I thought so. I told myself that because I worked long hours and had a very stressful job, I needed a drink to let off some steam.
That I was drinking because it helped me unwind and de-stress. That after a tough week, or as my consumption increased, a tough day, I had earned it. We’ve been brainwashed into accepting this as some sort of universal truth. Social media churns out memes about ‘mummy juice’ being needed after the kids have gone to bed. Our screens are awash with professionals pouring themselves a large glass of wine or a whiskey on the rocks at the end of a grueling day. We are so accustomed to this that we don’t question it. A drink at the end of a hard day relieves stress. A pint at the airport helps you relax and ease into the holiday. It just makes sense. Well, does it? Again, it’s a bit of a con.
Denise Graham, a counsellor in Cleveland Clinic’s Alcohol and Drug Recovery Centre, points out that while drinking a glass of wine or having a stiff glass of scotch can, indeed, provide you with a bit of relaxation up front, releasing endorphins and boosting serotonin levels. But it’s only a short-term fix that leads to long-term problems. “If you rely on alcohol for numbing the stress, then that can actually cause significant problems down the road,” Graham notes. “You’re not learning how to cope with things as they are right now. You’re not learning to cope in healthy ways.” Instead, if someone increases their dependence on alcohol to deal with stress, that leads to the exacerbation of depression and anxiety. Graham also says that increased alcohol intake can lead to “ruminating on negative things, the sort of dread thoughts that can heighten your emotional state.”
As well as the mental aspect, it also has physical impacts that make it more difficult to deal with stress. “It’s quite disruptive to your sleep cycle and can cause you to be more fatigued” says liver specialist Dr Christina Lindenmeyer, MD, also from Cleveland Clinic. That’s because alcohol reduces the amount of time you spend in the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep. “You may fall asleep faster and you may sleep more deeply for the first few hours, but you’re not reaching the truly restorative stage of the sleep cycle – the REM stage. As a result, the next day you are likely to be drowsier and feel less rested.”
Now that I no longer drink, I can see that drinking was doing the opposite of helping me to relieve my stress and anxiety. I was just using it to numb my mind and black out my problems. With every Friday night blow out, I was pouring more and more stress and anxiety into my life.
Whatever problems or stress I was facing at work, they were, unsurprisingly, not cured by the eight or nine pints I would throw down my neck on a Friday night. Instead, when the booze wore off, those problems would still be there, but I would have added to them. Maybe a lost wallet or phone. An unwise comment to the boss. An argument with my wife as I bounced in late with some half-arsed excuse. Whatever it was, I would wake up with more problems than I began with, and I would have to face them knackered because I hadn’t slept properly, and woke with the feeling of impending doom and dread brought on from a hangover.
Patrick@99percentsober.com
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