Alcohol Causes Anxiety and Depression

Why Alcohol Causes Anxiety Symptoms

People reach for an alcoholic beverage for two common reasons. They either want to drink to celebrate a happy event or drink to forget about their worries. There are two reasons why alcohol causes anxiety.

Alcohol and Anxiety

Whatever may be your reason for drinking, alcohol can cause anxiety and depression.

1. Firstly, alcohol depletes your omega-3s. Our brain is made up of 60% fat and half of this fat content is what we call omega-3 fatty acids.

These omega-3 fatty acids help maintain the right levels of dopamine and serotonin which function as neurotransmitters that play a crucial role in regulating our mood.

2. Secondly, alcohol depletes vitamin B6 which is referred to as a mood-calming vitamin. B6 is important for the production of serotonin because it converts tryptophan into serotonin.

This is why as alcohol depletes vitamin B6 from our body we become more vulnerable to feelings of anxiety and depression.

Low Blood Sugar or Hypoglycemia

Regardless of the amount of alcohol being consumed, alcohol can adversely affect your blood sugar levels. Studies reveal that acute consumption of alcohol can increase insulin secretion which will then lead to low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. Unfortunately, alcohol also negatively affects hormonal responses causing an inability to rectify the low levels of blood sugar.

Anyone who is experiencing low levels of blood sugar will experience fatigue, light-headedness, headaches and dizziness.

Your Ability To Respond

GABA or gamma-amino butyric acid serves as the natural control mechanism of the body. However, alcohol consumption will eventually slow down your body’s control mechanism. In turn, the activity of the neurons will slow down and your brain’s ability to respond will also become sluggish.

As alcohol consumption negatively affects the performance speed of your central nervous system your emotions, movement and perception are also altered resulting to several symptoms of anxiety.

Alcohol Causes Anxiety and Behavior Changes

Frequent alcohol consumption can extremely impair several functions of your brain including the area that is responsible for controlling your behavior. This is why as you consume alcohol, your behavior, conduct and other cognitive abilities will usually be the first to go.

Alcohol is a neurotoxin and frequent consumption of this substance first depresses and eventually kills numerous cells. Thus, your concentration, memory and coordination are also affected. These negative changes that are taking place may manifest through outbursts of emotion and mood swings, which is why alcohol causes anxiety and depression.

You are also probably aware that the more you drink alcohol the further damage it is doing to your body.

Low Blood Pressure

Alcohol is a substance which is known to be a vasodilator, therefore as you drink more your peripheral blood vessels will become relaxed and allow an increased blood flow.

This will then result in a drop in blood pressure and since the body needs to maintain the right amount of blood flow to the vital organs, your heart rate will then increase.

So faster heart rate, heavy breathing…means alcohol causes anxiety.

How does it affect you? Does alcohol cause you to have anxiety and depression? Let me know in the comments below.

Anxiety and Alcohol

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About Jennifer Johnson

I suffered with social anxiety and stress for years. I discovered what my triggers were and learned to control them. Hopefully some of the natural anxiety relief techniques I have tried, will also be your solution.

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