There’s a lot of information and references to alcohol being a depressant as it depresses the central nervous system. However, there’s not much info about it from that point on and on some level, it seems the connection to depression as mental health issue, at least based on cheap internet articles, is based on the use of the term ‘depressed’.
I understand why alcohol is not helpful on a practical level, but many imply that it will make you depressed or exacerbate on a physiological level.
Can anyone help explain this better?
Edited for clarity.
In: Biology
Alcohol depresses basic functions, hence slurred speech and stumbling. Basically doing anything while intoxicated becomes more difficult.
I’ve never experienced depression though, I’m told I’m the happy drunk. I did learn how to to say the alphabet backwards just in case.
Edit for context: I **do not** drink and drive. My town has an ordnance that enforces against being drunk in public. So, someone just walking home after a few drinks is enough to warrant “public intoxication”. I frequently see police cars idling near bars (which, I think is entrapment but whatever).
No no you’ve got it all wrong
I drink _because_ I am depressed
It actually makes me feel great, I wish I could do it all day every day, but I don’t hate my liver that much
Chronic use of alcohol will exacerbate depression. I don’t think there’s is clear evidence that alcohol causes depression.
Alcohol is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant. That’s different from brain chemistry disruptions that can cause clinical major depression.
CNS depressants make your central nervous system slow down. CNS stimulants (caffeine) speed up the central nervous system.
Seizure drugs are essentially CNS depressants. They slow down the brains processing speed so that it doesn’t become overwhelmed which could result in a seizure.
“To depress” means to slow down, bring down, or otherwise “lower” something.
Alcohol, as a depressant of the central nervous system, slows down its function. It slows your reflexes, dulls your mind, and reduces your inhibitions.
Depression as a mental health issue is a lowering of your mental state. You don’t feel as happy or as fulfilled as you once did or feel like you’re not getting anywhere in life.
Two uses of the same word, just like getting “high” from drugs isn’t the same meaning as climbing “high” on a ladder.
They’re just two different uses of the term depress. Alcohol does not cause the psychiatric condition of depression, it depresses the central nervous system which just means things like you are less in control of your own body.
You’ve already got your answer on the drug class known as “depressants” and how that term is not related to the mental health condition “depression”. Anyone arguing that connection based solely on that classification is just being obtuse.
HOWEVER, there is absolutely a link between any intoxicating or mind-altering substance and *many* psychiatric conditions, including depression. The nature of this link depends on the drug. For alcohol, I would say the link isn’t usually causal so much as exacerbating; you don’t develop major depressive disorder because you accidentally drank too much, but rather are motivated to consume alcohol for similar reasons that you start to feel depressed. It can then develop into what we call a “maladaptive coping mechanism”: some behavior we use to *try* to cope with our experiences (which is not, contrary to popular belief, inherently bad) that actually results in more problems. Drinking because you are sad may make you feel better for a few hours but will ultimately make you feel worse and does nothing to actually address the underlying issues causing you to feel that way.
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