Alcohol Depression:
How to Get Through It

If you ever had a hangover you know about alcohol depression.
But the chronic, long-term alcohol depression can kill you.

If you drink for a long period of time you will experience alcohol depression. Alcoholics who are maintenance drinkers, or drink a specific amount of alcohol on a regular basis in order to feel normal have one of the symptoms of alcohol depression.

Binge drinkers tend to experience alcohol depression as an acute hangover which passes with time.

Real alcohol depression is the result of the brain and body beginning to shut down during periods of extended alcohol abuse and can lead to death.

When the alcoholic has a low level of alcohol in their blood, the body is so used to having it that they can go into convulsions if they don't get a drink.

Bottles of whiskey were kept in the homes of early Alcoholics Anonymous members to give to the man detoxing before hospitals and social detox centers became popular.

There is also the type of alcohol depression that comes with early sobriety. As the alcohol leaves the system and people begin to recover, the disease of alcoholism fights with the brain, causing the phenomena of craving often associated with relapse.

The alcoholic begins to be unable to imagine life with alcohol or without it, and the alcoholic depression that results can lead to suicide ideation or attempts.

Only a period of continued, long term sobriety can alleviate the symptoms entirely and the odds will increase in your favor dramatically if you join a twelve step program.

If you or someone you know is experiencing alcohol depression as a result of continued alcohol use or early recovery, there are depression medications that can ease the symptoms.
See your primary caregiver for details.

It is also important to note here that people who drink will often use stress as an excuse. You can alleviate some of these excuses by decreasing your stress. An excellent E-book you help you recognize the signs of stress is "Conquering Stress," by C.J. Green.

Back from Alcohol Depression
to Depression Help Treatment

Dealing with Depression Advice

Stop comparing your insides to others outsides

In depression groups and in life, we tend to compare ourselves to others in the group and how they are doing.

We tend to compare how we are feeling inside with how good people look on the outside.

It is important to remember that some people are better at hiding their depression than others, and some people are in denial as to how depression is affecting their lives. (You can read more on this subject in "Conquering Stress," by C.J. Green.)

Comparing ourselves to others is dangerous thinking, as there will always be those who are doing better - and worse - than we are.

It is simply unfair to yourself to compare your life to someone else's; you don't know what they are dealing with in the privacy of their own world.