Does alcohol help ease anxiety?

Drinking alcohol can be a form of “self-medication” used to unwind from workplace stress or ease study pressures, making it less “aqua vitae” (water of life) and more and “Aqua ad vitae” (water to counteract life). And more than 2,600 years ago the Greek poet Alceus suggested that “we must not let our spirits give way to grief … Best of all defences is to mix plenty of wine and drink it”.

Stress is biologically mediated by the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis – a feedback system between the brain and the pituitary and adrenal glands. But acute alcohol consumption can stimulate this, increasing the production of several stress hormones including corticosterone and corticotropin. But the “stress” response also interacts with the reward effects from the dopamine system, so it may very well feel good.

I have adapted this answer from my original article in The Conversation