Alcohol Use, Abuse, and Depression: Is There a Connection?

JED has many ways for you to stay connected through our resources and educate yourself and those around you. Students are struggling with their mental health more than ever. Your young person is not quite an adult but also not a child anymore. They’re going through so much emotionally and physically, and are just trying to figure life out. But there’s a difference between normal growing pains and struggle. If you notice that your teen or young adult is struggling emotionally, there are ways to help. Still, many people can acknowledge the experience, work through it, and move forward.

• Prolonged alcohol abuse can drastically change and rewire the brain as well as impact many other chemical balances in the body.
• As more is learned about the neurobiology of addiction and depression, more treatment strategies are being evaluated and offered.
• Depression can severely impact a person’s personal and professional life and potentially even lead to suicide.
• To learn about rehab programs designed to treat co-occurring conditions, such as alcoholism and depression, contact a treatment provider today.

Depression is a mental health condition that involves continually experiencing feelings of sadness and hopelessness. This can affect many aspects of life, including professional responsibilities, personal goals and relationships with family members and friends. If you are struggling with depression, don’t exacerbate your depression symptoms with alcohol.

The Complicated Relationship Between Alcohol and Depression

In addition to outlining the characteristics of depressive disorders, the fact sheet explains why alcohol use is not a solution to cope with depression. The fact sheet includes some recommendations on what you can do if you are feeling depressed or thinking that you drink too much. Historically, depression rates in Louisiana have been higher than the national average and treatment is not a one size fits all process. At Baton Rouge Behavioral Hospital, alcohol and depression we are an accredited mental health facility prepared to treat mental health conditions and substance abuse together depending on your unique situation. Common treatment modalities for depression and alcohol use include psychotherapy, medication, lifestyle changes, or a combination of techniques. As briefly discussed earlier in this article, the family studies are far from definitive because of difficulties in the methodologies used.

Depression can also be directly caused by alcohol in the case of a substance-induced disorder. You’ve experienced withdrawal symptoms from alcohol, such as nausea, sweating, racing heart, or trouble sleeping. Individuals diagnosed with clinical depression should be extremely cautious when it comes to using substances such as alcohol.

How Much Alcohol is Too Much?

People are often seduced by the sedating effects of alcohol and use it as a kind of medication to help distract them from persistent feelings of sadness. Alcohol may appear to temporarily relieve some of the symptoms of depression. However, it ultimately worsens depression on a long-term basis.

Because of the complicated relationship between depression and alcohol use, Lurie says it’s best to address both at the same time through a specialized treatment program. Not everyone who drinks alcohol to cope with depression has alcohol use disorder , Sharma says. At the time of this article, she manages her depression with therapy and medication. Tietz knows thoughts and feelings of low self-worth are her main trigger to drink, so she’s learned to cope by calling a friend, taking a walk and listening to music, or lifting weights at the gym. The connection between drinking alcohol and depression is a complicated “the chicken or the egg” conundrum. Many people who self-medicate with alcohol often report and increase in anxiety and depressive symptoms after the sober up. Because alcohol can feed the brain’s serotonin receptors, it can make us feel good for a short amount of time.

Alcohol use and depression symptoms

During his teens, he realized drinking boosted his confidence and made him feel like he “fit in” with his peers. Beginning at the age of 14, Kelley Kitley, a psychotherapist in private practice, recalls sleeping a lot, losing her appetite, withdrawing socially, and having negative thoughts about herself. She soon began going to therapy and taking antidepressants, but continued to experience bouts of depression from time to time — especially after the birth of her four children. Below, people who experienced this connection firsthand share how their drinking and depression fueled each other — and how they ended the cycle. If you’ve ever used alcohol to deal with feelings of depression, you may have found that after your buzz wears off, you’re left feeling even lower than before. New Directions for Women, we assist women in overcoming alcohol addictions. An individual might receive antidepressants for some symptoms of their AUD or depression.

• Shortly after becoming a mother, Kitley began coping with her depression through binge drinking.
• “Therapeutic interventions designed to address both issues often include a focus on addressing emotional pain or trauma, as well as developing and practicing healthy coping behaviors,” says Dr. Kennedy.
• The misfiring of certain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, is directly related to clinical depression (not to be confused with temporarily “feeling bad” after a bout of heavy drinking, which goes away after a few days).
• Alcohol use issues can cause or worsen symptoms of depression.

They should feel as if your concerns come from a place of love and that you genuinely want to help them. Regularly drinking a lot of alcohol can cause or worsen symptoms of depression. Self-medicating by drinking more alcohol to try and numb or mask depression can also make your symptoms worse. Alcohol is a depressant and has a sedative effect on your brain. While a few beers or glasses of wine can seem to relieve stress and help you feel more relaxed and calmer, they can actually put you at an increased risk of depression. Alcohol is a depressant that can cause your problems to seem worse than they actually are and can make you feel even more depressed than before you had a drink.

Support for young people with mental health issues

In this case, it is uncertain whether the longer term treatment of alcoholism requires additional aggressive therapies aimed at treating underlying depressive or anxiety disorders. Second, the possibility that a longer term anxiety or depressive disorder exists in an alcoholic must always be considered. Schuckit and colleagues have studied the rates of psychiatric disorders in COA’s from a variety of perspectives.

Similarly, in a study by Kammeier and colleagues,1 there was little evidence that preexisting psychiatric symptoms measured by a standard personality test predicted later alcoholism. Also, an 18-year followup of 80 children who had experienced severe depressive episodes earlier in life revealed no evidence of an increased risk for alcoholism during the followup period (Harrington et al. 1990). Finally, Schuckit’s research group followed 239 alcoholic men 1 year after they received alcoholism treatment, and the data revealed no significantly increased rates of major depressive or anxiety disorders . It is possible, however, that some of these studies might have excluded subjects with more severe anxiety or depressive disorders from the original samples, and consequently more work in this area is required . Alcohol dependence has been shown to be genetically influenced and to run in families . The disorder often develops when individuals are in either their twenties or thirties. Similarly, major anxiety disorders usually are apparent before age 30, and although major depressive disorders often have a later onset, they too are frequently observed before age 30.