The Perpetual Disaster Of Drinking To Alleviate Depression

Sure, it's easy to reach for a drink to boost your mood. A few glasses or bottles later and your depression is cured! Isn't that cause for celebration? Certainly something to toast another drink to, right? Yet in the morning, what's different about your life? How has it changed at all, much less for the better? Using alcohol to negotiate depression is futile and it will keep you in a tailspin indefinitely.

Stop The Cycle

Drinking to get over depression never stops unless the consumption of alcohol is halted. Each day is just as painful and discouraging as the last, only with another episode of drinking added to it. Every time you reach for another drink, you inadvertently give yourself more reasons to be unhappy, thereby perpetuating the relationship between your alcohol and depression. It's truly a sad cycle to be caught in and the only way out is by resisting the temptation to keep drinking.

Look Inward

You may have legitimate cause to be depressed, such as trauma or loss in your life. You may also have a chemical or genetic condition that leads to frequently bouts with the blues. Quite often, a person's depression was temporary and alcohol became a permanent solution. Whatever the circumstances that led you to the cycle of drinking to solve your problems were, reexamine them and look for some other way to resolution.

Reach Outward

Nearly all people who learn to lean on alcohol need help getting away from it. People use alcohol to fill a void, numb the pain or to otherwise offset some negative in life and breaking from that is incredibly challenging. Look for local help in your area. People you can call upon anytime and groups you can visit on a regular basis. Without that network, breaking the dependency cycle may be near impossible. With help though, from people who have been where you are now, you've got a good chance to recover yourself emotionally and put your life back together. While sobriety may seem like a scary place, it is higher ground that can truly lift you up.

There's really no such thing as drinking to treat depression, because alcohol contributes to depression or in some cases, it's the absolute cause of it. If you are depressed, stop drinking and give yourself a real chance at getting over depression. Stop the cycle, look inward and then reach outward to a whole new world. One where you are welcomed and strengthened, and one where you can be truly happy.