Depression Learning

What Happens When you mix Antidepressants and Alcohol and Other Drugs

Depressed individuals feel sad, anxious, bored, hopeless and worthless. They may find the world is not worth living. It is not uncommon for people suffering from a depressive disorder to self medicate by turning to a drug such as alcohol to relieve their depression. Nearly 40 percent of alcohol users have depression symptoms. Alcohol depression is a type of depression on its own. If alcohol is the sole reason for depression, the depression symptoms usually disappear once the patient goes through a detoxification program. However, there is the other side of the coin where people already suffering from depression turn to alcohol. Now we have a more complicated situation where we have alcohol abuse and mood disorder, which causes impaired judgment. Alcohol and many illegal drugs are depressants and a person with a depressive disorder is already depressed, combining alcohol with this disorder even without taking any additional antidepressants will acerbate the situation and make the symptoms worst.

What are the possible effects of combining both antidepressant drugs and alcohol?

Just as in taking alcohol as the sole drug to fight depression by forgetting about your troubles, you may be actually making them worse when you consume alcohol and take antidepressants as well. Since alcohol is already a depressant you may be undoing all the good intended by taking antidepressants. In other words your antidepressants will not work if you combine them with alcohol.

When you are taking antidepressants and combining them with liquor you can become more intoxicated then usual. If you are not used to this new development you are not prepared to handle the situation. Even if before you were able to control your behavior to a certain extent, with this higher level of potency from the alcohol, you may find you are completely out of control or worst still, your judgment is so impaired you have gone beyond even knowing what you are doing. This is extremely dangerous when you throw caution to the wind and attempt to drive home or attempt other reckless behaviors. You may also have impaired ability to focus and concentrate. This can be extremely dangerous if you are working with power tools or anything that can cause physical harm

The usual side effects you experience from your antidepressants may get worse. Mixing alcohol and psychiatric drugs may make you sleepy, something alcohol does on its own, but it may become more severe and you will fall asleep in the most inopportune times.

Dangerous reactions to combining certain antidepressants and alcohol can occur. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (Mao inhibitors) such as Nardil, or Parnate will react with certain drugs and foods. The combination of alcohol and these drugs can spike blood pressure and cause a stroke.

It is so important to abstain from drinking when taking psychiatric medications. A person with a depression disorder should not do the reverse. The medication is more important to your mental health then the temporary relief from alcohol. However, in some cases an occasional drink would be okay. Make sure you consult with your doctor before combing depression medication and alcohol or other drugs.

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