Excessive Drinking Linked to Early Childhood Trauma

Why can some people control themselves from drinking too much while others go on to make fools of themselves or destroy their lives?

Sometimes the tendency to drink excessively may be more than just a case of escaping from problems or too much partying. The likelihood for alcoholism has been linked by scientific research to childhood stress.

Now, stress is not all that bad. In fact, it is necessary for survival as the right amount of pressure helps a person to think and act better in the face of difficult situations we will encounter throughout life. Cortisol, our main stress hormone plays a key role in the body’s “fight-or-flight” response by increasing our body’s available energy and nutrient supplies to our muscles so we can respond with quickness and efficiency.

So if too much stress is bad for us, where do we draw the line? According to research published by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the benefits of stress stops when it is ‘severe enough to overwhelm a child’s ability to cope effectively’.

Too much stress suffered over a long period can result to ‘a variety of short- and long-term negative health effects.’ It can disrupt the development of the brain in early life, and also impair the functioning of two body systems that play a vital role in developing a physically and emotionally healthy human being—the nervous and immune systems.

An article written by Dr. Steve Bressert for Psych Central (a website providing the latest news and research about psychological disorders, treatments and medication) adds that prolonged stress suffered as early as infancy could permanently change the way our stress hormones respond and how we react to stressors such as when drinking alcohol.

Wait...did you say drinking alcohol is stressful? In the short term it makes you relaxed, but if you continue to drink while the stress is ongoing (which is most likely the case as alcohol will not actually solve the problem) it increases the possibility that you’ll drink more...and more as a means of coping, till it leads to dependence.

Alcohol and brain chemistry

I’ve mentioned earlier that the occasional stress is an inevitable fact of life and can even be healthy for us. The body’s expected reaction after the threat is over is to gradually decrease cortisol levels until we return to our normal state. But for chronic stress sufferers or long-term heavy drinkers, their body struggles to return to its physiological state ofbalance. As the demands increase on their body’s systems, it sets a new (lower) balance point, resulting in a less effective body functioning.

One such effect is on brain chemistry. Since the balance is now tilted, when alcoholics experience stress, they may experience higher anxiety levels than non-alcoholics as their brains demand the release of higher levels of cortisol and other stress hormones. Cortisol is also linked to the brain’s “pleasure” systems, which is why a heavy drinker with higher-than-average cortisol levels need to drink more than before in order to achieve the same effect. In addition, cortisol plays a role in learning and memory (what a very busy hormone!), which is why our heavy drinker is more inclined to make drinking a habit and has an increased tendency of a relapse.

And oh, did I forget to mention why some alcoholics don’t seem to eat much, yet have large bellies? Cortisol causes the body to crave for high-fat foods AND tells it to put excess body fat in the abdomen, that’s why.

The deciding factor

You may be thinking that a lot of people experienced difficulties (broken family, poverty, war and famine, etc.) when they were young but didn’t turn out to be alcoholics or drug addicts as adults.

A person’s resilience, or the ability to cope with stress is influenced by several factors in the environment. These factors may help offset the effects of physiological changes that happened in early childhood.

Dr. Bressert’s article mentions that the strength of the relationship between stress and drinking depends on whether alternative coping mechanisms and social supports are available.

A study published in the National Institutes of Health also indicate “that mediating factors such as gene-environment interactions and family and peer relationships are important for resilience.” Another research published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism credits positive thinking, an optimistic attitude, problem solving and planning as the characteristics of resilient people.

Alcohol and Stress - NOT a good mix!

Most adults of my generation are very familiar with stress, having experienced it ourselves at some point or watching others go through it. Stress is felt when we go through enormous physical, mental or emotional pressure, leading us to feel tired, drained and spent.  Little wonder that some choose to go the easy route and have a temporary ‘fix’ to their problems—alcohol.

A number of studies have been made regarding the link between alcohol and stress. In this post we’re going to break down the academic lingo—from studies talking about how alcohol affects the functioning of the body’s main stress hormone, Cortisol, and why this isn’t a good thing.

Our body’s Response to Stress

When we drink alcohol as an attempt to relieve stress, it results in a “therapeutic” effect which encourages us to drink more. Generally, the heavier the problem, the more bottles or shots drank. Left unchecked, this can easily lead to alcohol dependence, and that is where the problem grows. I say “grows” because alcohol can easily cause problems even if you’re only drinking it for a night—just ask anyone who’s ever been involved in an alcohol-influenced fistfight, danced topless at a bar, done some drunk sexing or wrote posts in their social media accounts that made them the butt of jokes in the morning, lost a loved one or worse, a job.

Did you know that grain alcohol or ethanol, the ingredient in alcoholic drinks that gives it its potency can fuel cars? Of course this is toxic to your body, unless you’re Optimus Prime! Toxins from alcohol eventually damages many organs over time. In the endocrine system, damage shows in the way alcohol impairs our body’s natural capacity to lower levels of its main stress hormone—cortisol.

Cortisol is responsible for an increase to our supply of glucose (our main source of energy), increased heart and respiration rates, increased blood flow and a boost in the body’s capability to heal any damaged tissues. The body produces high levels of cortisol to help an individual cope with any stressful situation. A short-lived rise in cortisol is important for survival, but once the stressor has been dealt with, the body has to go back to its normal state.

The effects of constant high cortisol levels

What happens if the signal to produce high amounts of this hormone cannot be turned ‘off’, which is one of the effects of alcoholism? A 2010 study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research found that elevated cortisol in alcoholics can lead to hampering basic mental activities such as making decisions, focusing attention properly or effectively making new memories or recalling old ones.

Elevated cortisol levels in alcoholics also encourage the onset of pseudo-Cushing Syndrome, whose symptoms include upper body obesity, weakened bones which can make common activities—such as lifting, bending or rising from a seated position seem like you’ve been working on the docks without a forklift—result to backaches and fractures in the rib and spinal column, severe fatigue, high blood pressure and sugar, and depression. Beer belly, it seems, may be the least of an alcoholic’s health woes.

In fact, according to another 2010 review by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, recovering alcoholics with pseudo-Cushing’s experience symptoms that are worse than during the period of heavy drinking itself.

But wait, there’s more. Another study in the same journal found that cortisol levels still remained high even in recovering alcoholics who are already going through the initial stages of alcohol withdrawal. Researchers in the study also felt that the lingering effects of elevated cortisol seriously increases an abstinent’s chance of a relapse.

It’s a disastrous loop, according to a 2010 study by researchers from Texas Tech University and Penn State University. Their findings say that stress that is not addressed is a major reason for a person’s inability to control alcohol cravings. In turn, a decreased ability to fight cravings leads to eventually reuniting with the bottle. 

While the effects of pseudo-Cushing’s may be reversed with due treatment, wouldn’t it be better if we just avoided all these complications in the first place by taking on whatever’s stressing you by the horns, instead of looking for a temporary solution that is going to be the cause of more problems later on?