Understanding what to tell a young person who is on antidepressants and wants to have alcohol.

Alcohol and Anti-depressants

Understanding what to tell a young person who is on antidepressants and wants to have alcohol. 

Let’s understand how anti-depressants affect the brain?

Anti-depressants work to help balance the chemicals in a person’s brain that effect a person’s mood and emotions.

Let’s understand how alcohol affects the brain?

Alcohol affects part of the brain that controls a person’s movement, speech, judgment and memory. This in turn leads to “signs of drunkenness” – having difficulty walking, slurring words or forgetting things.

Now alcohol, anti-depressants and the brain…

Now that we know that both anti-depressants and alcohol affect the brain separately, what happens if they are taken together? When they are taken together they can make a person drowsier than usual and impair a person’s alertness and thinking. This is because both antidepressants and alcohol are sedatives. Alcohol can also increase the side effects of antidepressants. This might mean that when taken together they can reduce the effectiveness of the anti-depressant. In order to prevent any potential dangerous side effects when taking anti-depressants it best to drink in moderation. It is important to remember that the positive effects of alcohol are only temporary and excessive use can result in feelings of anxiety or depression.