You may feel like alcohol is your coping mechanism: a way to deal with depression, stress, anxiety or other difficult feelings. You might be nervous about what life would be like if you stopped drinking or cut back. But relying on alcohol to manage your mental well-being can become a problem in itself.
In small amounts, alcohol can have a euphoric effect. This is because alcohol causes a release of dopamine, a chemical that makes us feel good. However, the more we drink, the more likely we are to start feeling angry, hostile, or sad.
Drinking will only make depression worse. People who are depressed and drink too much have more frequent and severe episodes of depression, and are more likely to think about suicide. Heavy alcohol use also can make antidepressants less effective.
When we start drinking alcohol, our bodies produce extra dopamine, which travels to the parts of the brain known as 'reward centres' – the bits that make us feel good and make us want to do more of whatever we're doing [1]. So, our first couple of drinks are likely to make us feel good.
Alcohol dependence causes the brain pathways to become altered. The brain became dependent on the dopamine released by the daily drinking. Once sober, brain chemistry will adjust, but it takes time. In the meantime, symptoms of depression can be very common.
The good news is that reducing or stopping drinking can improve your mood and mental health. In fact, people who are depressed often find that cutting out alcohol entirely for just four weeks makes a clear difference in how they feel.
You might find yourself in a better mood
Alcohol can ease emotions in the short term, but once the alcohol begins to wear off, it can actually create more anger, depression and anxiety. Plus, after three weeks without alcohol you will almost certainly be sleeping better, which also has mood-improving benefits.
It slows down processes in your brain and central nervous system, and can initially make you feel less inhibited. In the short-term, you might feel more relaxed - but these effects wear off quickly. In fact, if you're experiencing anxiety, drinking alcohol could be making things worse.
While alcohol may appear as a short-term solution to restlessness and anxiety often associated with ADHD, heavy consumption can intensify symptoms of ADHD and render some ADHD medications ineffective.
Mostly, the reason you "feel good" is alcohol lowers your inhibitions and social fears, slowing down parts of the brain that are responsible for critical thinking, judgement and analysis. In other words, you feel less inhibited and more "free".
Drinking beer or wine sometimes seems like a helpful way to ease anxiety. This is because alcohol is both a stimulant and a sedative, meaning it can make you feel more energetic and engaged, as well as calm and relaxed.
"Stress can also affect how quickly you get drunk as when you are more stressed you get an influx of different hormones in the body including the stress hormone cortisol. "This can increase the metabolism of alcohol in the liver. It can mean it is metabolised faster."
Summary of Using Alcohol as a Crutch
Whether you're using a drink as liquid confidence, to beat social anxiety, or ward off sadness, there is always a downside. The short-term boost can lead to long-term problems like tolerance, health concerns, and worsened depression, stress, or anxiety.
The Happy Drunk
In the early stages of drinking, when we are just “tipsy,” most of us experience a degree of euphoria. For some people, this state of utter joy persists no matter how much they drink. They might start to slur their words or become less coordinated, but nothing can bring their mood down.
For example, many depressed people hold on tightly to beliefs such as “I am defective,” “I am unlovable,” “I will never be successful,” or “The world is doomed to disaster.” These types of thoughts are cognitive symptoms that occur as commonly in depression as a fever occurs as a symptom of an infection.
Methyphobia is the Fear of Alcohol, the fear of getting drunk or the fear of becoming addicted to alcohol. For some people the idea of not being in 'control' can be a major cause of anxiety and this may be the main reason why people develop methyphobia.
For men, binge drinking is 5 or more drinks consumed on one occasion. Underage drinking: Any alcohol use by those under age 21. Heavy drinking: For women, heavy drinking is 8 drinks or more per week. For men, heavy drinking is 15 drinks or more per week.
Reasons Why You Get Severe Anxiety After Quitting Alcohol
Not all will experience PAWS anxiety, but for those who do, here are some of the things that trigger it: Changes in brain chemistry. Alcohol dependency and addiction cause significant changes to occur in the brain anatomy and brain chemistry.
Animal studies also have found that acute alcohol exposure elevates serotonin levels within the brain (LeMarquand et al. 1994b; McBride et al. 1993), suggesting either that more serotonin is released from the serotonergic axons or that the neurotransmitter is cleared more slowly from the synapses.
The liver metabolizes alcohol at a very constant rate, approximately one drink per hour. If there is excessive alcohol in the blood, the liver cannot speed up the detoxification process. The unmetabolized alcohol just continues to circulate in the bloodstream.
Research has also shown that taking a month-long break from alcohol can be good for the liver. For a successful break from alcohol, as with dieting, it's important to have a plan in place for when the allotted break time ends.
If you remove alcohol from your body for an entire month, you may find that you have an easier time sleeping through the night, which will give you more energy during the day. If you stop drinking alcohol for a whole month, you can reduce the stress placed on your GI tract. It could help you with bloating.