Alcohol and Emotions: How Alcohol Plays with Your Feelings

Ever felt like you’re on a rollercoaster ride of emotions when you consume alcohol? Maybe that first sip or drink makes you feel on top of the world, but by the time the night ends you feel like you’ve landed in a pit. This isn’t uncommon. It’s true that alcohol can provide a happiness boost — but only temporarily. In the long-run, it can wreak havoc on our mental health.

In this post, we'll explore how alcohol affects our emotions and mental health. We’ll also offer practical steps to help us regain control over our drinking habits. Let’s get started!

Why Does Alcohol Make You Feel Good?

First things first: why is it that alcohol makes us feel so good, at least initially? It all comes down to our brain’s reward system. As soon as we start drinking, our brain is flooded with dopamine — that “feel good” neurotransmitter that keeps us coming back for more. This rush of dopamine induces a sense of euphoria, relaxation, and happiness — but only temporarily. 

As the evening progresses and our body continues processing alcohol, we usually experience a crash. This is largely because alcohol is a depressant that disrupts our brain’s delicate balance of neurotransmitters that affect our feelings, thoughts, and behavior.

What does alcohol do to your emotions? While alcohol can produce feelings of happiness and excitement in the short-term, thanks to the immediate release of the dopamine, those feelings are fleeting and quickly wear off. Chemical changes in our brain can soon lead to more negative feelings, such as anger, depression, or anxiety — regardless of how we were feeling before we started drinking. Let’s explore the connection between alcohol and emotions in more detail.

Can Drinking Actually Improve Mental Health?

Given the immediate boost we get from drinking alcohol, it might lead us to ask: can drinking actually improve mental health? But to answer this, it’s essential to understand that our brain's reward system operates on a delicate balance. While alcohol may provide immediate pleasure, it can also have long-term negative consequences, particularly on our mental health. Let’s take a closer look:

Alcohol and Depression

Regular heavy drinking is linked to symptoms of depression and can even lead to its onset. In fact, studies indicate that drinking persistently and excessively can increase our risk of developing a major depressive disorder. It can also aggregate symptoms of pre-existing depression, endangering our health and well-being. 

Binge drinking — defined as having four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men in one sitting — is particularly harmful, as research indicates that binge drinkers are more likely to experience depressive symptoms. Interestingly, studies have found that people who have depressive symptoms and regularly drink alcohol often start to feel better within the first few weeks of stopping drinking. 

Alcohol and Anxiety

When it comes to alcohol and emotions, alcohol’s immediate calming effects are similar to those of antianxiety medications: it helps take our mind off our troubles, lowers our inhibitions, and generally makes us feel more relaxed. Alcohol actually binds to the same GABA receptors as benzodiazepines. 

But, since alcohol changes the levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in our brain, it can actually worsen our anxiety in the long-term. In fact, we’ll likely feel more anxious after the alcohol wears off. Alcohol-induced anxiety — otherwise known as hangxiety — can last for several hours, or even for an entire day after drinking. 

Alcohol and Stress

While we tend to associate alcohol with relaxation and stress relief, research indicates chronic alcohol use can lead to greater amounts of stress. When we drink alcohol, high amounts of cortisol — the stress hormone — are released in our brain. Over time, this can alter our brain chemistry, changing the way our body perceives and responds to stress. 

In fact, studies have found that people who drink heavily are more likely to experience higher anxiety under stress compared to people who don’t drink or drink in moderation. So while it’s true that alcohol can help us feel more relaxed in the moment, it takes a toll on our stress levels in the long run. 

Alcohol and Mood Swings

Alcohol can also interfere with our brain’s ability to regulate emotions and lead to unpredictable mood swings and irritability. Alcohol’s effect on neurotransmitters that control our mood — like serotonin — can cause our emotions to be all over the place. For instance, we might be happy and content one moment, but angry and upset the next. Over time, as alcohol disrupts the delicate balance of neurotransmitters in our brain, we can have a harder time controlling our emotions.

Research also shows a strong link between regular heavy drinking and suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and death from suicide. This link is partly due to alcohol’s immediate effects, such as impaired judgment and increased impulsiveness. But it can also be explained by the long-term effect of alcohol on our mental health. 

Does Alcohol Make You Tell The Truth?

Another aspect of the relationship between alcohol and emotions has to do with alcohol’s reputation as a “truth serum.” So, what about alcohol’s perceived ability to make us tell the truth? Is it true that drunk people tell the truth more easily or share their feelings more easily? Well, it’s not necessarily alcohol that makes us speak up. Rather, it’s the lowering of our inhibitions while drinking that gives us confidence to say things we might have otherwise kept to ourselves.

As we’ve learned, alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, meaning that it slows down brain activity. As such, it reduces our inhibitions and gives us courage to share things without fear of consequences. It’s almost as if our brain’s checkpoint gets shut down: where we’d normally think twice before sharing something, alcohol bypasses the checkpoint and enables us to open up.

At the same time, alcohol can also cause us to distort the truth. Without lowered inhibitions and our brain operating at full capacity, it becomes all too easy to embellish a story, tell fibs, or exaggerate something that took place.

Even though we don’t think about it in the moment, speaking our mind when we’re intoxicated can lead to unintended consequences. For instance, we might share sensitive information we were supposed to keep secret or say hurtful comments to or about someone, which can damage relationships with those we are closest to. We also might experience an overwhelming sense of shame or regret the next morning (hangxiety, anyone?)

When it comes down to it, alcohol lowers our inhibitions, giving us confidence to speak our mind and share things our sober self would have kept private. However, it can also lead to misrepresentations and misunderstandings. 

How to Control Your Emotions and Drinking

So now that we have a better understanding of how alcohol plays with our emotions, what can we do to regain control? Here are 7 tips for regulating our emotions and drinking:

1. Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness, or paying attention to the present moment, has been shown to help reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. Even something as simple as mindful breathing can help. We can do this by ocusing our attention on our breath, slowly breathing in, holding our breath for a few seconds, and slowly breathing out. There are also many apps and guided meditations out there that we can turn to for help. We have a collection on the Reframe app to explore.

2. Set limits. Establishing clear limits for yourself regarding alcohol consumption is essential for maintaining a healthy balance. It’s easy to lose track of the amount of alcohol we consume. Decide in advance how many drinks you’ll have before you start drinking, and then stick to it! As a general rule, it’s best to limit yourself to one drink every hour. Using the Reframe app on your phone can help keep you on track. 

3. Do emotional check-ins. Before reaching for that drink, check in with yourself. How are you feeling? Are you stressed, anxious, or sad? Are you drinking to numb these feelings or as a coping mechanism? If so, consider a healthier alternative, such as breathing exercises, meditation, or calling a friend. It might be tempting to chase that “high,” but consider how you’ll feel afterwards.

4. Practice mindful drinking. Just like practicing mindfulness, mindful drinking can help us gain control over our drinking. It encourages us to pay attention to why we’re drinking and how we’re feeling as we drink. It’s really about tuning into the experience of drinking, rather than just mindlessly consuming alcohol. Mindfulness is so effective that research shows it can even help us manage and reduce our cravings for alcohol.

5. Seek support. Contrary to what our cultural narrative says, seeking help is not a sign of weakness: it’s a sign of great strength. Consider reaching out to a mental health professional, licensed counselor, or joining support groups like AA. Cognitive behavioral therapy in particular can help us uncover underlying reasons for drinking and equip us with tools for managing cravings. 

6. Practice stress management. Instead of using alcohol as a means to relieve stress, explore healthier stress management techniques, such as exercise, mindfulness and mediation, deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, or sound baths. Simply spending time in nature can also do wonders for our well-being: you might be surprised at what a walk outside can do for your mental health!

7. Practice self-compassion. It’s easy to be hard on ourselves and beat ourselves up when we make a mistake or are overwhelmed by life. But, this only makes things worse. In fact, research shows that people who are self-critical tend to suffer from anxiety, depression, and substance misuse. Instead of berating yourself, try practicing self-compassion. This means speaking to ourselves like we would to a beloved friend or family member.

Keep in mind that having emotions isn’t bad: it’s what makes us human! While our emotions can be overpowering, we can learn to take control of them. And when we do, we can have an easier time controlling our drinking, too. 

The Bottom Line

Alcohol can give us a temporary mood boost, but in the long run it puts us through a roller coaster ride of emotions. The initial high we experience when we start drinking is largely due to the release of dopamine – that feel good neurotransmitter. However, over time, alcohol disrupts the delicate balance of chemicals in our brain and can put us at risk for depression, anxiety, and mood swings. Similarly, while alcohol may give us the courage to speak our mind, it can also lead to shame and regret if we overshare or say things that are hurtful. There are a number of ways we can help keep our emotions in check — and limiting our consumption of alcohol is a good place to start!

If you want to cut back on drinking, but don’t know where to start, consider trying Reframe. We’re a science-backed app that has helped millions of people cut back on their alcohol consumption and enhance their physical, mental, and emotional well-being.