I’ve seen several pieces of advice saying to avoid alcohol as it contributes to depression and anxiety. I believe it’s true, from experience. Just wondering why it’s true- what mechanisms are impacted by alcohol that contribute to depression and anxiety.
Only request: please don’t say ‘alcohol is a depressant.’ unless explaining how that makes alcohol contribute to depression/ anxiety (depressants are a completely different thing to depression)
In: Chemistry
We don’t actually know with any degree of certainty what mechanisms in the brain alcohol interacts with to produce the effects that it does, similar to anesthesia
As far as an actual reason for why it can make you feel that way, alcohol impairs your judgement, which can either make you extremely overconfident or extremely paranoid as you lose the ability to adequately judge things.
And as far as I am aware Alcohol doesn’t increase depression. It numbs pretty much all of your emotions, which is why miserable people drink to take the edge off of the pain both physical and emotional. If you’re already suicidal, it can numb your inhibitions stopping you from doing that, and the cycle of addiction itself can make you more miserable, but that’s addiction as opposed to the effects of the drug in the system
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