Depression vs drinking, cause vs effect
Hi all,
Hope you’re doing well. Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the chicken and egg circle of depression and drinking.
The drinking seems to be more of a symptom of depression than the cause of it, but it’s so hard to know where in the cycle to step in and break it.
There is no denying that the drinking needs to stop. In its own right it’s destructive for all the obvious reasons, but it’s also a huge road block in terms of dealing with the depression. But equally, in order to deal with the drinking, I think my qualifier needs to get to a place when he can feel emotionally strong enough to cope without the booze. Where to start?
We’ve been fighting against the drink as the main demon but with little success and I feel like we maybe need to focus on the mental health aspect a little more first so he feels like a more capable person who is able to deal with problems head on rather than reaching for the bottle when things get tough.
Any advice on where to start? Rehab worked for the grand total of the 28 days he was there but he fell off the wagon almost immediately upon return to the ‘real world’ and the countless AA meetings he’s been to since have in fact seemed to be a trigger rather than a comfort, causing intense anxiety and stress every time.