Alcohol makes you more stressed
Dry January can be a time to reflect on your drinking habits and your relationship with alcohol.
This journal is designed to help you make future decisions about your alcohol consumption, including how alcohol can make you more stressed and risks of future alcoholism.
We are drinking more
Alcohol has empty calories. By that I mean that the calories consumed do not generate anything useful to us, yet as a nation we are drinking more of it.
Data taken from statista.com shows that during the pandemic consumer spending on alcohol has risen.
Bar graph showing money spent on alcohol in the UK from 2005-2021
It isn’t surprising as many people I speak to, and clients I see, have fallen into patterns of drinking more. Simply because it was ‘something to do’ over lockdown.
However, just like any habit it can be helpful to review if the habit is still serving you in the right way. As well as noticing what kind of drinker you are.
What kind of drinker are you?
Research shows that the way in which alcohol affects you can teach you if you are at risk of alcoholism and help you decide if you want to reduce or monitor your alcohol intake.
Drinkers can be divided into two groups.
People who have a few drinks and soon start to feel sleepy and have less energy.
People who after a few drinks do not feel sedated, become energised and can carry on drinking long into the night. They have a limit but the threshold is much higher than most. It is important to recognise this as a risk.
If you fall into the second group, then studies show, this can mean you are more at risk of alcoholism if you carry on drinking heavily. More on this topic see research discussed by Huberman, my favourite neuroscientist.
Drinking and how it can change our behaviour
Drinking changes our behaviour, we don’t need scientists to tell us that. Speaking louder, impaired judgment, less inhibited generally.
However, what science also teaches us is that for people who drink regularly, one or two nights a week or at the weekend, there are longer term effects. There is a decrease in top down inhibition and an increase in impulsive behaviour that occurs when not drinking due to the long term changes in neural circuits in the brain.
Fortunately this is reversible for non-chronic drinkers, abstaining for 2-6 months repairs the neural circuits and they can return to normal.
3 wine glasses, a quarter full with white wine, are being held together by 3 people’s hands
Alcohol makes me feel good
Alcohol makes us feel good because of how it dramatically changes the brain activity that controls the release of serotonin.
At first these brain functions become hyperactive and people feel good, self image improves, mood and wellbeing improve and we become more chatty.
Then as people drink more alcohol these levels drop and so you go and get another drink to feel better. However science shows us that there is zero chance of getting back back to that first elevated mood. Being aware of this can help when choosing to have another.
Alcohol makes us more stressed
Many people drink to cope with the stress of the day. After a long day at work a glass of wine or a beer is a quick fix to feeling more relaxed.
This is because alcohol has effects on the parts of the body that control whether or not we perceive things as stressful or not stressful. This is via the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. The fancy science names you don’t need to remember, but what is important to note is that these changes continue past the time alcohol has been consumed.
Those that drink a few drinks regularly, 1 or 2 a night or just at the weekend will experience these changes that result in more cortisol, the stress hormone, being released when they are not drinking. Therefore, they feel more stressed and anxious when they are not drinking.
Alcohol is changing brain circuitry through the immediate effects but also causing changes that persist past the time of feeling tipsy or drunk.
In summary the long term changes in the brain to body stress system point in 3 directions:
Increased stress when people are not drinking and therefore are less resilient to stress
Diminished mood and feelings of wellbeing when people are not drinking
Changes in the neurocircuitry that cause people to want to drink even more, to get back to the place they were feeling before they started drinking
If you are wanting to change your alcohol use longer term then be prepared that as you reduce alcohol intake you may experience increased anxiety and feelings of stress. It can be helpful to practise tools to manage stress and anxiety. Follow me on social media this week for take away tools.
If you would like further help with your relationship to alcohol then please get in touch.
