The occasional use and moderate consumption of alcohol can smooth over any jitters you may have. However, these benefits are overshadowed by the downsides of alcohol’s effects on someone with anxiety.

The Effects of Alcohol and Anxiety

1.      Alcohol does a good job at impairing memory, balance, judgment as well as analytical thinking. These impairments can leave one feeling vulnerable and anxious.

2.      While drinking, one may feel calm. But the next morning, a tsunami of panic washes over concerning the evening’s indulgences and what might have happened.

3.      If one should use alcohol on a regular basis, it can lead to a deep sense of sadness and in some cases panic attacks.

4.      Anxiety becomes part of the addiction cycle. The person does not want to feel the anxiety, so they keep drinking.

Reference: Helgoe, Laurie PhD, et al. The Anxiety Answer Book pg. 18.

Here are some links below to help you overcome your alcohol and anxiety problems.

http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_anxiety_cause

http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_brochures_dual_diagnosis

http://www.healthline.com/health/alcohol-and-anxiety

http://alcoholrehab.com/alcoholism/alcohol-induced-anxiety/

The post Alcohol and Anxiety appeared first on Life Conquering Bipolar Blog.

After reading this verse in Matthew Chapter 18 one morning, I thought about what my psychologist had said to me during one of my first sessions. Although we had not known each other very long, he knew my story – growing up in an alcoholic family and managing bipolar disorder. He said it was a wonder that I had such a positive disposition and I didn’t have a horribly negative outlook on life. I told him it was a total God-thing.

Coming through to the other side of a childhood in an alcoholic family, I have always believed that somebody somewhere was praying for me or watching over me. As a result of those prayers, I held on to my faith in God even though the church had forsaken me during my foundational years. Due to the way I was treated by the people in the church, I could have easily walked away from my faith in God, forever.

The church of my youth was not a haven in the storm for an alcoholic family caught in the eye of a chaotic hurricane of addiction. During one of my father’s first of many hospitalizations, an elder of the church and extended family member found out that my father was an alcoholic. Prior to that hospitalization, my father had been a deacon in our church and a Sunday school teacher. That next Sunday, he was stripped of both positions. Instead of throwing my family a lifeline, that church turned their backs on us and sat back as we drowned one liter at a time on vodka and soda.

I had been acquainted with Matthew 18:10-11 before and had a framed copy of it on my classroom desk when I was a teacher. However, I never thought about this verse pertaining to myself. When I read about the angels seeing God’s face, I think about the pandemonium I had endured in an alcoholic family and how that first church I had been introduced to was not supportive at all. I realize that people are not perfect. When people are confronted with uncomfortable situations, sometimes they do not know what to do. They either do nothing at all or respond in extreme ways like this church did.

My walk with the Lord has been far from perfect. What is significant is that I have chosen to walk with Him and keep Him by my side all these years since I moved away from my family when I went to college. I am living proof of the validity of that verse in Matthew Chapter 18 and I believe my angel was talking to God about me all this time and watching over me.

The post Praying Angels for Alcoholic Family appeared first on Life Conquering Bipolar Blog.

Any verse in scripture that refers to us as children like in Matthew 18:2-3, I understood its meaning, but could never fully relate because of the word children. Attempting to relate to God in any way as a child was nearly impossible.

I know many of you reading this post have various relationships with your family. You could have been adopted, you could have been like me and grew up in a very chaotic and unstable environment like an alcoholic home, or you could have had a wonderful home life.

It does not matter to God what type of family you were a part of as a child. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have been adopted into God’s family (Ephesians 1:5). Once adopted, we become His children (Romans 8:16). When we become God’s children, we also become heirs of God. The Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, © 1984, 1996, defines heir as “one who receives something other than by merit” (pg. 300). There is no such thing as being good enough or trying hard enough to get on God’s good side. You come as you are from an alcoholic home or a wonderful home.

Living in an alcoholic home as a child, I was a people pleaser. I didn’t want to upset the apple cart, so I always did as I was told or expected. As a result, I lived in a constant state of fear. The truth is, I “did not receive a spirit that makes [me] a slave again to fear, but [I] received the Spirit of sonship” (Romans 8:15).

As I dive deeper and deeper into the pit of my past, working through the pain, swimming through the memories from an alcoholic home, I know that God sees me as one of His children, and accepts me as His precious daughter. I can now come to Him, crawl up in His lap and see Him as the Father I never had. After all, I am the apple of His eye (Psalm 17:8).

The post An Alcoholic Home to Eyeing for Apples appeared first on Life Conquering Bipolar Blog.