- Date posted
- 45w ago
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
I’m wondering if this has happened to anyone else… I’m 28 years old. I was diagnosed with OCD when I was very young and it took a while, but I overcame it. I haven’t had any compulsions in 20 years. I’ve had some horrible things happen in the past, but nothing brought back my OCD. The only thing I struggle with is overthinking and making decisions. Im about to take a sabbatical from my work for a year to travel because the last year of my life has been by far the happiest and most confident iv ever been. I went to see a therapist a couple weeks ago who was an OCD specialist, I just wanted some tips and tricks for decision-making while I’m on my trip. She warned me that my OCD might get worse before it gets better, but I thought that she just meant with decision-making and overthinking. They have this program set out that I didn’t really wanna do but she told me it works really well so I decided to try it. It’s two sessions a week and the first two sessions were sort of just talking about my old OCD and doing questionnaires. I really related to some of the questionnaire questions, and the therapist was actively telling me that I definitely had OCD the whole time which made me feel bad. After our second session, my OCD came back full swing like when I was a child. I cant stop thinking about doing compulsions every waking second. It’s been two weeks. I’ve been to her several times and nothing is helping, I’m resisting the urge to do compulsions as much as I can and I feel like I’m fighting for my life. Nothing is helping and I’m burning out. I wake up and cry everyday because of how uncomfortable and out of control I feel. I never thought this would happen and im so mad at myself for ruining my trip. I feel like I’ve ruined my life tbh and even if I do get better, I’m always gonna be bothered by the constant fear that even at the highest and most happy points in my life it could just come back at any second with no warning signs.. I thought I knew how to deal with it and had the tools, but nothing is working this time and its ruining my life. Today I asked about cancelling my trip altogether, and I might be going on medical leave. Has this happened to anybody and do you have any tips for me?
Does anyone else use substances to escape your OCD spiral? A few years ago I never would have dreamed of it, until my OCD flared up during 2020. Now I use cannabis to calm my brain down which is dangerous for me as its 50/50 it'll calm me down or make me panic or will push me down the existential rabbit hole. Alcohol is a big one for me, too. Was asked to admit I was an alcoholic this year. Unfortunately, also a symptom of my OCD. When the guilt and paranoia is this extreme, I'd rather take the 50/50 chance than still in this deadly cycle. I might delete this if it causes me too much paranoia, but this is my first post here and I'm happy to meet all of you.
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