Laura started drinking around the clock soon after having her first child. Consumed by severe post-natal depression and anxiety, she let her social drinking habit escalate into 24-hour drinking. Whilst her family and friends looked after the baby, Laura, 31, used drink as a crutch to drown out feelings of anxiety and fear.
“It was like a cycle,” she said. “I drank, slept, and drank, with very little in between. I found the drinking stopped my anxiety and acted as medication.” It became a lonely and depressing spiral of abuse. When her partner pressured her to cut back, Laura began to limit her drinking to the evenings. But she soon found she was just drinking the same quantities squeezed into a shorter period. She recognised she had a problem and turned to her doctor who gave her medication for her depression, and offered her counselling and a psychiatrist.
But Laura could not stop drinking and her problems persisted. She went back to her GP, and asked for anything to repress her desire to drink. She was referred to an alcohol problems unit who told her if she wanted treatment she must stop drinking immediately. She said: “It all seemed a bit much, I was going to a wedding in a few days which I just could not imagine doing without drink. But I went home and thought about it for a week and then decided I needed their help.”
Nurses at the unit prescribed her medication which helped block the desire for a drink. Though Laura stopped, she also needed help to deal with the underlying emotional problems that she feels are linked to her problem. She turned to LIBRA, a support organisation for women with alcohol problems. “I found this support fantastic,” she said. “They didn’t just provide support for the alcohol problem but talked about all the issues around it and helped with everything. I also found it really helpful to meet and chat to women who were experiencing the same difficulties.”
Laura firmly believes her alcohol problem is linked to her mental health problems. Negative thoughts and anxiety turn her to drink, she believes. “It has been a tough and slow process but I finally feel I am on the right path to tackling my problems.”
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