Alcohol and mental health
People drink for all sorts of reasons, but if you're persistently boozing to blot out problems in your life, things could go from bad to worse.
Alcohol affects your sleeping patterns
- Alcohol may relieve stress in the short term, but it is a depressant drug. This means if you're feeling down when you drink, chances are the issues are going to seem worse when you sober up.
- Drinking interferes with sleep patterns, which can leave you feeling ragged when you need to be needle sharp. Bad sleep also has an effect on mental agility and stress management. So if you're life's a chaotic mess, stop getting so trolleyed for a bit and see if helps to restore some order.
- Regular boozing is usually a factor in worsening existing mental problems. It is often linked to depression, especially because people tend to turn to alcohol in a bid to improve their mood.
- Alcohol interferes with the way antidepressants work, which makes it bad news for anyone taking medication for a mental health problem. Mixing booze with any kind of medication carries risks, and can be fatal in some cases
