Why it is better not to drink if you have emotional problems

I'm the first to understand it. You are going through a terrible time, something has happened that you did not imagine - at work, with your partner, another disappointment to add to the list -, you notice a pang in your chest that does not subside and is probably due to anger, helplessness or desperation. . You don't particularly like talking about emotions and you hate seeing yourself vulnerable, and so having a drink seems natural: first you notice some relief—because alcohol is anxiolytic and activates the reward circuit—then you get a little groggy and stop worrying so much. , you finally become uninhibited and overcome that shyness that has blocked you so much in life. By drinking, you share socially accepted codes of conduct and you always have the complicity of that colleague who encourages you: “But have another one, man!” However, without puritanism or dogma, we can analyze the studies and consider – calmly – whether or not drinking alcohol is the best option when you have psychological problems.

Alcohol reduces the ability to think, reassess the situation and find effective ways to cope with stress. It works as a smokescreen that makes communication between close people difficult and usually makes the situation worse: sometimes it makes it easier for a bad streak to become disastrous. Its harmful consumption reduces work performance, worsens family life and physical health. I have seen homeless, hopeless, sick people and people addicted to wine bottles who have told me: “I was normal, but it all started when they fired me from work and I started drinking…”. In addition to its avoidant nature (“drink to forget and not think”), alcohol produces cognitive impairment, even in minimal quantities. The effect of a binge is detected up to five days later in some tests. You may think you are drinking “normally,” but over time it is easy to slide into abuse or dependence. “That I control!” the addict usually exclaims. Two-thirds of alcoholics began the condition before the age of 25, in a normal way and almost without realizing it. Up to 15% of the Spanish population develops a pattern of

: drinking five or more alcoholic drinks in a 2-hour interval. The risk signs are eagerly wanting the first consumption (

) and then not being able to stop. It is also necessary to need more and more amounts to obtain the same effect or to make repeated attempts to quit (muttering in the middle of a hangover: “I won't go out again”). It is responsible – it is said quickly – for 40% of fatal traffic accidents. When you drink, you minimize the risks despite having reduced abilities to deal with them. Drunken hilarity turns very sensible people into reckless people, who then regret the events that occurred.

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After the mirage of the initial euphoria, alcohol depresses. There is overwhelming evidence of an association between alcohol and depression, being mainly responsible for 15% of completed suicides. Mental disinhibition favors the appearance of catastrophic ideas, ideas of death and suicide. Drunkenness with firearms is a major public health problem in the United States. In Europe, reducing its harmful use is included in sensible, evidence-based suicide prevention plans. We know that the effect of alcohol has its idiosyncrasies and there are genetically vulnerable people: if your father, mother or grandparents had alcoholism, you probably shouldn't even smell it.

An important topic. Alcohol abuse is robustly associated with violent behavior, through behavioral disinhibition, greater susceptibility to provocation (those terrible fights in nightclubs between males “for looking at my girlfriend”) and a misinterpretation of sexual intentions. . Alcohol acts on the abuser and the victim in an explosive way, and then we have to manage the psychological and legal consequences of the trauma. Some perpetrators use the excuse of “being drunk,” as if that gave them a license and their actions had no consequences. It is a relevant factor in the bleeding issue of the prevention of sexist violence.

Although it is not usually known, alcohol consumption during pregnancy is the first preventable cause of intellectual disability. Between 20% and 30% of pregnant women drink, and fetal alcohol syndrome, which occurs in 20 out of every 1,000 births, causes low IQ, facial abnormalities, short stature, ADHD and behavioral problems. The simple fact of not drinking and smoking during pregnancy would have an enormous preventive effect. But it is in adolescence where we clearly see the damage of alcohol to the brain and how it literally reduces the volume of its gray matter. In epidemiological studies conducted in Sweden, having been hospitalized for alcohol poisoning in adolescence was the most robust predictor of later development of dementia. Alcohol abuse reduces academic performance and in adults produces a condition equivalent to Alzheimer's (alcoholic dementia) and, sometimes, Korsakoff syndrome, in which the patient forgets what is happening and fills it in with stories. In psychiatry consultations we see signs of hallucinations and delusions produced by alcohol dependence. Alcohol worsens the prognosis of most mental disorders, through what we call dual pathology (two mental illnesses at the same time, which tragically feed on each other). I am not talking about its effect on the liver, pancreas, heart or its relationship with strokes or cancer.

I think there are too many negative effects, and the gateway to this harmful consumption of alcohol is discomfort, suffering, the incessant pang. These health data confront a deep-rooted alcohol culture, a powerful industry and a romantic view of its consumption. We have been very amused by the alcohol gatherings of the Spanish poets of the 70s and we have thought we saw ideals of freedom in the addictions of Scott Fitzgerald or Malcolm Lowry (“our ideal of life contains a tavern”). In a country that was not politically unhinged, public health measures could still be proposed to reduce the harmful consumption of alcohol and its terrible consequences, without this meaning being a

or detractor of one political party or another.

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