{"id":8273,"date":"2021-04-08T14:48:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T20:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/?p=8273"},"modified":"2021-04-08T14:48:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T20:48:58","slug":"decreasing-drinking-can-lift-your-spirits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/decreasing-drinking-can-lift-your-spirits\/","title":{"rendered":"Decreasing Drinking Can Lift Your&#160;Spirits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Adults in the U.S. used a variety of coping skills to handle the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. While some increased exercise or tackled a list of home improvement projects, many increased their consumption of alcohol to cope. Unfortunately, this likely had the opposite effect than what was intended\u2014rather than lifting spirits, picking up extra drinks can have a detrimental impact on resilience. The good news? Decreasing drinking can quickly reverse those&#160;effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Drinking Trends in 2020<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rand.org\/pubs\/external_publications\/EP68312.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">study released by Rand Corporation<\/a>, \u201cNielsen reported a 54% increase in national sales of alcohol for the week ending March 21, 2020, compared with 1 year before; online sales increased 262% from 2019.&#8221; And, the study revealed that women, in particular, increased their heavy drinking (defined as four or more drinks within a couple of hours) by 41%. As take-home alcoholic beverages became a popular trend and people spent more time inside under intense emotional strain, an increase in binge drinking was a somewhat anticipated&#160;outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Alcohol Impacts Mood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While many who increased their drinking in the last year likely attribute that behavior to a need to improve their mood and outlook, interestingly their choice may have the opposite effect, according to a story by Well+Good, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/stop-drinking-better-mood\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>What Happens to Your Mood When You Quit Drinking, According to a Neuroscientist<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The story shares the insight of neuroscientist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drwilleumier.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kristen Willeumier, Ph.D.<\/a>, who says, \u201cpeople often choose to drink to modulate their mood, with the goal of temporarily reducing negative emotions and enhancing positive emotions. However, because alcohol impacts multiple neurotransmitter systems it can result in a range of emotions from feeling energized, relaxed, confident, and happy, to feeling tired, aggressive, restless, irritable, and&#160;depressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Dr. Willeumier, while alcohol may initially relax and uplift you, it may also lead to outcomes that could potentially make emotional strain worse, such as exhaustion or&#160;depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Finding Alternatives to Drinking Alcohol<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niaaa.nih.gov\/publications\/brochures-and-fact-sheets\/alcohol-facts-and-statistics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">14.5 million people have an Alcohol Use Disorder<\/a>. While individuals in this group may have also increased their consumption in 2020, the solution for them is well beyond just a simple habit swap for decreasing drinking. Recovery for those addicted to alcohol is a more complex journey. But for others\u2014those who may have found themselves falling into a new habit in response to the COVID-19 trigger\u2014there are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthline.com\/health\/how-to-break-a-habit\">tools that c<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthline.com\/health\/how-to-break-a-habit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthline.com\/health\/how-to-break-a-habit\">n help reverse the habit<\/a>. Doing so can be a critical first step to getting on a healthier, happier&#160;track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a result of the pandemic, many people increased their consumption of alcohol to cope. Unfortunately, this likely had the opposite effect than what was intended\u2014rather than lifting spirits, picking up extra drinks can have a detrimental impact on resilience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[962,977,978,218,223,979,976,577],"class_list":["post-8273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-societal-costs","tag-covid-19","tag-depression","tag-dr-kristin-willeumier","tag-drinking-alcohol-problems","tag-drinking-problems","tag-drinking-trends","tag-emotional-impacts","tag-rand-corporation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Decreasing Drinking Can Lift Your Spirits | Sobering Up<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"During the COVID-19 pandemic, many turned to alcohol to cope. According to Dr. Kristen Willeumier, decreasing drinking increases resilience.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/decreasing-drinking-can-lift-your-spirits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Decreasing Drinking Can Lift Your Spirits | Sobering Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During the COVID-19 pandemic, many turned to alcohol to cope. According to Dr. Kristen Willeumier, decreasing drinking increases resilience.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/decreasing-drinking-can-lift-your-spirits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sobering Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-08T20:48:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-drinking.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sobering Up Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@scramsystems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@scramsystems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sobering Up Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/decreasing-drinking-can-lift-your-spirits\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/decreasing-drinking-can-lift-your-spirits\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sobering Up Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512\"},\"headline\":\"Decreasing Drinking Can Lift Your&#160;Spirits\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-08T20:48:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/decreasing-drinking-can-lift-your-spirits\/\"},\"wordCount\":422,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"covid-19\",\"depression\",\"Dr. Kristin Willeumier\",\"drinking alcohol problems\",\"drinking problems\",\"drinking trends\",\"emotional impacts\",\"RAND Corporation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Societal Costs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/decreasing-drinking-can-lift-your-spirits\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/decreasing-drinking-can-lift-your-spirits\/\",\"name\":\"Decreasing Drinking Can Lift Your Spirits | Sobering Up\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-08T20:48:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"During the COVID-19 pandemic, many turned to alcohol to cope. 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