Alcohol Relieves Almost Every Symptom I Have

I just passed my one year Covid anniversary. I feel worse than ever, and worse when I was actually positive for Covid.

My symptoms:

  • Hypertension - My blood pressure is consistently around 150/105 even after quitting smoking, changing my diet, losing weight, and being on medication. Even when I was overweight, eating like crap, and smoking a pack a day my blood pressure before I got Covid was always around 125/85.....high, but nothing serious.

  • Heart palpitations and a high resting heart beat (usually around 105 bpm).

  • Constant dry cough

  • Muscle pain and fatigue

  • Dizziness

  • Random sharp stabbing pains in both lungs (around the top of each)

  • A constant dull chest ache/tightness

  • Shortness of breath.

I have seen multiple doctors. I've been to the ER multiple times afraid I'm having a heart attack. I've had tons of tests done.

Everything is always normal. Nothing comes up as an issue.

Every doctor I've seen has insisted it's anxiety.

I'm nearly 40 years old. I've dealt with anxiety since I was a child. This is NOT anxiety.

On top of that, I have a prescription for Ativan.

You know what it does for my symptoms?

NOTHING.

You know what helps? Alcohol. Temporarily of course. I feel worse than normal the next day.

After three glasses of wine over an hour or so.....my blood pressure is not just lower.....it's in a good range. It drops to around 110/65.

The chest tightness? Gone.

Muscle aches? Gone.

Shortness of breath? Gone.

Resting heart rate? Down from like 105 to 85.

How does this make sense? Alcohol is supposed to RAISE your blood pressure and heart rate.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I don't want to bring it up to my doctor's, because they already try to gaslight me with "anxiety" and I'm afraid they're going to use it as a "gotcha" and tell me it's because they're right and having a few drinks calms my nerves or whatever.

If that were truly the case though, I'd be getting the same results every time I popped a couple Ativan, but I'm not.

The worst part about this, is it's just a temporary fix.....

Once or twice a week I knock back a bottle of wine and I feel great for a few hours. I feel normal. I feel like the old me. Granted, I have to suffer for it the next day. All my symptoms are exasperated.