Alcohol Reduces Anxiety (and that’s not all it reduces)

        A few days ago my kids and I were watching a Western on television, and just before a gunfight, one of the bad guys went into a saloon and quickly downed a couple of shots of whiskey.  Immediately my son asked, "Why did he do that, Dad?"

        As everyone who has tried alcohol knows, alcohol reduces anxiety temporarily.  That gunfighter was scared, and he had a couple of drinks to make him feel more courageous.  Unfortunately, this tendency to reduce anxiety also gives alcohol part of its addictive power.  We tend to like things that make us feel less anxious.  Anxiety is part of the normal human experience.  It warns us that something is wrong, or that we need to get busy doing something; but it is not a pleasant feeling, and we will work to escape it.  The healthy way to escape it is to try to understand what is causing it, and constructively respond to the cause.  The unhealthy way is to medicate it without any attempt to understand the cause.  Alcohol will lower anxiety.

        However, that is not all that alcohol lowers.  It also clouds neurological functioning associated with inhibition.  The way the nervous system is designed, the parts of the brain which allow a behavior to occur develop first, and then the parts which help stop that behavior develop later.  That is why a four year old may have temper tantrums, and why tantrums become less common (or should become less common) as the child ages.  The ability to fly into a rage develops before the ability to inhibit rage develops.  The same is true of expression of sexual feelings.  A four year old may act on a sexual impulse, but quickly learns that such behavior is not appropriate in most settings.

        Alcohol seems to slow (actually poison) the areas of the brain associated with inhibition of behavior.  Although it reduces fear, it also reduces inhibition for feelings of rage and sexual acting out.  A large percentage of spousal abuse occurs when the abuser is under the influence of alcohol.  A large number of adulterous affairs begin with the consumption of alcohol.  The potential for a lot of bad behavior increases with the consumption of alcohol. Incidentally, that gunfighter’s reaction time would have been slowed, and by having a couple of drinks, he increased the chances he would be shot dead.  Indeed, he was shot dead.

        As a drug, alcohol is technically a depressant.  That is, it slows reaction time, reduces cognitive processing speed, and generally inhibits physiological processes.  At first, however, it has a short-term stimulant effect, before the depressant effect sets in.  Often violent behavior by a drunk is followed by depression and remorseful sadness.  But then it is too late.

        We need to educate our children (and our society) concerning the fact that alcohol is a dangerous drug.  We need to let our children know that if they marry a drinker, there is an increased risk of abuse, adultery and conflict.  We need to promote sobriety and non-chemical solutions to issues of anxiety and depression, and we need to get over the false assumption that we have a right never to feel anxious or depressed.  These feelings are normal, and may even be spiritually instructive.  If we medicate them away, we may lose the chance to learn what they can teach us.

        Because there is a genetic predisposition to develop alcohol dependence, and we cannot predict who may be at risk, total abstinence should be encouraged (and demanded) from our children.  It makes sense never to take the first drink, just as it makes sense never to smoke the first cigarette.  There are many drugs in our society that get more attention, but none that causes more destruction than alcohol.