Alcohol and Depression

While alcohol can directly trigger feelings of depression, it may also contribute to its common symptoms in other indirect ways. Mentioned below are some common mechanisms through which alcohol may induce a depressive disorder in a person.

Alcohol works as a depressant.

Many people may feel depressed after drinking since alcohol acts as a central nervous system depressant. Drinking stimulates the brain’s reward system by triggering dopamine release. As the levels of dopamine rise, it induces a stimulating effect in the brain. This neurotransmitter also produces positive emotions that make a drinker feel good and reinforces their desire to drink more. However, remember that this is not the only way alcohol affects the central nervous system.

Alcohol also interferes with releasing certain other neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and norepinephrine. These neurotransmitters are important for mood regulation, and their falling levels may affect a user’s speech, energy, and coordination. The long-term effects of this phenomenon are much more severe and may force the brain into a state of depression and anxiety with time. 

Alcohol causes sleep disruption.

Many people who drink heavily close to bedtime complain of sleeping poorly with lots of tossing and turning, bizarre dreams, or a racing heart. These unpleasant experiences of troubled sleep relate to the changes in the brain’s chemistry due to alcohol use. Alcohol can also interfere with the sleep-wake cycle and keeps a drinker from getting enough REM sleep, a phase of sleep where most of the restoration and recovery takes place in the body. Additionally, drinking causes certain physical consequences, like dehydration and nausea, that may prevent restful sleep. Having troubled sleeping habits for a long time, in turn, increases the risk of low mood and depression.

Alcohol worsens negative emotions.

Experiencing a low mood after a night of heavy drinking can feel awful, especially for a person who already battles depression, as alcohol can magnify the severity of their emotions. Alcohol also affects specific areas of the brain that regulate emotions and may produce a temporary boost. However, a drinker may feel worse when these positive effects begin to wear off. Alcohol can also easily cloud their brain and keep them from seeing helpful solutions to the problems they are experiencing.

Because alcohol also lowers inhibitions, it may exacerbate specific symptoms that you have been trying to keep under wraps, for example, anger or sadness. This perpetuates a trickly cycle where you keep drinking to feel better and forget about some unwanted memories and emotions but end up getting flooded by them in the long run.

Drinking to cope becomes a pattern.

When someone regularly turns to alcohol to manage their negative feelings and emotions, they may withdraw from every other action that could address these problems more effectively. As a result, any troubles, whether due to a bad relationship or stress at work, may worsen.

People who tend to rely on drinking to ease social anxiety may also find it difficult to address the real cause of their discomfort. For others, drinking can heighten mood states, such as anger and violence, which may lead them to pick a fight with a loved one, further intensifying the symptoms of depression.