Recovery Enthusiast/ Recovery for Women

TV commercials encourage you to have a drink to relax. However, the relationship between alcohol and anxiety can be more complicated than that. Many adults can safely drink in moderation. For others, alcohol may cause anxiety or aggravate pre-existing conditions.   There are several reasons why alcohol tends to disturb your peace of mind.   Embarrassing yourself at an office party may be an obvious danger, but there's also a molecular explanation. Alcohol causes changes in your brain chemicals, including gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is involved in regulating anxiety.   Your brain adjusts to the sedating effects of alcohol but may have trouble balancing itself again when your blood alcohol content starts to fall. That could leave you feeling more anxious than when you started, and that uneasiness may last for a day or more. Prolonged heavy drinking often contributes to anxiety.   Lifestyle changes and professional help can make a big differenc...

As you go about your daily life, take notice of how you relate with your family, friends, and co-workers. What do you see – a kind, patient, caring person who goes out of her way to take other people's feelings into consideration?   Or do you find that you often feel on edge, tense, in a hurry, or downright angry toward others?   If the latter is the case, this article will help you focus on and clarify what you might be angry about. Once you identify what's making you mad, you can proceed to a solution.   Consider these possible reasons for carrying around your anger:   1.      You wish your life situation was different. Are you living the life you truly want to live? Have things turned out for you the way you always hoped or planned? Or are the specifics of your life astoundingly different and maybe even disappointing from what you want your life to truly be?   ·        Make a plan today to...

Do you struggle to rise above any life challenges that come your way? Maybe you’ve gone from having plenty of money and a big house to living from paycheck to paycheck in a small apartment. Or perhaps you’ve experienced the loss of a relationship that devastated you, but you’ve been able to bounce back and continue to live the life of your dreams.  However, if you find yourself feeling stuck looking back wistfully to earlier years and wishing things could have remained “that way,” you’re probably living in the past.   If you notice you still suffer a lot of emotional pain over an upsetting event you experienced long ago, you might be stuck in your history and unable to move forward.  Although some would argue, “What’s so bad about living in the past,” the fact is that doing so means the present—your reality—is flying by without you grabbing on to it to move forward and achieve your life aspirations.  You’re living in the past if:   1.   ...