Drinking heavily can also affect your relationships with your partner, family and friends. It can impact on your performance at work. These issues can also contribute to depression. If you use drink to try and improve your mood or mask your depression, you may be starting a vicious cycle…
Warning signs that alcohol is affecting your mood include:
Poor sleep after drinking
Feeling tired because of a hangover
Low mood
Experiencing anxiety in situations where you would normally feel comfortable.
Four ways to help prevent alcohol affecting your mood
Use exercise and relaxation to tackle stress instead of alcohol.
Learn breathing techniques to try when you feel anxious. Talk to someone about your worries.
Don’t try and mask them with alcohol. Always be aware of why you’re drinking. Don’t assume it will make a bad feeling go away, it’s more likely to exaggerate it.
Alcohol is linked to suicide, self-harm and psychosis
Alcohol can make people lose their inhibitions and behave impulsively, so it can lead to actions they might not otherwise have taken – including self-harm and suicide. More people who ended up in hospital because they’d deliberately injured themselves said they’ve drunk alcohol immediately before or while doing it. 27% of men and 19% of women gave alcohol as the reason for self-harming.
Just for today
I fear what I don’t know. I will expose my ears and allow them to vanish.
The AA Estcourt branch hosts meetings every Tuesday at Forderville Primary School from 7pm to 8pm. Contact Desigan on 082 849 3014. The AA Winterton branch hosts meetings every Thursday at the Springfield Church opposite the police station from 7pm to 8pm. Contact Dolly 071 688 5330 or Virgilo on 079 688 0432.
