Many of us drink alcohol to relieve stress.
The outcomes of our chronic stress
Our daily stress gives us muscle tension & headaches, and can also cause jaw clenching & teeth grinding. Stress makes us irritable and impatient. Stress contributes to our negative thinking. It also makes us feel tired, like we have low energy, or we are running on empty. Stress leaves us unable to relax.
Stress may cause indigestion, acid reflux, or nausea. When we are stressed, we may find ourselves sighing a lot or breathing rapidly and shallowly. Stress makes us anxious.
Chronic stress can present with sleep problems, distractibility, & inability to focus. Most of us find it difficult to concentrate when we are stressed. Stress makes us feel scattered.
Some of us may notice changes in our eating habits – we eat too much, i.e. binge eating, or we eat too little, noting a loss of appetite.
Stressful experiences are important risk factors for excessive alcohol consumption.
High levels of stress may reduce our brain’s normal response to alcohol, specifically the dopamine response in the brain’s reward center.
Here is more about the causes of stress in working moms.
Alcohol worsens our signs of stress
We commonly use alcohol as a coping strategy.
Drinking alcohol makes all of these signs & symptoms of stress WORSE. This is the paradox. We drink to relive stress but drinking makes our stress worse.
First alcohol lowers your inhibitions. Drinking alcohol works in the brain first, and acutely produces drowsiness or sedation.
Later we develop slurred speech, distorted vision and unclear thinking. Much later drinking can cause vomiting, upset stomach, & headaches.
Alcohol has adverse effects on our health and mental wellbeing.
More frequent alcohol use – like drinking daily – leads to trouble concentrating, loss of critical judgement, dulled perceptions. In addition, it causes frequent mood swings.
In the long run, alcohol – which is itself a depressant – has a serious impact on our mental health & can contribute to feelings of depression. Alcohol use disorder and depression are co-morbidities (that means they commonly go together).
Alcohol does NOT lower anxiety. In fact, alcohol changes the levels of GABA, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters in our brain, which can worsen our anxiety.
In addition, you may feel more anxious after the alcohol wears off. Anxiety induced by alcohol use can last for several hours, or for a day, after drinking.
Bottome line for alcohol and stress relationship
Drinking alcohol makes it HARDER for us to deal with stress. This is the paradox. We drink to relieve stress, but the drinking makes our stress symptoms and bodily functions worse. Drinking alcohol makes our mental health worse. There are better ways to deal with stress.
Confession: I’ve been there before – stressed at work, stressed with three kids, marriage out of kilter, & drinking too much. Drinking wine didn’t help, and it just made everything worse. It made me feel worse. When I began to identify the issues that were causing my stress, and to do the work necessary to modify those, then I began to feel better. When I felt better, I found myself drinking less. Drinking less made my symptoms of stress improve, in a noticeable way.
Please think about this when you pour up that glass of wine to settle your nerves, to unwind, or to try to relax. Sometimes, that wine is just not worth it.
