Reply To: Strategy for a drinking problem

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July 5, 2018 at 5:33 pm#26184
jay12
PSTEC User

    Hi Brian,

    1. Sure, it was from an armed robbery incident that occurred to myself and a roommate.

    It was a relatively calm non-violet event (and my roommate suffered no ill effects) but I have had some general and social anxiety since childhood, so I believe I was more prone to the longer lasting psychological trauma potentially caused by such a situation.

    I had very bad paranoia and anxiety for a while afterwards but this was made worse by regular and heaving drinking at the time to self medicate (constantly being in the hangover state which compounds anxiety), until I got out of that cycle.

    Years later I am much better and just have general but manageable anxiety.

    I plan to work on it as well but the drinking is the most pressing concern causing the most practical problems right now and hampering my ability to work on my other issues (since im too anxious to do any kind of therapy work when hungover)

    Also I am hoping for a quick win to gain some confidence with PSTEC on some seemingly simpler issues like drinking and smoking and then focusing on the much more intimidating anxiety issue afterwards.

    2. Wow, can it really be that effective?

    Ideally I would want to remove any desire or impulse to drink, to regain control of my behavior, and never even think about it, but also not have a problem with doing it in the appropriate social situation.

    However deleting drinking completely in all its forms would also be perfectly acceptable if that strategy is more effective.

    Thanks for the help  :)