Alcohol and Emotional Wellbeing

Many people drink to feel better if they’re stressed, low or anxious. But did you know that alcohol harms your mood and mental state?

Drinking as a way of handling stress, nerves, feeling down or anxious is common. What many people don’t realise is that alcohol has a negative impact on your mental wellbeing, so drinking can create a vicious circle of feeling bad.

Alcohol is a depressant

Drinking alcohol causes changes in your brain chemistry. That’s why we feel more relaxed and confident after a drink: the parts of the brain that drive feelings like self-consciousness are dampened or ‘depressed’. However, this also means that other parts of the brain become depressed too, which can lead to poor decision-making and negative emotions. These effects are often short-lived but regular drinking can have a long-term impact on your mental health too.

Alcohol increases stress

While many of us drink to relieve stress or anxiety, it really has the opposite effect. Because our brain processes begin to shut off, our ability to see what’s going on around us becomes limited. We might focus on one specific aspect of a situation that is threatening (such as seeing a partner talking to someone we don’t like) and filter out the neutral aspects (such as the partner chatting with all sorts of other friends too throughout the evening).
This process can make situations turn bad when we drink: we may become highly emotional, aggressive or more prone to risk-taking. The next day, the effects continue as alcohol will still be in your system if you’ve had a lot to drink. These feelings of depressed mood, tiredness or anxiety could trigger the urge to drink again: a vicious cycle begins, and your stress hasn’t been eased.

Alcohol leads to poor sleep

Good sleep is vital for physical and mental wellbeing. Its common to reach for a drink to sleep better, but while a glass of wine may help you nod off, even small amounts of alcohol will make the quality of your sleep poorer. Ever woken up after drinking and felt like you haven’t slept at all? This is because alcohol disturbs your sleep cycle and you spend less time in the deep stage of sleep that’s needed to feel well-rested. Then there’s the fact that drinking will make you need to get up and visit the toilet: a sure way to guarantee a disturbed night’s sleep.

How to prevent these negative effects

  • Develop healthy habits to handle stress and low mood: try exercise, relaxation or breathing techniques
  • Talk through how you are feeling with someone you trust
  • Be aware of why you’re drinking and don’t assume it will get rid of bad feelings
  • Follow the guidance for low-risk drinking: no more than 14 units per week, spread across multiple days, with at least 2 alcohol-free days each week
  • Chat to to our friendly team to find out how we could help you build a healthier relationship with alcohol
    More information is available at Drinkaware, and you can contact us for further support. 
 
More information is available on the Drinkaware website, and you can contact us for further support. 

How does this work?

The tailored approach LiveWell Dorset uses to come up with solutions to the things that are stopping us achieving our goals, is based upon work done by University College London developing the COM-B model of behaviour change. In this model, all behaviour is influenced by understanding a person’s capability to change, their opportunity to change and their motivation to change. By understanding which of these is the biggest barrier to change, we can tailor support accordingly. This model of behaviour change is at the centre of the support we offer, online and in person.

Your Favourites?

or register, to favourite activities that you want to try.

Welcome!

Is this the first time that you've used our services, or have you already registered with us? To allow us to best serve you, please confirm whether you're new to LiveWell Dorset, or if you've spoken to us before and may have an existing account.

Welcome back, it's good to hear from you again!

To speak to one of our dedicated team and get the help you require please request a call back. All call backs from this service are free of charge to both landlines and mobile.

Request a Call Back

Do you provide your consent to share your information with the LiveWell Dorset team – part of Public Health Dorset ?

When you register with LiveWell Dorset, we ask you some questions about you and your health (how much you smoke, how active you are, how much you drink and how much you weigh). We store that information and use it to shape our service offer to you – such as the advice we give or the extra services we connect you to. The only people who will see this information will be those involved in the delivery of the service and management of the data. If you would like to use extra services (such as slimming clubs and pharmacies) we have to share this information with them. For us to be able to put you in touch with these services, we must have your consent to share that information with the service (we’ll ask for that later, when if you sign up for extra services).

Before we can sign you up any further, we need to know:

  • You're happy for your personal information to be shared with LiveWell Dorset.
  • You understand what information may be shared and why, and that at times, our contact to you may be supported by technology partners, who have the same data protection standards and safeguards as we do
  • You acknowledge that you can withdraw your consent at any time by informing LiveWell Dorset.
  • You understand that if you do not give consent or withdraw consent then it could be difficult for us to connect you some of the services we offer.

If you require any more information to help you make your choice then please contact the LiveWell Dorset team on 0800 840 1628. All telephone conversations at LiveWell Dorset are recorded for quality and training purposes, and stored whilst you are registered as active within the service.

Yes I consent

Sorry we can't continue at the moment

Unfortunately we need your permission to store your personal information to help us to assess the best support we could provide or signpost you to. If at any stage you change your mind and are happy to provide your personal information please come back and visit us again.