- Date posted
- 1y
Drinking alcohol and OCD
Did anyone completely stop drinking alcohol because of OCD, and if not, how are your symptoms with it?
Did anyone completely stop drinking alcohol because of OCD, and if not, how are your symptoms with it?
I’m a month completely sober. Feels good. Alcohol and mental illness don’t mix well.
@Hopefloats227 Very true , alcohol and OCD just don’t mix well . So many times when I’d had a drink I would think about suicide , not ever really strongly but it was there . Not a good recipe , but my wife is amazing and I couldn’t put her through that .
I used to drink a lot with my OCD And found it did help numb the pain but I never really gave a monkeys about anything when I drank anyway , it was just a temporary fix for me the next day they were still there with a vengeance . I haven’t touched alcohol for just over 11 years now , realised it was just a band aid on a gaping wound and not the real answer in the long term .
Thanks for sharing. Good on you for finding what works. 11 years is impressive. I started to stop altogether, then I started to drink again but I’ve noticed flare ups ever since. Thinking of quitting altogether again
Does anyone know if weed helps ocd symptoms?
What has helped you? What have you learned? Biggest success? How’s your OCD now?
I’m curious if anyone else has ever had this. This is my specific theme in regards to my OCD that has been prevalent in my life since 2022. Quick back story: went to a party college for 4.5 years and had a blast, got as drunk as I wanted on weekends and never once felt bad about it. Then, hangovers got worse and I started partying too much. After graduation, I told myself that it’d be a really cool goal to get to the point where I could go out and just have 4 beers. Enough to enjoy myself, not enough to make me hungover. Well, this simple healthy goal turned into a massive obsession. Now, if I go over my limit of 4-5 beers/drinks, two things happen: 1. I give up and binge drink bc I might as well if I’m already over my limit. 2. The next day even if I’m super hungover, unless I can’t bc of work scheduling, I will perform a check where I drink 4 beers and see if I can still get drunk off of those. If I can get drunk, then I feel normal. If I am not as drunk, then this cycle continues. I worry about becoming an alcoholic all the time bc at this point in my life I am very active in my social scene, and alcohol is very much present. While I certainly do not have any family history of alcoholism nor the personality or drive to become one, I still fear that I might one day despite knowing I won’t. I also worry about raising my drinking tolerance by continuing to feed this obsession/compulsion loop. It’s slightly affected my personality and confidence. I’m aware it’s irrational and the solution is to simply cut back as anyone would and go out less frequently, or drink less frequently when I’m out. And yet, my other obsession with alcohol is experiencing the painful withdrawals that alcoholics experience when they stop drinking!! Despite never having experienced those withdrawals when I’ve not drank on a given night. So, it’s a weird one. Thinking the ERP is just going to be not performing those checks. If I’ve reached my limit and am not as drunk, okay. Alcohol absorption is affected by a lot. No need to check my tolerance nor go overboard since I’m not as drunk. We’ll see. I’m on Zoloft too which has helped a ton with other symptoms but this theme is making it less effective and I need to get control of it now.
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond