Drinking to have a good time is pretty common amongst most people over the legal drinking age. Most of that population is in the work world, paying bills, and facing stressful situations, which often leads to their letting loose when the end of the week comes around. In short, most all of us partake in social drinking from time to time. However, when you begin to use alcohol as a crutch for making you feel more comfortable in social situations, it can become problematic. Social anxiety, just like social drinking, is very common amongst all populations. However, using alcohol to combat social anxiety can do more harm than good…
Using Alcohol to Combat Social Anxiety: Negative Outcomes
Anxiety
While you might be using alcohol to combat social anxiety, it can actually cause anxiety. Alcohol has many different effects on the brain. One of those effects, is on the levels of serotonin in your brain. For some people, the changes you experience can be relaxing, and make you feel more comfortable. However, for many others, those changes in the brain can actually increase those feelings of anxiety that they commonly experience. Many people also experience anxiety after drinking, or during their hangovers. After you drink, you might begin to worry about you did, what you said, how much money you spent, and so forth. These feelings are so common that some even refer to it as ‘hanxiety’
Tolerance building
Another thing you might not realize you’re doing, is building up your alcohol tolerance. When you’re drinking to try and reach a goal quickly, you may quickly realize that it’s taking a bit more each time to feel that way. You’ll no longer feel the same sense of relaxation after one drink; instead, it becomes two, then three, and so forth. The more you’re having to drink to feel calm, the increased hangovers, health effects, money spent, and potential for dangers or DUI.
Alcoholism
As you build that tolerance, you might also begin building a dependence on the alcohol. Think about it: you began drinking to help you solve a problem. Then, you began drinking more and more, and now— you feel like you need it to be able to be social, relax, and fight your feelings. While searching for the desired result is understandable, it can also lead to problems, such as alcoholism. Now, instead of just fighting that social anxiety, you’re fighting social anxiety and alcoholism.
Fighting fire with fire never really goes as planned…
Social anxiety is extremely common, and trying to combat it in some way is only natural. However, it’s all in how you do that. While drinking alcohol might help in the short term, it’ll only do just that. While alcohol helps in the moment, it has the potential to create a bigger issue…