The Devastating Effects of Alcohol on Your Mental Health

Welcome to our guide on the mental health effects of alcohol. If you drink alcohol regularly and are struggling with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and mood swings, it could be directly linked to your alcohol consumption.

Alcohol is a depressant drug that has devastating negative effects on your mental health. It’s proven to cause low mood, anxiety, low self-esteem, thoughts of self-harm, low libido, and decreased mental performance. 

But you’re here reading this article. That means there’s hope.

If you decrease your drinking or quit altogether, your mental health should improve. You might think that this drug is helping you cope with your mental health issues, but the opposite is true: Alcohol is the REASON that you’re struggling with psychological issues. 

This article is for anyone who wants to learn more about the negative effects of alcohol on the brain. If you’re dependent on it to function or just curious about cutting back, we suggest you read it and take our advice.

Let’s begin.

How Does Alcohol Affect The Brain?

Alcohol is a depressant drug that affects the levels of neurotransmitters in your brain like dopamine, GABA, glutamate, and serotonin. Together, these chemicals are responsible for your mood, motivation, happiness, calmness, and other important functions.

Alcohol temporarily increases the production or enhances the effects of these “happiness chemicals”. That’s why when you’re out for drinks, people are generally more chatty, laughing loudly, and having a good time. But the effects are only temporary. 

As soon as the effects of alcohol wear off, you’ll feel the negative consequences. This is a classic case of “what goes up must come down”.

Having a beer or two with your friends might make you more relaxed or “happier” – we use that term lightly – in the short term. But, over time, chronic alcohol abuse leads to:

• Changes in your reward pathways
• Alcohol dependence or addiction (alcohol use disorder)
• Damage to your frontal lobe (your “thinking” brain)
• Hippocampal impairment (the part of your brain responsible for memory)
• Changes in neurotransmitter function

That last bullet point is a major reason why you’re experiencing mental health problems due to alcohol. Let’s explore that now.

How Does Alcohol Affect Your Mental Health?

Alcohol’s devastating effects on mental health all stem from how it affects the production of neurotransmitters in the brain (that last bullet point from before).

In the short term, drinking beer, wine, or spirits floods your brain with “happiness” and “relaxation” chemicals. Life is good. You feel amazing. But it’s not natural. None of it is “real”. Your brain begins to compensate for this intense flood of happiness and relaxation by reducing its natural production of these chemicals. 

Over time, you’ll lose your natural capacity to feel happy or relaxed without an alcoholic drink. And when you’re not drinking, you’ll begin to experience extreme negative effects like alcohol withdrawal, emotional issues, cravings, and problems with mental well-being.

Let’s cover the mental health side effects of chronic alcohol misuse in more detail:

And, if you’re already suffering from this condition, drinking will make your depression worse. This is why people who stop drinking usually report that they feel more upbeat and less sad throughout the day.

Anxiety

Alcohol initially makes you feel calm. But as tolerance builds, the brain compensates by increasing stress-related chemicals like cortisol. This means you’ll feel even more anxiety when not drinking.

Do you see the ingenious trap?

You feel a bit anxious, so you take a drink to relieve the worries. But too much alcohol creates even more anxiety, so you drink even more and build up a tolerance. You also don’t invest any time in learning healthy coping mechanisms, so your anxiety keeps getting worse and worse. This is the negative cycle of addiction that alcohol and other drugs trap you in.

NOTE: Alcohol can also cause panic disorder due to the way it affects GABA production in your brain.

Impaired Judgment

Alcohol weakens the prefrontal cortex, which controls decision-making and impulse regulation. Over time, this leads to riskier behaviour, poor financial or social decisions, and an inability to assess consequences.

In the long run, this can even lead to mood disorders and very impulsive behaviours. People who regularly drink put themselves at an increased risk of getting into accidents, starting fights, or getting a DUI.

Mood Swings

Alcohol interferes with your GABA and glutamate production—two chemicals responsible for mood regulation. If you’re feeling extremely irritable and emotional, alcohol may have disrupted your mood-regulating neurotransmitters.

Increased Stress Levels

While alcohol may temporarily numb stress, it increases the production of stress hormones in the long run. This means you’ll feel anxious and overwhelmed far more often if you’re drinking heavily.

Psychosis

Prolonged alcohol abuse can alter dopamine function and damage brain pathways, which could lead to alcohol-induced psychosis in severe cases.

Brain Damage

Alcohol can destroy your brain, especially with long-term heavy drinking. Alcohol-related brain damage is a real risk, and it’s something we see very regularly among our patients.

Chronic alcohol misuse can lead to permanent brain damage. It can affect your memory, decision-making, and even basic motor skills. One severe condition, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (often called “wet brain“), happens when alcohol depletes your body of thiamine (vitamin B1). People with a “wet brain” are often confused, have difficulty walking, and experience severe memory loss. It’s heartbreaking, but the good news is that quitting alcohol can help prevent further damage. The brain can even repair itself!

Suicidal Thoughts

Alcohol is a depressant that often leads to feelings of hopelessness. It can also impair your judgment, making it easier to act on thoughts you might not normally consider.

Sadly, one study from the National Institutes of Health‘s National Library of Medicine entitled Suicidal Ideation among Persons with Alcohol Use Disorder: A Cross-Sectional Study by Rahoof, Febine V., et. al., found that 43% of suicide attempts had consumed alcohol at the time of the act and one-third of people who attempt it had alcohol dependence. That’s a staggering number.

If you’re struggling, just know you’re not alone, and there are people who want to help.

Sleep Disorders

Alcohol disrupts REM sleep, the most restorative stage of the sleep cycle. Over time, this leads to chronic insomnia, restless nights, and increased fatigue, which worsen mental health symptoms.

Before we move on, it’s important that you understand that alcohol use and mental health issues are a vicious cycle.

You use alcohol to feel happy and relaxed. When the effects wear off, you feel awful. But since your brain has reduced its production of its own happiness and relaxation chemicals, you need alcohol to feel that same way again. This leads to a cycle of self-destruction: You can only feel “happiness” when drinking, and when you aren’t drinking, you feel depressed, anxious, or stressed.

NOTE: Alcohol not only contributes to issues like depression and anxiety, it also exacerbates existing mental health issues.

Will My Mental Health Improve if I Reduce My Drinking or Quit Altogether?

Yes, quitting drinking or cutting back will absolutely have a positive impact on your mental health. You’ll sleep better, have better self-esteem, feel less anxious, and have more energy within just a few weeks. 

Once you understand that alcohol is just a poison that depresses your central nervous system and leads to physical and mental consequences, it’ll be a lot easier to put the bottle down.

Many people experience significant improvements to their overall health within a few days or weeks after quitting drinking (however, if you’ve been drinking heavily, there may be withdrawal symptoms).

In fact, one 2016 study published in Addiction Biology and featured on the Wiley Online Library entitled Harm reduction—a systematic review on effects of alcohol reduction on physical and mental symptoms by Charlet, Katrin, et. al., found that reducing or abstaining from alcohol altogether resulted in:

By the way, this was done on 63 peer-reviewed studies, so it’s NOT a small number. It’s definitive. The evidence is clear: reducing or quitting alcohol will significantly improve your quality of life. Including, more self-confidence, better physical health, lower anxiety and depression, less stress, and fewer injuries.

NOTE: If you’re experiencing severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms, please contact healthcare professionals immediately or get to an emergency room ASAP.

How do I Improve my Mental Health?

If you’re struggling with depression, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, or other mental health conditions, we know how difficult it can seem. But there’s something you can do about it.

Learning healthy coping strategies and tips for boosting your mood, reducing anxiety, and dealing with stress has proven to help with mental well-being. And it’s a lot healthier than a toxic depressant like alcohol.

Here are a few tips to improve your mental health so you feel better without drinking:

• Exercise Regularly: Even 30 minutes a day of regular exercise has been shown to improve overall mood.

• Get sunlight exposure: Try to be outside at least a few times per day, especially in the morning. The sunlight will boost your natural serotonin levels.

• Prioritise quality sleep: We cannot overstate the importance of good quality sleep. Alcohol seriously disrupts sleep, which leads to depression, anxiety, and mood issues. The better you sleep, the better your mental health will be.

• Eat nutrient-dense foods: When you drink, you crave feel-good foods like fried foods, sugar, and other unhealthy junk. This just furthers the negative cycle. Prioritise eating healthy foods like fruit, vegetables, and lean meat (not fried food!). And make sure to drink water as much as you possibly can.

• Practice mindfulness or meditation: Even just 10-15 minutes of meditation per day can improve your mental health. Dim the lights, put on relaxing music, and concentrate on your breathing. Breathe in deep, hold it, release, hold it, and repeat. You’ll feel much more relaxed after a good deep breathing session.

• Stay socially connected: Don’t isolate yourself in your room. Find some hobbies, chat with friends, or join an alcohol support group (more on that down below).

• Talk to a doctor or counsellor: You are never alone in your struggles. Talk to someone. A doctor, a therapist, or an alcohol counsellor. You can even contact us if you need to talk. We will find you help, even if it’s not at our clinic. They may recommend therapeutic treatments for heavy alcohol consumption like cognitive behavioural therapy or recommend that you take medication.

• Read some of our other articles: We have plenty of articles on addiction, mental health, and recovery. They are full of tips for beating addiction, staying clean, and living a happier, healthier life without substances.

How Much Alcohol is Too Much?

It’s not always easy to tell how much you’re really drinking. And if you’re battling addiction, that little voice inside your head can sometimes make you think you don’t have a drinking problem (one is too many and a thousand is never enough, or so we say).

A major issue is that labels list alcohol by volume (ABV), but they don’t explain how many servings are in a can, bottle, or glass. That means that drinks often contain more alcohol than you think.

So, how much is too much? The truth is, it depends. Everyone processes alcohol differently, but health experts provide some general guidelines:

• Moderate drinking means no more than one drink per day for women and two for men. That’s per day, not averaged over a week.
• Heavy drinking is four or more drinks in a day (or eight per week) for women and five or more drinks in a day (or fifteen per week) for men.
• Binge drinking happens when someone drinks a lot in a short time. That’s usually four or more drinks for women or five or more for men within two hours.

The truth is that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Most of the “one glass of wine per day is good for your heart!” rhetoric you hear is bought and paid for by the alcohol industry.

The latest research shows that even small amounts of alcohol increase health risks like heart disease, stroke, and cancer. While drinking less can lower these risks, the safest approach is to quit drinking it altogether. If you’re unsure about your drinking habits, talking to a doctor can help.

NOTE: If you’re drinking heavily, we advise you not to suddenly stop drinking. This could even be fatal. Talk to a doctor immediately.

How Can I Get Help to Quit Drinking?

There are countless ways to get help to quit drinking, and most of them are very affordable or free of charge. You can talk to an alcohol counsellor, your doctor, or with a friend who’s gotten sober. You can also attend a local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting (they’re 100% free).

There are even free online Facebook groups and support groups for quitting drinking. But the first thing you have to do is admit that alcohol isn’t serving you anymore.

You have to realise that it’s a poison that does nothing but harm your physical and mental health. Instead of feeling like you’re giving something up, think of it like you’re gaining something: a happier, healthier version of yourself.

Here are some resources to help you give up drinking:

• Al-Anon: Provides support and understanding for family and friends of people struggling with alcohol addiction. 
• Alcohol Change UK: Advocates for better alcohol policies and offers resources to help people cut down or quit drinking.
• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA): A free, worldwide support group where people share their experiences and help each other stay sober. This is the most popular group for people struggling with alcohol. There’s a chapter near you and it’s 100% free.
• SMART Recovery: This is a secular, research-based community that helps individuals build motivation and develop practical skills to quit drinking and maintain long-term sobriety. It’s a good alternative for people who don’t like the “religious feel” of AA.
• Turning Point: Provides custom support, including medical treatment, peer groups, and help with rebuilding life after alcohol dependency.
• SAMHSA (U.S.): The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration offers a national helpline (1-800-662-HELP) and resources for alcohol treatment.
• Hello Sunday Morning (Australia): A community-driven movement helping Australians change their relationship with alcohol through online support and the Daybreak app.

If you or someone you know is struggling with severe alcohol addiction, these methods may not be enough. If that’s the case, alcohol addiction treatment centre like ours may be the answer.

We offer a holistic treatment experience, unlike anything you’ll find in the Western world. Contact us today for your free evaluation. We want you to get help even if it’s not here at our clinic. We’ll find a programme that works for you in your area (at a price you can afford).