Alcohol can make a person momentarily happy, but this effect can be fleeting. This nature of alcohol can drag those with alcohol-related problems to continue to drink to ease emotional problems. However, this may be digging a person deeper and deeper into the hole of alcoholism where emotional problems are actually aggravated.
Depression
Alcohol contains ethanol, a psychoactive drug that produces feelings of relaxation and euphoria, but the effects are not lasting and, in fact, turn more negative. Withdrawal from alcohol can leave a person feeling depressed, according to an article published in 2007 in "Neuropsychology Review." Heavy alcohol use is known to make major depressive disorder worse, according to a 2007 article published in the "American Journal of Psychiatry." In fact, even former heavy drinkers with major depressive disorder reported higher levels of depression compared to those with the disorder who reported being light drinkers presently, in a 2007 study published in "Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research."
Aggression
Alcohol is known to increase aggression. Similarly, about 50 percent of violent crimes have been found to be attributed to alcohol, but it is the acute effects on the brain that produce aggression and not the long-term effects manifested as alcohol-related brain changes, as discussed in a 2007 article published in "Psychological Science." The reason for increased aggressive behavior is because alcohol suppresses the brain in a way that leads drinkers to see only part of a situation, instead of having enough information to process experiences properly. For example, an intoxicated person may ignore the context of a joke made by another and be driven to respond violently.
Cycle
Some of the effects of alcoholism are the same as the cause. In particular, people tend to drink more when depressed, maintaining a vicious cycle of alcohol consumption, as discussed in an article published in June 2007 in "Addictive Behaviors." This is particularly true for people with post-traumatic stress disorder who are prone to heavy drinking episodes. These individuals tend to self-medicate to help reduce emotional symptoms such as depression, which alcohol actually aggravates.
References
- "Neuropsychology Review"; Alcohol: Effects on Neurobehavioral Functions and the Brain"; Marlene Oscar-Berman and Ksenija Marinkovic; 2007
- "American Journal of Psychiatry"; Effect of Age at Onset on the Course of Major Depressive Disorder; Sidney Zisook at al.; October 2007
- "Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research"; Does the Association Between Alcohol Consumption and Depression Depend on How They Are Measured?; Kathryn Graham et al.; January 2007
- "Psychological Science"; Alcohol and Aggression: A Test of the Attention-Allocation Model; Peter R. Giancola and Michelle D. Corman; 2007
- "Addictive Behaviors"; Domestic Violence and Alcohol Use: Trauma-Related Symptoms and Motives for Drinking; Debra Kaysen; June 2007
