Using alcohol for liquid courage is a big mistake - ‘High’ anxiety

Have you ever taken a shot or a drink as some liquid courage or to take the edge off of an uncomfortable situation?

Self-medicating with alcohol isn't just common — it's often encouraged.

Friends will buy you a shot so you can work up the nerve to talk to that guy or girl. Your boss might buy you a drink before a presentation to help relax you.

There's a hidden danger to choosing alcohol to control your anxiety and it can actually make things worse in the long run.

Alcohol increases anxiety

Alcohol is a sneaky devil. You can consider it to be "the friend who invites you to the bar and then ditches you once you're there" in terms of its relationship to anxiety.

Alcohol and anxiety are actually the best of friends — they go hand in hand. The very act of drinking can increase your anxiety and leave you feeling worse once it wears off.

While alcohol might initially relax you because it is a sedative, it changes levels of serotonin and other transmitters in your brain. Your anxiety levels can be off the charts following drinking.

If that's not enough of a downer, hangovers can make your anxiety linger as well, thanks to your blood sugar being lowered. Couple that with dehydration, fatigue and nausea, and that's a definite party foul.

Alcohol might cause anxiety

A study led by the University of North Carolina School of Medicine shows that the long-term effects of drinking can cause the drinker to find it difficult to recover from traumatic events.

Knowing that drinking changes brain activity and how we process events, scientists think that alcohol might actually be the source of anxiety in some people rather than a reliever of it.

Even scarier is that in some people alcohol can actually cause panic attacks. Drinking can elevate your heart rate, which can lead to heart palpitations or hyperactivity in your nervous system.

A racing heart, shaking and excessive sweating will lead you to wonder if you're having a heart attack. The questioning itself is a source of anxiety (for you and your buddies!)

Alcohol makes you dependent

The brain works in funny ways. Much like an athlete training for muscle memory, our brain will make associations based on what we are training it to do.

If you've come to associate alcohol as your wing man — i.e. you've given it the rank and importance of why you can relax in a social situation, or deliver a speech before thousands or yo u think it's what you need to face yet another family gathering — then your brain is going to start believing you.

While we've all been to functions that make a root canal seem enjoyable, needing alcohol to get through them isn't normal.

Alcohol isn't treating the problem

Drinking isn't doing anything to resolve the source of your anxiety, it's only masking it. Once the alcohol wears off, the stressor will still be there.

In reality, thanks to alcohol, it may be much, much worse. You start drinking to deal with your anxiety. However, not only is your original dilemma still there but now you're physiologically stressed out from daily activities and suddenly it seems you need a drink just to cope.

It creates a vicious cycle of drinking to escape and instead creates more things to feel anxious about.

We'd all love for there to be a magic elixir that can take away our troubles and make everything better. Unfortunately that doesn't exist and trying to give alcohol that power isn't doing you any favors.

At the very least it's going to make you regret the choices you made with beer goggles on or the things you said to your clients.

The great part is that so many other options exist for dealing with anxiety and stress in our lives. While alcohol and anxiety might be the best of friends, they really are just frenemies to the rest of us.

For everyday stressors and anxiety, find coping mechanisms that work for you — exercise, extra preparation and practice for workplace functions, or good friends.

If your anxiety is debilitating and stealing your enjoyment, alcohol won't solve that either. Consult a professional and work with them to get back your joy. You're worth it!

Annie Grace is the author of “This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life.” Learn more at: thisnakedmind.com. Connect with Annie on Twitter.com and Facebook.com.