Alcohol is a great anti-anxiety drug and sedative, in small doses (like 1-3 drinks). That’s precisely why it has been so popular for thousands of years.<p>The problems with alcohol are (a) it just treats the symptom and doesn’t help fix whatever underlying issue is causing the stress, (b) it’s easy to take a far larger dose than necessary, far more often than necessary leading to abuse, and (c) acute effects of a large dose and chronic effects of frequent use are both highly destructive.