Hi, this is Gena with a pebble in the anxiety road for people over 60 who are considering using alcohol to deal with your anxiety. Anxiety symptoms generally are an indication of a problem. Using booze to help you cope with an anxiety symptom generally isn't a good idea at any age, but you oldies and you especially, you dusties, need to understand the risk. There are a lot of them. Yes. Sipping on the recipe can make you feel calm or take the edge off temporarily.
The fact is alcohol is a depressant and it suppresses a lot of the brain chatter. But when it wears off, those symptoms, and especially emotions that you suppressed will come back sometimes stronger. You can be trapped into drinking more alcohol to knock the symptoms down, and then it becomes a cycle that at some point you'll feel even worse than your original problem. And as senior people, there are other health related problems you need to take into consideration.
One of those problems is that alcohol affects the brain, particularly the parts that deal with memory. For folks that are having memory issues and anxiety, drinking alcohol is not necessarily going to help either one of those problems. It can make it worse. Alcohol decreases your ability to remember things and if you're already experiencing forgetfulness, drinking booze will add to that. Your ability to balance and walk. Your mobility skills and abilities change.
Alcohol can make you more vulnerable to falls and breaking bones. You do not want to have anything broken because it takes an older body longer to repair itself. And how many people do you know of that have had a fall, went to the hospital and never came back the same way? Alcohol messes with a lot of body systems, not to mention what it does to your blood sugar and blood pressure if you're pre-diabetic, or have diabetes. You do not want to imbibe.
If you're taking anxiety medications, you really shouldn't be drinking at all. It can be a dangerous combination. Now, there will be some boomers out there who say that a little sip isn't gonna hurt you. My response define a little. According to the National Institute of Aging, there's a whole bunch of criteria on what constitutes a drink. So this is from their website. The definition of one drink is 12 ounce can, or a bottle of regular beer, ale or hard seltzer.
One eight or nine ounce can or bottle of mal liquor. Five ounces of red or white wine. 1.5 ounce shot glass of 80 proof distilled spirits like gin, rum, tequila, vodka, or whiskey. There are many other products in the marketplace that have higher proof alcohol than they used to have back in the day. You have to read the label to make sure that you're not entering into the realm of high proof substances.
As for resources, the US National Health Institute on Aging has a fact page about aging and alcohol. The Royal College of Physicians also has a page on alcohol, mental health, and the brain, and up in Canada way. The Center for Addiction and Mental Health has a page on alcohol use in older adults. And the Veterans Health Library has a webpage on healthy alcohol and drug use and mental health. So if anything, this pebble in the road is just to make you aware of the risk of using alcohol.
If you are over a certain age and you have anxiety . You might decide to say to hell with it and keep on drinking. That is your choice, so long as it's an informed one. I'll catch you next time on the anxiety road.