the source of the anxiety and at the risk of injury to themselves. This is also the same criticism many have with prescription medication such as Valium and Xanax.

Many psychotherapists (according to the father of psychotherapy Sigmund Freud) believe that we maintain anxiety in our lives because of previous trauma. Therefore, whenever we observe something in the present that reminds us of past traumas, anxious feelings continue to arise. Avoiding the anxiety by depressing or stimulating the mind with drugs, alcohol or other forms of addictive behavior teaches us only how to deaden the pain, not to confront and resolve the source of anxiety.

In the case of alcohol, because many people casually drink wine and beer—not for escape but for pleasure—often times they are unaware that they are feeding an addiction and that anxiety is actually the primary reason for their drinking. Only in the case of alcoholics is the addiction ever made manifest; in the case of people who drink enough to escape the pain but never get totally drunk, the truth of the matter may not be realized for years to come.

If you believe you may suffer from anxiety and an alcohol addiction to boot, test yourself and see how many days you can go without drinking. If you start to go through withdrawals, or find the anxiety increasing to an abnormal level, then you may need to seek help in overcoming the addiction and treating the anxiety disorder, not avoiding it.