Alcoholism and Depression question
Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Bay Area, California
Posts: 314
Yes - and it can worsen clinical depression. Quitting will help clarify if depression needs medical/lifestyle intervention, or if it's situational due to copious consumption of a toxic depressant (alcohol).
Member
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Lakeside, Ca
Posts: 10,208
Originally Posted by Linz 
In your opinion, does/can alcoholism cause depression?
and one thing for sure
it sure does not help one with depression if they drink
especially if they drink heavily
the two at many times run hand and hand
MM
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: CA.....Hometown : Sioux Falls
Posts: 2,624
Yes. Depression got worse near the end and alcohol quit working to feel good. I got suicidal when I drank and even planned it. It scared me to think that I would make such a mistake but that was my state of mind and not me at all. Scared sober.
Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Eastern Us
Posts: 1,366
I used alcohol to treat my depression. It didn't cause it. When I drank my depression lifted, at least for a time.
Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant . . . depressant gets used pretty loosely sometimes.
Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant . . . depressant gets used pretty loosely sometimes.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Chicago
Posts: 123
It made my depression and anxiety much worse. I was able to stop taking one of my medications when I stopped drinking. I realized it was time to REALLY stop after I started hallucinating, seeing fake spiders, and thinking my friend had turned into a lamp. You can't make this stuff up.
Life the gift of recovery!
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Home is where the heart is
Posts: 7,061
Originally Posted by Linz
In your opinion, does/can alcoholism cause depression?
Member
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Strailya
Posts: 8,003
In my case the answer was a resounding yes. For many years, I thought I suffered from mild depression and never linked it to drinking. My psych kept saying that I had to give up the drink as that was what was causing my depression. I thought he had it the wrong way around 
Now, that I have managed to abstain for a while, the depression has simply vanished. I do get down every now and then but then so do normal folks. It is nothing like when I was drinking when I frequently contemplated suicide, the depression was crushing and I would have meltdowns at regular intervals. All that has cleared for which I am soooo grateful.
Now, that I have managed to abstain for a while, the depression has simply vanished. I do get down every now and then but then so do normal folks. It is nothing like when I was drinking when I frequently contemplated suicide, the depression was crushing and I would have meltdowns at regular intervals. All that has cleared for which I am soooo grateful.
Self recovered Self discovered
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Toronto Canada
Posts: 5,148
Lordy that was a dark and dangerous place I was in at the end of my drinking, full of righteous misery. Depression and anxiety were clinically significant they said. Sobriety fixed most of this. I recommend you give it a shot.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: California
Posts: 244
absolutely. I usually get depressed after only a few days of a drinking binge... it's very dangerous, because after awhile, in my drunken array of days, I forget that alchohol isn't healthy... and start to blame other things... and that's when I'm drinking all day every day, because at that point, my mental competance is gone, as well as my mood. I haven't had a drink in 3 weeks and I feel much more optimistic.
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Join Date: May 2013
Location: London
Posts: 369
Of course. I was not depressed before or after my period of active alcoholism but when drinking I had symptoms of major clinical depression. Apparently nearly all alcoholics are clinically depressed when drinking and 8/10 of those find their depression either eases or goes away entirely when they sober up .
I still have down days but most of the time I feel down because I am reflecting on what I did when I was actively drinking and the worry it caused loved ones and how my alcoholism has caused set backs in my life. In that way, alcoholism has had a lasting psychological impact on my life which, on some days, feels like depression.
I still have down days but most of the time I feel down because I am reflecting on what I did when I was actively drinking and the worry it caused loved ones and how my alcoholism has caused set backs in my life. In that way, alcoholism has had a lasting psychological impact on my life which, on some days, feels like depression.
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