Understanding Depression and Alcoholism:
Information that May Help You

Depression and Alcoholism – which causes which? Where do you start when looking for answers ... for a way out? Alcoholism and depression were illnesses I suffered from so I know where you’re coming from. In my mind initially - the depression came first. I figured I was depressed and so needed to drink to help me deal with that.

I never figured that maybe the alcohol was one of the major causes of my depression. Surely not! Drinking was just something I did like everyone else. Why would that make me depressed?

The fact is there is no black and white case to this. Like we don’t know all the causes of alcoholism, we don’t know all the causes of depression. I can however say that the two are without a doubt linked.

Most experts however – like those at the world class treatment center I went to – regarded alcoholism and drug addiction as the primary illness with things like depression, anxiety etc. as secondary illnesses.

So in other words by treating the alcoholism or drug addiction as your primary illness – a lot of your associated illnesses like depression will usually resolve themselves once your alcoholism or addiction has been successfully treated.

Now obviously this isn’t always going to be the case because there will be cases where you may suffer from serious depressive disorders, like bipolar disorder for example. But even then, alcohol just makes it worse and you’ll no doubt find that when you’ve had your alcoholism treated and are no longer drinking, you don’t feel nearly as bad.

Because lets get fact number one out of the way: Alcoholism in itself is a depressant. Alcohol depresses the central nervous system. So naturally in itself, being an alcoholic will more than likely result in depression or for an existing case of depression – just make it worse.

So if you are serious about getting rid of your depression, your alcoholism has to be treated as priority number one.

The other thing to remember as far as alcoholism and depression goes - is that if you’re taking any anti-depressant type medication, you’re only compounding your problem and making things a hundred times worse.

I used to be on anti-depressants and drinking made things so much worse. Alcohol totally negates the effects of any anti-depressant you’re taking - so you’re essentially just wasting your time. My depression just got worse while I was drinking and taking anti-depressants at the same time. And the side effects were horrific ...

My anxiety levels went through the roof (and part of the reason I was taking anti-depressants was to help with the anxiety), my paranoia got worse, I would pretty much black out most times I drank and end up embarrassing myself in some way or another. I used to wake up and literally dread what I had said or done – and I started becoming so scared of going out because I would just end up making an absolute fool of myself.

Should you get professional treatment for your depression and alcoholism from a rehab/treatment center, often they will put you on a course of anti-depressants as part of your treatment anyway, which is likely to be a far better anti-depressant than your G.P. will give you.

G.P.’s being generalists, will tend to put you on the very basic, generic type medication, which often have horrible side effects. I experienced that – and because you tend to implicitly trust your Doctor you don’t always question what you’re on when the side-effects you’re experiencing are horrible. At least that’s what happened to me.

It’s not until I went into drug and alcoholism addiction treatment that I was subscribed a proper course of anti-depressants that really made a difference. I suppose not drinking and taking drugs on top helped, but I’m sure you can see what I’m getting at.

So with depression and alcoholism – the most important thing to remember is that they are undoubtedly linked and that in most cases by having your alcoholism or drug addiction treated, your depression will resolve itself.

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Natural and Holistic Treatment of Depression and Alcoholism

As a side note, after having come clean, what really helped me overcome my depression in the long-term and got me to come off all anti-depressants and anything chemical - was changing my diet (science is beginning to show massive breakthroughs in the link to diet and mental health) - and learning how to meditate.

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For more information on the diet side – I suggest you download my book Addiction Uncovered where I give you some ideas that you can hopefully use – and check out the Patrick Holford website, which I believe is a great resource to help you discover how diet can transform your life in terms of how you feel, your mood etc.

On the meditation side, Addiction Uncovered will also give you some basic meditation ideas and tips that will allow you to get started straight away if you want. Or if you like the idea of a tool being able to help you because you think meditation is too difficult to master (and it’s something I’ve recently started using and gained massive benefit from), take a look at this amazing tool.

My belief is that for overcoming depression and alcoholism, there is no better long-term method - that will also totally transform your life - than meditation.

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I also suggest you look into the related topics of alcoholism and anxiety where I provide additional ideas on how to combat that, as well as the piece on alcoholism and psychology which provides an interesting take on the causes of depression and alcoholism or anxiety etc.

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