Managing alcohol and social anxiety - 10 ways to change your relationship with drinking
Often, alcohol can be used as a coping method if you are struggling with stress, anxiety, or other mental or physical health concerns. However, even if in the short-term it does help, the long-term effects can be detrimental.
In this article, Alena’s Clinical Psychologist, Dr Stuart Linke, Author of Thinking About Drinking, explores the relationship between alcohol and social anxiety, giving his top tips on how to reassess and improve your drinking behavior.
This doesn’t necessarily mean completely giving up alcohol - it’s possible to enjoy some drinks, this is completely normal as long as you aren’t reliant on it.
Drinking alcohol negatively impacts your health.
Drinking alcohol in excess can lead to long-term health implications both in terms of your physical, and your mental health.
Physically, alcohol has been proven to be a risk factor for a number of conditions such as liver disease, dementia, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
However, it can also have a detrimental impact on your psychological health too. It can heighten depression, anxiety and stress. In the short-term, after an occasion of drinking, you may be left feeling regret about how you’ve behaved.
If drinking alcohol has been used as an avoidance technique, it can prevent you from being able to control or manage your emotions or stress levels without it. You may start to drink to feel better, which may potentially work in the moment, but it’s not treating the cause of the issue.
Alcohol is a drug, it’s a depressant - which can add to existing mental health concerns such as depression, or cause an ‘anxiety rebound’ when the depressive effects wear off. It also has a huge impact on sleep quality - even if you fall asleep quickly, it won’t be as deep or restorative as it should be.
Alcohol can exacerbate your social anxiety
If you experience social anxiety, you are more prone to worrying before you go out to socialize, and drinking alcohol can become a way of managing this.
There are many reasons that you may choose to have a drink when managing your social anxiety. It provides you with something to focus your energy on, you can hold a drink to steady your hands, go to the bar to avoid having to talk to someone, or take sips as an excuse for not speaking.
Drinking alcohol can help steady the nerves, enabling you to enjoy being in company a little more. You might feel that others will negatively judge you if you don’t drink alcohol whilst out socializing, you don’t want to stand out from the crowd by being different, or invite awkward questions.
However, relying on alcohol for managing your social anxiety can become a downward spiral. It can increase your anxiety further, as you lose your inhibitions whilst socializing, so you may not behave as you would usually want to.
After the event, your anxiety can worsen, worrying about what you might not remember, regretting how you have behaved, or ruminating - thinking about what’s been said over and over again.
Top 10 tips for reducing your alcohol consumption
If you want to drink less, you need to make a realistic plan. In this plan, take stock of your overall health - not just focusing on alcohol. Consider how much you exercise, what you eat, do you smoke? Look at everything together, so you don’t replace drinking alcohol with a different unhealthy habit.
Quitting cold turkey is hard and requires a lot of willpower. Be kind to yourself and try to gradually reduce how much you have to drink. Make your goals achievable by firstly cutting your drinking down by 25%, then by 50% next time, then 75% and so on. This will only be possible if you have already been tracking how much you have been drinking, and maintaining that monitoring.
Before you go out, always ensure that you have food because we tend to drink more when we’re hungry. Ideally, try to have carbohydrates in this meal to help you soak up any alcohol and keep you fuller for longer.
If you get thirsty, have water, or alternate soft drinks with alcohol. You can also dilute the amount of alcohol you have by adding water to the glass. However, it’s important to keep in mind that three drinks with mixers is still three alcoholic drinks - don’t trick yourself into thinking you’re drinking less alcohol this way.
Sit down when you’re drinking, as we naturally drink slower when sitting.
Small changes such as going for a medium glass of wine instead of a large glass will help easily cut down the amount you are drinking in total.
Pace your drinking, and be strict with yourself. For example, set yourself a target of always making each drink last at least 30 minutes. If you finish it faster, do not get a new one before 30 min is up.
Don’t keep topping up, because you won’t know how much you’re drinking. Have one glass, notice it each drink, and replace it when it’s empty.
If you are angry, or upset - don’t drink to make yourself feel better. There are other, healthier ways of giving yourself a boost, such as exercising, mindfulness techniques, watching your favorite film, or distracting yourself with a hobby.
Think about who you are drinking with, and if you are out with big drinkers, don’t get involved with drinking in rounds.
If you struggle to resist peer pressure to drink, you can say that you are on antibiotics, or trying to improve your overall health or weight.
If you can pay with cash, take a budget of cash out with you and don’t pay on card, you will then have a set limit of drinks that you can purchase, and stick to that.
This advice was taken from a webinar on the 15th December 2022. For information about any of our future online events, sign up to our newsletter below.
References
Thinking About Drinking Towards a Safer Relationship With Alcohol