MarkNS

Am I drinking because I'm depressed or is drinking causing me to be depressed?


Or both?!

Maybe it doesn't even matter.

Tuesday24

Its a vicious cycle Mark- I am sure you know that. There is good news though- you can put an end to it.
Keep reading and posting. Best wishes.

MarkNS

Thanks. I guess I'm just worried that quitting drinking might not instantly make me happy, you know. But I know what you're saying.

sugarbear1

How badly do you want to stop?

Then again, we self medicate for many reasons, but alcoholism is a body-brain disease...a vicious cycle...

Zencat

I had to stop drinking for a quite a few month before my psych doc could give me a somewhat reliable diagnosis. I did have major depression after all among other things. It was very useful to know what treatments I needed in order to recover.

nandm

Which came first the chicken or the egg? It really doesn't matter because we can still get something positive from it and have a really good breakfast or dinner.

I fight with depression and I am also an alcoholic. I have no idea which came first or if one caused the other. All I know is that if I am drinking I can not effectively treat my depression (it is always there fighting to be at the surface) and if I am not treating my depression then I will not stay sober. I have found AA effectively treats my alcoholism and my mental health team (Psychiatrist, therapist, etc...) treat my depression.

I tried getting sober without AA and without treating my depression only to fail each time. Once AA gave me a good footing on sobriety then I was able to address my depression and get it treated. If I had not treated my depression I don't know that I could have stayed sober and would still be in that ever descending black hole of alcoholism and depression.

I would recommend finding a recovery program that works for you and also seeking help for your mental health concerns.

Dee74

quitting drinking didn't make me happy Mark - but it did put me in a place where I could look at my life and myself and try and work out what was wrong and what I needed to do about it.

I could never do that when drinking.

D

JimE

Hi Mark, I struggled with depression and would drink just to feel different but it made the depression worse. I saw a psychiatrist who said he wouldn't diagnose me till I was sober 6 months. Once I got sober I waited till I 7 yrs sober to see another shrink and then I was diagnosed. Quitting drinking didn't make me happy but it gave me a chance to find peace.

Terminally Unique

It sounds counter-intuitive, but personal problems don't cause addiction; addiction causes personal problems. At the very least, you can be reasonably certain that drinking is worsening your depression significantly. I myself used drinking to "cope" with depression and problems, or more accurately, to avoid coping. The only thing it did was sink me into a catastrophic depression, and it brought on many new problems.

I suggest that you quit drinking for about 90 days, which is the standard time frame before a psychiatrist can reasonably diagnose depression. You may not necessarily feel happy all of a sudden once you stop, but you will feel noticeably better. You will also be in a position to deal with your problems, including depression, in a much more sensible and logical manner.

eJoshua

It worked both ways for me. I wasn't able to get to a healthy enough mental space to deal with my depression until I got sober though.

4 months of sober time in and many therapy sessions later, things are probably the best they've been in as long as I can remember, and I've been depressed my whole life.

Bets of luck, you can defeat it!

thekat

I used to be in the same predicament. I have found since getting sober that even though I have down days and there is defiantly a little bit of depression there, it is nowhere near as potent as when I was drinking.

Things didn't automatically become wonderful the first day or week, but things are getting better gradually for me. It is a journey and every day I'm learning things about myself and finding myself.

One thing is for sure, drinking will only ever make depression worse, so there is nothing to lose by quitting, and you may find like I have that the sober you isn't as depressed as you thought.

Another thing I have noticed....I have not had a panic attack since I stopped drinking, when I was I would have several per day....so no prizes for guessing what was causing them!!!

Veritas1

For me, I get depressed when my life is unmanageable. When I can't sort out my affairs. When I can't get what I want. When I can't fix things that upset me.

I think to drink on top of that only makes things worse.

I think the root of our problems is our unmanageable life, then we pick up the drink and all sorts of trouble follows.

We can work on our minds, thoughts, and life much better if we are sober. We can make better choices if we are sober.

We can't just stop drinking and expect though that all will be well. For me there is still much more work to do so that I don't have to turn back to the bottle for relief.

Good Luck.

Find yourself a good support team of people in recovery that can help you.

basias

Made no difference to me whether I was depressed or not depressed. I justified my addiction no matter what......happy......sad.....depressed......not depressed.....celebrations.....anger.....lonelines s......fear....new job......loss of a job, I could go on and on. It is very simple for me, I am an alcoholic and an addict.

I have to keep in check all of my feelings and behaviors because I know that too much of anyone of them can lead me in the wrong direction. I have always had a problem with moderation.....in every aspect of my life. Learning to "relax" take some deep breaths, and working on my issues seems to be helping me.

Good luck.....I know this site will give you the strength you need.

Bamboozle

I'd been really depressed at least a year before I started drinking...I had to explain my history to get some help.

wheresthefun

If alcoholism is a true mental pathology, which many seem to believe it is (including the shrink world), then all mental pathologies have at least one more mental pathology to go along with it (comorbidity), the number one being...drum roll, please...DEPRESSION.

Mcribb

alchohol atleast gave me some numbness to heartache, boredness, etc. All that is over now though, time to face the truth.

ru12

Getting sober didn't make me happy either. It did create the space for me to prusue happiness with a clear and cogent mind. Plus it didn't hurt that when I awakened each day I wasn't in self-induced physical pain. And that alone created its own happiness and made each hangover-free day a source of great joy for me.

stuartp

Just to add my 2 cents . . . I was treated for major depression about 6 years ago. All during that time, I was surprised that the psychologist, psychiatrist and others never really asked me outright HOW much I was drinking (answer: too much). So, if they didn't ask me directly, I could fugde the answer - dumb thing to do, I know.

I 'got over' the major depression part, but still have bouts here and there. I've been sober for 4 weeks (today) and find that I am much better able to deal with the depressing times. I am better able to understand what's going on (or not going on) and deal with it. When I was still drinking, I had to get through all the haze (eg, what happened last night, where did I hid the bottles, what did I say, where's my next drink coming from, etc). before I could face life. This is all getting better now.

Life is better without the alcohol. Not always perfect (or close) but better.

Newtosoberlivin

Like many here, I also have clinical depression (I was diagnosed as bipolar about four and a half years ago). Unfortunately due to a divorce I lost my health insurance coverage. Therefore, I was forced to stop cold turkey on the depression meds I had been taking. That just gave the old alcohol another reason for me to believe it was my "friend" and that I could "self-medicate" to make it better.

It didnt' get better, it got so much worse, to the point I couldn't see why I should go on, everything was just a hot mess. UNTIL I cleared my mind, reached out to admit that the booze was a huge problem for me, and that it has no place in my life now.

also as others have said, I don't feel some "epiphany" now that I am not drinking. BUT I can see life for what and how it is, make intelligent, well thought-out decisions, and handle things as they come, with a clear and sober mind.

That in itself is both a gift and miracle to me.

wpainterw

Alcohol is a depressant so it's probably making you depressed. But you may also be depressed even without the alcohol. It's better to discuss this with your doctor. As to what's "causing" or "making" you drink, that could be due to a number of things. You can spend a lot of time and energy discussing this but, unless you manage to stop drinking, it won't do you any good. How to stop? I found that the best way was to seek the help of other alcoholics, either within AA or within some other group. Good luck.

W.