If you’re thinking of mixing alcohol and ecstasy, we strongly advise you not to. This combination of drugs is one of the most common forms of substance abuse at parties, but it comes with severe risks even if you’ve taken both drugs before.
People mix them to feel a stronger high, make the euphoria last longer, and enjoy a sense of lightness and joy. But alcohol consumption mixed with drug abuse often leads to serious damage to internal organs, strong addiction, and in many cases, overdose or even death.
If you’re considering mixing these two drugs or you suspect your loved one is doing so, we suggest you read this article. In it, we’ll explain how alcohol and ecstasy affect your body, the dangers of this combination, what the real risks are, and how to find addiction treatment help if you’re already using and want to quit.
Key Takeaways
Why You Shouldn’t Mix Alcohol And Ecstasy
Mixing ecstasy with alcohol or MDMA is extremely dangerous because taking these drugs while drinking alcohol can intensify the negative side effects of either drug, like increased heart rate, dehydration, nausea, confusion, or even overdose. There’s a strong chance that you may experience intense physical side effects, pass out, or even overdose and die due to this mixture.
When ecstasy and alcohol are combined, they can mask each other’s effects, which makes it difficult to gauge your level of intoxication. This often leads people to consume far more alcohol than they normally would, significantly increasing risks of alcohol poisoning, respiratory depression, and even death due to the compounded depressant effects on the central nervous system.
The major problem with this combination is that these two drugs affect the body in two drastically different and sometimes conflicting ways. When you combine MDMA use with alcohol abuse, it becomes impossible to predict what will happen. You’re putting yourself at great risk.
Alcohol is a depressant, which means it slows down the central nervous system. And, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, MDMA is a lab-made synthetic drug that stimulates your central nervous system.
When you mix it with a stimulant like ecstasy (MDMA), it creates a biochemical conflict in your body. The stimulant pushes your brain into overdrive, while the depressant tries to slow it down. This creates intense, damaging stress on your body.
Both ethanol (alcohol) and MDMA share several dangerous effects, including:
When you mix these two drugs together, it’s like playing Russian roulette: you may get a prolonged “high feeling”, but you may also induce respiratory failure, blacking out, or an overdose.
What Are The Effects of Combining Alcohol With MDMA
When you combine MDMA with alcohol, you may experience a heightened sense of pleasure, but you may also experience:
The effects of ecstasy are short-lived, which often pushes people to mix it with other psychoactive substances to keep the high going. And while this altered state of mind might seem exciting or even tempting, the risks far outweigh any momentary pleasure.
The intense stimulation of your central nervous system and the surge of adrenaline come with serious consequences. Even if you don’t feel tired and can “party” all night, you’re paying a heavy price.
What Are the Dangers of Mixing Alcohol With Ecstasy?
In addition to all the harmful effects listed above, combining MDMA and alcohol puts you at serious risk of organ failure, personality changes, distorted perception of reality, impaired judgment, and physical exhaustion.
It also weakens your immune system, which increases your chances of contracting life-threatening infections via risky behaviours or fatality due to injuries or auto accidents.
Here’s more information on the dangers of mixing alcohol with ecstasy:
Increased Risk of Overdose
Combining alcohol with ecstasy raises your risk of overdose by up to 30-40%, according to a study published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics by Hernández-López C, et al. entitled "Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy) and alcohol interactions in humans: psychomotor performance, subjective effects, and pharmacokinetics."
Their study says:
"Combined use of MDMA and alcohol causes dissociation between subjective and objective sedation. Subjects may feel euphoric and less sedated and might have the feeling of doing better, but actual performance ability continues to be impaired by the effect of alcohol"
This means that you won’t feel the true effects of alcohol or notice the concentrations of either drug in your system. This could result in overdose or death, and sadly, does in many cases.
Increased Risk of Injury
Mixing these two drugs often leads to psychotic episodes, including intense hallucinations, agitation, loss of time perception, and depersonalisation. At the very least, it makes it difficult for you to control your behaviour and intensifies your emotions.
These symptoms can trigger sudden outbursts of aggression, putting you and others around you in danger. In this state, you might hurt someone else or suffer serious injuries yourself.
Organ Damage
Your body isn’t built to handle long-term exposure to stress hormones like catecholamines. That’s why the MDMA and alcohol combination can cause acute kidney or liver failure, stroke, heart attack, and hypertensive crisis.
If you have a history of alcohol abuse, this is even more dangerous (and we suggest you abstain from drugs altogether).
The risk of death from using MDMA and alcohol increases 5 to 8 times if you suffer from heart or neurological conditions, diabetes, obesity, hormonal disorders, have a history of hypoxia or blood clots, or have kidney problems.
Risk of Dependence or Addiction
While most people take ecstasy with alcohol just to “have fun,” this combination can quickly devolve into dependence and full-on addiction. While many people do take ecstasy and other party drugs to just have a good time on occasion, it’s important to remember that both alcohol and ecstasy are habit-forming drugs that lead to substance use disorders.
It might start out as “just fun”. But it’s easy to become reliant on these mind-altering substances physically and emotionally. Many of our patients here at the Cabin started with harmless partying, but that led to using every weekend. And then from every weekend, it slowly became every night.
It’s a very slippery slope indeed.
If you or someone you love is taking either - or both - of these drugs often and it’s affecting other areas of their lives, we suggest seeking addiction treatment immediately. It’s always better to talk to a healthcare professional than to let regular drug use spiral into addiction.
Note:
Ecstasy in any form (including pill form) is illegal according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Anyone seeking drug treatment should be aware that if they're taking ecstasy regularly, they run the risk of severe legal consequences.
Does MDMA Cause Depression?
Yes, ecstasy use increases your risk of developing depression due to the way it affects your brain.
MDMA releases serotonin in your brain, giving you that amazing rush of euphoria and connection that makes the drug so appealing. But what goes up must come down. When it wears off, you're left with what many call the "Tuesday blues," where your mood crashes, you feel irritable, and everything seems grey and exhausting.
With regular use, your brain compensates for repeated artificial serotonin surges by downregulating (reducing) its natural serotonin system. This neuroadaptation results in diminished baseline serotonin function, which makes people feel more depressed without the drug. In plain English, that means your brain no longer produces happiness chemicals on its own and relies on drugs to feel good. Without them, life feels dull and unrewarding.
This is supported by research from Morgan, MJ, in their study, "Recreational use of 'ecstasy' (MDMA) is associated with elevated impulsivity and depression in users", from Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2004 and cited in the National Institutes of Health:
"Regular MDMA users report significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to non-users. One study found that up to 70% of MDMA users experience post-use depressive symptoms, particularly when alcohol is also consumed."
Alcohol produces similar long-term effects on mood regulation. Chronic alcohol use disrupts your brain’s balance of inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters, which has been shown to induce depressive states.
If you’re taking MDMA and struggling with psychological issues due to your drug use, recognising the connection between depression and alcohol or ecstasy is an important first step toward breaking the cycle and finding healthier ways to improve your mood without substances.
How to Get Help for MDMA or Alcohol Addiction
If you’re struggling with alcohol addiction, ecstasy addiction, or some combination, we want you to know that there are treatment options available and hope for recovery. Dependence and addiction are not a character flaw. They are a disease.
If you're suffering from alcohol addiction, ecstasy abuse issues, or other substance use disorders, we suggest you talk to a treatment provider. Some of your options for treatment include:
If you'd like to explore additional treatment options, fill in our contact form, and we will be in contact as soon as possible.
The Cabin Chiang Mai Can Help With Ecstasy or Alcohol Addiction
Mixing MDMA with alcohol frequently is a potentially dangerous sign that your recreational drug use has become a problem.
If so, The Cabin Chiang Mai is a private and convenient solution for anyone looking for addiction treatment. We are a team of credentialed medical providers specialising in addiction treatment.
Nobody understands what you’re going through better than we do. Even if you feel isolated, depressed, or stuck right now, recovery is possible.
As Asia’s longest-running and most respected rehab clinic, we provide professional support from experienced addiction specialists and therapists in an ideal setting for recovery. Here you can recover, surrounded by Buddhist temples, lakes, and serene mountains. You can even engage in art therapy classes, Muay Thai boxing training, and excursions into nature.
We offer medical detox, counselling, intensive outpatient treatment online or over the phone, or inpatient treatment for severe addiction. We will create a custom treatment plan that fits your budget, schedule, and symptoms of addiction.
Contact us now for your free intake call. We can get you help even if it’s not at our clinic. We can help you figure out your insurance coverage, talk to an insurance provider, and give you up-to-date information on treatment options. At the very least, we can point you in the right direction on where to get help.
