Alcohol and Depression- the light at the end of the tunnel

Friday night is considered a night when you forget about all you week’s troubles and get a ticket to an unforgettable concert with all your friends. Many look forward to this particular night. With times changing, gone are the days when the end of the week, marked a time to spend with you family learning how to cook a new meal from your loving mother.

As you enjoy that Friday night trying to console yourself from the stress in your life, you may feel that the world has come to a standstill without any complaints from your boss due to poor performance, or the repeated words from a bad break up. Alcohol is believed to have a magical effect of making everything stop to make you happy and stress free. Alcoholics strongly support this claim giving personal experiences of what alcohol does to them. Why then do some people cry when they are drunk? This makes you doubt if really alcohol relieves anxiety or makes it worse.

A few minutes after abusing the drug, may leave you sleepy and happy but that is how far the excitement goes. Alcohol is known to be an anti-depressant that some people use to self-medicate. In as much as it has sedative effects to relief your temporary sadness, it may lead you to anxiety and depression. Since depression and alcohol addiction are very dangerous to your health, alcohol withdrawal will help you separate these two deadly conditions.

How does alcohol abuse cause anxiety and depression?

Chemical imbalance

After excessive indulgence in alcohol, the many chemicals in your sweet drink causes an imbalance with the nutrients in your body especially if you have dieting issues, thus leading to anxiety and depression. In case before you went drinking you had emotional problems, depression will worsen after your night is over. This is what makes you curse Friday night on a Saturday morning when you can’t handle the alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Self-medication

Taking alcohol leaves you with the impression that great things are bound to happen. With so many dreams of how life is, the next day it probably hits you that the castles you were building while drunk were not real. This makes you anxious since you wake up with the same or even worse problems than you had before drinking. Since alcohol has a tendency to make you more courageous, you might have done something regrettable to an ally and facing them might bring you more anxiety. Such regrets lead many to depression due to improper judgments under the influence.

Brain damage

Have you ever asked yourself why you tend to forget what you may have done or said while drunk? According to National Institute on Alcohol abuse, this does not happen by chance. As you drink, your brain cells shrink such that it causes some damage on your brain which not only makes you forget some things, but also loose coordination and as well develop mood swings.  All this will definitely make you anxious as your friends keep on exaggerating on your behavior the previous night. The confusion of wondering if indeed it is true or not can lead to endless cycles of depression.

How do you treat depression and alcohol abuse?

Studies reveal that the chances of getting depressed while abusing alcohol are high. A close relationship was found to exist between neurophysiological changes related to abusing alcohol and the mechanisms that cause depression. This however does not mean that it is an irreversible situation. Some of the treatment methods that you should consider include:

Medication

Combining alcohol detox medicines and antidepressants helps your stabilize your moods as they work towards modification of your brain chemistry. A few months of medication will help you feel less anxious as the detox gets rid of the toxins in your body but you should continue taking them even if you feel better. This is because, the two conditions combined are bound to recur if don’t finish your medication.

 Therapy

Being depressed in the first place is mostly caused by environmental factors. Engaging in talk therapy will help you determine the root cause of your depression so that you can change your lifestyle to a stress free one.

Cognitive therapy will also come in handy to help you find lasting solutions to your problems so that you stop turning to alcohol every time you world seems to be falling apart.  A good therapy helps you monitor your behaviors so that you can learn better ways of reacting to problems. Through encouraging positive thinking, your self-esteem should go up so as to get rid of any kind of suicidal thoughts brought about by depression.

Meditation

Let yoga classes during this period remain your best friend. This will help you connect with your inner being so that you can focus more on yourself in an environment that calms your mind free from any distractions and ill thoughts.

Substitution

This can be in different ways but whichever you choose, ensure that it is working towards making you better. Since alcohol abuse is what seems to quench your thirst, replace your bottle of beer with a bottle of water or a cup of tea to keep you hydrated as you enjoy healthier drinks.

Let your Friday night activity be substituted from a drinking spree to a day where you can just relax and play on your play station or watch a movie with a friend. Replace the friends that encourage you to drink with those who help you with your anxiety. It is time you cut off anybody who makes you feel less of human and associate with people who encourage you to see the positive side of life.

Final thoughts

Alcohol withdrawal journey coupled with depression, may be twice as hard to beat but with proper care and the tips discussed above, you can be a better person that sees the beauty of life. Alcohol will not take away the pain you may be feeling but just dig you deep into depression. Therefore, use the elaborated alternatives to make you see the light at the end of the tunnel.