Wally58 wrote:Drinking and smoking were my best friends until they turned against me, then I realized how difficult it was to quit.
I lived with my mom or in my car or in a tent until I was 28 and it was keeping me sick. They told me that I had to move out or I wouldn't get better.
I had been self-medicating my anxiety for many years with booze and weed. Alcohol worked at first, but wound up creating even more anxiety. Weed made me paranoid and agoraphobic towards the end. I was full of fear.
I finally entered treatment for alcoholism. That is when I found out what had been wrong with me all these years. There were many others there who were like me.
They can't treat an active alcoholic or addict. The therapy won't sink in and they won't offer effective, stronger medications to you.
Alcohol was the first thing that had to go. I wasn't able to do that myself no matter how hard I tried. It took detox and rehab to break the spell and get me off the street (or out of the tent).
I was diagnosed with depression/anxiety disorder. The alcohol masked the feelings so well, that I didn't even realize that I was depressed. I only knew about the anxiety.
It took the people of AA and the 12-steps to help me learn to live without alcohol. I didn't get better right away, but I knew that I didn't want to go back to the way things were. It is possible to recover and not live in fear and pain. One day at a time.
Best of luck to you.
Wally58 wrote:I can't determine if you have a substance dependency issue or not.. That is something that you would have to answer yourself.
I will say that out of what you wrote, that is what stood out to me the most because I went through chemical dependancy/alcoholism myself. It made life seem hopeless and not worth it towards the end. I was truly alone.
I was using alcohol to deal with general anxiety. When the alcohol was taken away, I had all this raw anxiety to deal with. It could become panic.
I was also diagnosed with depression (who knew?) that the alcohol was masking as a central nervous system sedative.
Just stopping drinking (which I couldn't do by myself successfully), didn't make things immediately better. I had to enter treatment which included therapy to recover from years of wrong thinking and wrong living.
I suppose that if you are interested, you could get an evaluation? Life is too short to be miserable. There is another way.
Best of luck to you.
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