The Truth about Alcohol and Anxiety

I spent most of my adult life believing the mainstream lie that alcohol is helpful for reducing anxiety. It turns out, my drinking habit was actually causing my anxiety.

Since I quit drinking alcohol earlier this year, my anxiety—which I believed for years was chronic and incurable—is now nonexistent.

That isn’t to say I don’t get stressed out or worry about anything. Of course I do, that’s part of the experience of being human. The difference is, I don’t feel on edge most of the time for no reason, or have this occasional inexplicable looming feeling that something terrible is going to happen.

For years I assumed my “general anxiety disorder” was something inherent about my personality, like my ADHD. I had accepted that I was just going to have to manage and live with it. My grandmother was anxious, so I thought it was perhaps genetic. I even tried Wellbutrin at one point, and then Buspar. I experienced negative side effects from both medications, but no real long term relief from my anxious thoughts or mental chatter.

But then, something incredible happened. I started taking breaks from drinking… and each time, within about a week, my anxiety would vanish. I’m talking, completely GONE.

WHAT? How!? I couldn’t believe it.

Sobriety turned out to be the real magic pill that cured my anxiety.

So why then have we been living under the impression that alcohol is a good way to destress or “take the edge off?” Well, because alcohol works REALLY WELL to reduce anxious feelings temporarily. After a few sips of an alcoholic beverage, it feels like your problems fade away. This is because alcohol affects the brain’s GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) receptor, while also shutting off glutamate (which makes you feel anxious). Combined, these two chemical reactions give you that feel calm and carefree feeling.

Except the relief isn’t real, and it doesn’t last very long. Not only will your problems be waiting for you when you sober up, but your body’s process of removing ethanol from your system puts your brain into a hyperactive state while it works hard to create homeostasis. In Alcohol Explained, William Porter compares this uncomfortable feeling to the way it feels when you’ve had too much caffeine. You may have heard this phenomenon called “hanxiety,” and it sucks, but at least it is only temporary.

However, that’s just part of the equation.

In this podcast episode, scientist Dr. Andrew Huberman explains that people who drink regularly (this could be one or two drinks per night, or someone who drinks only on the weekend) will experience chemical changes in their brain that result in more cortisol (the so called stress hormone) being released at baseline, when they are not drinking.

This means, as a consequence, regular drinkers—even those staying within the CDC guidelines for “safe” alcohol consumption—will generally feel more stressed and more anxious than non-drinkers.

This explains why I had “chronic anxiety” from my early twenties (when I started drinking regularly) up until I started removing alcohol for weeks at a time.

Alcohol also affects our hormones, which can impact our mood, but that’s a topic for another day.

Not convinced? That’s ok, I was skeptical too (for a long time!) before I reprogrammed my subconscious mind to accept what alcohol actually does. Plenty of research has been done on this topic, and the outcome is unanimous. I highly recommend the following books and podcasts, which explain the link between alcohol and anxiety in detail.


Rooting for you always,

Gretchen

Gretchen KampComment