Why We Drink When Feeling Blue

Blue: a state of feeling down in the dumps. I'm sure all of us have felt this way at some point. If not blue, maybe another form of negative emotion. Perhaps angry, irritated, stressed, anxious or worried. A unpleasant feeling.

Blue Waves by Perveen Kaur

In these types of emotional states, we don't go looking for alcohol per say, we are seeking relief. We want the unpleasant feelings to go away.

From an evolutionary perspective, these types of unpleasant feelings hit the body and brain similar to actual physical pain. For our ancestors, physical pain was potentially life threatening. We therefore evolved to either avoid physical pain or when it occurs, to mitigate it as soon as reasonably possible.

If the brain is treating negative emotional experiences like physical pain, then the same underlying motivation is present. We will try to avoid unpleasant feelings or when it occurs, to minimise it as much as possible.

In modernity, these emotions aren't necessarily life threatening like a physical injury was for our ancestors, but due to this ancient survival mechanism, we still have the motivation to reduce unpleasant states. Understanding these underlying mechanisms can shed light on why we drink when we are feeling down.

Alcohol - A Quick and Accessible Relief

Alcohol is a fast acting mechanism to relieve pain. We consume alcohol as a liquid which gets into the system fairly quickly to take effect. We don't smoke alcohol, inject it or snort it like with other drugs. We can eat it but this would be in foods and generally, foods have very low levels of alcohol that it wouldn't give you any kind of buzzing effect. So by drinking alcohol as a liquid, it can act reasonably fast in providing the effects of relief.

Alcohol is also easily accessible for people. It is legal in many countries and just like smoking, it is popularised in culture and the media. As it is big business, there are many price points for the consumer. One can get very cheap alcohol or very expensive. The price tag depends on the cost of brewing and production, ingredients used, the branding and packaging and of course, the marketing.

The Biological Basis for Emotional Relief

So why is alcohol such an effective substance at relieving unpleasant emotional experiences on biological level? This is due to ethanol, which is the main pyschoactive ingredient in alcoholic drinks, and the way ethanol affects the brain and body.

Ethanol is a depressant, it sedates the brain and body. This fact is well known across science. It dampens down the electrical activity of the brain, slowing things down in the brain and bringing the whole thing down a notch. The more we drink, the more sedated we feel, the looser we become and our judgements become more and more impaired.

The body and liver can break down ethanol molecules at a certain speed so if you consume more than the body is capable of breaking down, there will be surplus. This surplus goes through the body until the liver is able to break it down. Eventually, ethanol molecules reach the brain and this is where the main effects occur to relieve emotional pain.

A Temporary Fix

These effects are temporary though. The ethanol eventually gets broken down by various processes in the body, as the aim of the body is to get rid of this foreign molecule as quickly as it reasonably can. Once the ethanol dissipates from the system, it brings the brain and body back to a normal state. However in coming back to a normal state, the systems tend to shift in the opposite direction for a short while so one can end up feeling flatter or less motivated than before the drink.

The brain is a learning machine and it learns things that make the indiviudal successful in survival. If the body is undergoing distress in whatever form, and drinking alcohol relieved some of that distress, this is something the brain will actively learn and remember. This creates a pattern of behaviour over time that connects alcohol to relief, even if it is only temporary.

In nature, ethanol sources wouldn't create this kind of intense reaction in the brain. We've artificially created this very potent version of ethanol and of a natural process of fermentation. Our brain and body will cope as best as it can, but the knock on effects of consuming more than we are evolved to handle, are very real.