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.
Mixing booze with any kind of medication carries risks, and can be fatal in some cases.
- Alcohol mayrelieve stress in the short term, but it is a depressant drug. This means ifyou're feeling down when you drink, chances are the issues are going to seemworse when you sober up.
- Drinkinginterferes with sleep patterns, which can leave you feelingragged when you need to be needle sharp. Bad sleep also has an effect on mentalagility and stress management. So if you're life's a chaotic mess, stop gettingso trolleyed for a bit and see if helps to restore some order.
- Regularboozing is usually a factor in worsening existing mental problems. It is oftenlinked to depression, especially because people tend toturn to alcohol in a bid to improve their mood.
- Alcohol interferes with the way antidepressants work, which makes it bad news foranyone taking medication for a mental health problem. Mixing booze with anykind of medication carries risks, and can be fatal in some cases.
