I tried it, self-medication, using alcohol and/or tranquilisers to help get me through a few bad times. And it seemed to work, or at least that is what I thought it did. Now that I have studied more about personal resilience (resiliency) maybe it wasn't such a great idea after all.
I am not alone in self-medicating. In Britain for example where there is a population of 63 million, people allegedly consume up to 10 million tranquilisers, 10 million cannabis joints, and 120 million alcoholic drinks each week.
These three drugs help to boost the neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-amino-butyric acid) which turns off the production of adrenalin and calms us down. This is why we feel so good when we have had that first drink. Unfortunately the feeling only lasts for an hour or so, and we become irritable again. So we have another drink.
Eventually, after a session of drinking, the GABA levels become suppressed and we return to being irritable and stressed. In other words it has the reverse effect.
Most of us avoid this reverse effect by drinking in the evening and going to bed while we are still under the influence. We get to sleep very quickly because of the sedative (and depressive) nature of alcohol. Unfortunately alcohol disturbs the normal REM cycle where our dreams help regenerate the mind while we sleep.
So, we wake up feeling even worse because of low GABA, dehydration, and sluggishness as our body tries to get rid of the toxin - alcohol. The end result, you are more anxious than when you first started.
Bottom line, self-medication is not the answer. Alcohol in particular is certainly not the answer and you may be doing yourself more harm than good by consuming alcohol to self-medicate. It's taken me 40 years to find this out after lots of experimenting on your behalf...
Try it for yourself, have a couple of nights without alcohol and see how you feel in the morning. I try to and it works for me.