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Excessive Drinking & Mental Health

The link between drug abuse and mental illness is a well publicised one. Ever since Sigmund Freud sent his friend Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow into a terminal psychosis with an overzealous cocaine prescription, the connections have been researched and reported vigorously. In recent years, cannabis has become the cynosure of studies between mental health and drug usage, especially after the government’s decision to downgrade it to class C in 2004. The brain-destabilising risks of cocaine, LSD and ecstasy have also featured heavily throughout science publications and the media but the drug with the strongest affiliation with mental illness is not always the most obvious: excessive alcohol consumption was connected to 65% of suicides in Britain in 2005/2006.

As The Mental Health Foundation points out, excessive drinking can be both a cause and consequence of mental health problems. The causality of this interwoven relationship can result in an ugly downward spiral for those who drink to tenderise anxiety, depression or other disorders. The mental turmoil that is quietened by alcohol can reappear with a multiplied brutality as the intoxication wears off and the self-medicator is then faced with a deteriorating mental state and an exposure to alcoholism as he enters back into the cycle to ease the pain once more.

The numbing effects of alcohol stem from a depression of the central nervous system which is also responsible for a lowering of inhibition, occasionally transforming apprehensive eremites into boisterous extroverts. As with other drugs, alcohol can also unleash buried insecurities; whereas the stoner on a bad acid or mushroom trip might curl up in ball of doubt and despair, a troublesome drinker is prone to fits of aggression and rage.

Neurotransmitters, the chemical couriers of the brain, are hindered in their work by alcohol. A brain that operates below optimal capacity in this way is susceptible to depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive and bipolar disorders. Although alcohol is only part of a multitude of obstructions to neurotransmitters, it is a prevalent one. Research indicates that around a third of British men and a fifth of women drink more than the recommended weekly amount and that 1-in-4 of us experience mental health problems at some point. Health experts advise that regular exercise and a nutritious diet are the best methods of combating mental health afflictions (alongside continual consultation with a GP or psychiatrist) yet many see self-medication with alcohol as their only desperate option as the tenebrous storm clouds amass overhead.