A leading stress researcher has warned that people who drink alcohol to feel less stressed may be making their problems worse. Millions of people recognise the feeling of coming home after a tough day and opening a bottle of wine or a beer to let the stress melt away. But Carmine Pariante, a professor of biological psychiatry at King's College London, said alcohol increases the body's levels of cortisol, commonly called "the stress hormone."
Alcohol's temporary relief
Speaking on the Zoe Science and Nutrition podcast, Prof Pariante was asked by host Jonathan Wolf whether alcohol reduces stress. He said: "It reduces literally for, like, the 10 minutes, half an hour that you are drinking and you're under the effect. I would argue that, actually, if you feel that it's actually reducing your stress a lot while you're drinking, you're probably drinking too much. It's numbing it and then usually gets worse after."
Prof Pariante said alcohol increases cortisol levels: "People with alcohol problems, they have sky-high levels of cortisol. They increase inflammation terribly. So people with alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse, they have high levels of cortisol and high levels of inflammation."
"So physiologically it does everything that you don't want to do because it activates the stress response. I still think it's nice to have a glass of wine or share a bottle of wine with friends at the end of a difficult day. But I think that if you start using it to numb yourself, then it's only gonna be very temporarily and it's gonna get worse the day after. These are all dysfunctional coping mechanisms."
Doom-scrolling as a coping mechanism
Prof Pariante said the same is true of doom-scrolling on social media. He said: "It depends why we're doing it. I suspect most of us, that includes me, we're doing it because at the moment we don't want to think of what is worrying us or we don't want to feel the emotion that we are feeling."
"Am I saying that people should not have 10 minutes of relief by looking at a mobile phone? Of course not, in the same way that people could have the glass of wine. [But] if it's becoming being drunk every night or not interacting with your family or with your friends because you're constantly on your phone, then you need to ask yourself 'What am I avoiding in my mind by putting all my attention on the glass or on the phone or whatever it is?'"
"The principles of wanting to use all of the strategies, whatever works for us to numb our emotions, are the same across all of this. So we need to try to understand how we're using it. Are we using it in a healthy way that is acceptable? Are we using it in an unhealthy way?"
Advice for better sleep
Many people recognise the difficulty sleeping when stressed, which can become a vicious circle. Prof Pariante suggested some ways to address this. He said: "I think most of the time a kind of compassionate waiting, accepting this is a difficult time, accepting that there will be some difficult nights for sleeping, and try to minimise things that are disrupting us."
He advised minimising screen time, trying to consistently go to bed at the same time, and reading a book or "whatever helps us relax." He said: "That's probably the best strategy. Once it becomes a problem that you cannot work out, or it goes beyond just the discomfort of not sleeping, then that's when you need to ask kind of professional advice or help. And of course, there are more specific psychological interventions you can do. I'm not saying that people should take medication for sleeping problems, and certainly when they do, they usually recommend it only for like a week or so, just to go through the acute phase."
What is cortisol?
Though cortisol is commonly called "the stress hormone," it is actually a steroid hormone that has an important role in many bodily functions, including immunity, metabolism, and blood pressure control. In stressful situations, the body releases adrenaline and cortisol.
When short-term stress passes, cortisol levels fall and the system returns to normal. But long-term stress keeps the stress response activated and can negatively affect health over time. People with cortisol levels too high for too long, known as Cushing's syndrome, may have symptoms including weight gain, high blood pressure, mood swings, and anxiety or depression symptoms.
