- Username
- jorgem1AO
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Anyone else’s ocd get worse after alcohol
Not during the effects but after it wears off, my anxiety and depression spike, especially after two repeated days, i feel so strange :/
- Username
- RDEsqRDEsq
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Yes, this is a known consequence of over drinking. Anxiety and OCD tend to spike pretty significantly after a heavy bout of drinking. People like us, with OCD, need to keep the drinking to responsible levels or cut it off completely.
- Username
- Jason GibbsJason Gibbs
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Hi there jorgem1AO. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and is linked to increases in symptoms of OCD, anxiety, depression, and a range of other mental health disorders. This is caused by both direct and indirect physiological causes (e.g., reducing the amount of dopamine floating around in your brain), as well as psychosocial stressors (e.g., saying something under the influence you regret later). In general, we recommend avoiding drinking if you are struggling with mental health concerns.
- Username
- EFF_OCDEFF_OCD
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Yes. Alcohol gets rid of my intrusive thoughts while I’m tipsy/drunk and I feel so normal but the next few days it spikes it
- Username
- ada110ada110
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Yes alcohol increases my social anxiety and I don't think it's helping my OCD either. I've decided to completely stop drinking (I don't drink all that much tbh but it has made things worse recently). I've got some work socials this week where I'd normally drink alcohol, but I'm going to avoid it all together. I'm hoping this will have the added effect of showing myself I can be self-disciplined, which I also need to be to successfully not give into my OCD thinking. I also hope it will help in other ways - tiredness, low grade hangover, low mood after drinking - OCD is gonna love all of these.
Related posts
- Username
- VicVinegar
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Alcohol and OCD: A cruel mistress! Hi all. I wanted to share my thoughts and potentially start a discussion about the role of alcohol in OCD. Certainly in my case I think it is a fundamental contributor to my suffering, and I'm not surprised about the statistics related to how many OCD sufferers also suffer from problematic drinking. My current obsessive themes are Real Event/guilt OCD and are often related to situations and events where I was incredibly drunk with fuzzy and missing memories, or my drunkenness contributed to certain actions that I now obsessively regret. Whilst this was in the past, alcohol is still contributing to my suffering, and I'm starting to wonder whether I would be much happier without it. I find that after sometimes months of feeling fine, most if not all of my major relapses have occurred directly after a night of heavy drinking, and that spark has sent me spiralling for days and sometimes weeks. I then became obsessed about limiting my drinking in certain situations, I had a fear that if I was drunk I would end up committing some horrible crime or cheating on my partner. Now though I'm finding that I'm drinking moderate amounts of alcohol on a very regular basis, just to take my mind off my obsessions, which is very unhealthy. When I have a drink, even just one, it feels like my thoughts just almost vanish in importance, it's like a beautiful break from all the suffering. This feeling scares me a little and I now worry that I might be verging on some form of dependency on alcohol. I'm not looking for any reassurance here, just wanted to share my experience and chat with others who might also be struggling in this way.
- Username
- Daniellll
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Anybody else's symptoms get worse the day after drinking alcohol? I find myself in a hole after everytime I go out to try and enjoy myself😭
- Username
- blaze19star
- Date posted
- 1y ago
anyone else?
does anyone else find that as your ocd symptoms get less often it’s like triggers get way worse. like you don’t have constant thoughts but to compensate when u do get triggered bad it’s like really bad anxiety and way more difficult
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