Really, there are four little beasts: Alcoholism, depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. It’s a chicken and egg situation. If you suffer hangovers after drinking, are you becoming more and more depressed? Quite possibly you are, so you drink some more and round and round it goes.
By sheer force of will, you lay off alcohol for a little while, but then you find yourself afraid of leaving the house, even leaving the room you happen to be in.
Anxiety kicks in then, quite probably shooting totally irrational thoughts through your mind. It’s no good. You have to have a drink and for a little while the noises and the jostling and the arguments going on in your head quiet down and you go for a walk.
There, that wasn’t so bad. You only had one glass of gin and it’s made you feel so much better. But as Shakespeare said, “there’s the rub.” The effect of that one glass of gin will wear off. Well, just one more, you think, and off you go, back on the roundabout, riding the chicken or the egg.
But let’s leave alcohol out of the mix for the moment. Let’s suppose you’re living a life as close to ideal as anyone is able. You live in a small town with countryside all around. You enjoy your job; it’s fairly well paid, and you have a good home life. Your spouse is supportive, and you both enjoy each other’s company.
There’s a picturesque river and there’s one spot you particularly like. It’s a glorious summers day, and for some reason you don’t have to work. You have a mid-week day off. So off you go to your favourite spot and sit on the river bank, leaning back against a large tree, watching the river meander lazily on its course.
There’s only one problem, about which you’re unaware to start with. You have a companion. A companion that can turn on you at the drop of a hat. Your mind. Suddenly, for no earthly reason you can fathom, you begin to feel uneasy. Why? Your life is so good, so peaceful and happy. Perhaps that’s the problem, you think. Life’s too good. There’s something around the corner that’s going to come up behind me and knock me off my perch.
You shake your head and decide to go for a walk. By the time you reach home again, the feelings of doubt and concern have left you. Almost. You see, this is the trouble. People ask why. Why do I keep feeling the way I do, when everything in my life is fine?
I’m afraid there’s no answer to your question. There’s medication, of course, but that has side issues which can be decidedly detrimental to your health in the long term. Besides, your doctor can start you on a course of drugs that after a week or two you realize aren’t doing you a bit of good. Indeed, quite the opposite. There can be a lot of trial and error in this exercise, usually to the detriment of the patient.
Most unfortunately, it appears that women are twice as likely to suffer from these conditions as men, although the statistics are only as accurate as the cases reported.
It’s equally true that women are a lot more sensible about their conditions than men. The latter often think it macho to ‘tough it out.’ This is singularly idiotic. Hate to say it, chaps, but you’re not going to win by yourself.
However, there do appear to be signs in the medical profession that doctors are turning towards more natural cures, rather than simply throwing a handful of pills at you. When all’s said and done, in truth, no-one really knows the root causes for these diseases.
For all the long words and scholarly dissertations, the mind remains a mirror to man’s ignorance.
After all, there are no mind surgeons, are there?
