Alcohol & your mental health

Alcohol and mental health are closely linked. Drinking too much can affect your wellbeing. Some people may drink to try to relieve the symptoms of mental ill-health.
People drink for a wide range of reasons: to celebrate, socialise, commiserate or drown our sorrows. We may drink to try and change our mood: to feel more relaxed, courageous or confident. However, the effect of alcohol is only temporary. As it wears off, we often feel worse because of how alcohol withdrawal affects our brain and body.
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 wellbeing can become a problem in itself. There’s no shame in asking for help and exploring what a new relationship with alcohol could look like.

​How alcohol affects your brain.
Alcohol is a depressant, meaning it can disrupt the balance of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) in your brain and affect your feelings, thoughts and behaviour.
Alcohol affects the part of your brain that controls inhibition, so after a drink or two, you may feel relaxed, less anxious and more confident. But these effects quickly wear off. The chemical changes in your brain can soon lead to more negative feelings such as anger, depression or anxiety taking over – regardless of the mood you’re in.
Alcohol also slows down how your brain processes information, making it harder to work out what you’re really feeling and the possible consequences of your actions.
In the long-term, alcohol uses up and reduces the amount of neurotransmitters in our brains, but we need a certain level to ward off anxiety and depression. This can make you want to drink more to relieve these difficult feelings – which can start a cycle of dependence.

​https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/a-z-topics/alcohol-and-mental-health
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