Seems to be a little dilemma I have, trying to take meds as little as possible and drink on the days when I'm not on them, wondering if it's better to just cut out the Alcohol and replace them with more meds or vise versa

anxiety meds are worse

Alcohol doesn't permanently fuk up your serotonin production. It's a temporary effect.

Like comparing creatine to dat dere.

Creatine ain't fukkin with your hormone levels.

depends on which meds

I take it youre talking about benzos.

They're both gaba-ergic. Except the meds all have the same dose and aren't addictive as how alcohol can be stimulating/largely dopaminergic for some alcoholics. So take your meds and consult with your doctor

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The Only Two Ways to Raise Brain Serotonin Levels
Submitted by ihtadmin on 31 August 2015 - 10:22am

The following article was written by Dr. Gary Kohls.

Serotonin is probably the most important neurotransmitter in the brain because it naturally and effectively treats depression, anxiety and insomnia, as well as symptoms such as fatigue, irritability, agitation, anger, aggression, hostility, impulse dyscontrol and a variety of other mood issues.

Serotonin’s role in neurological, bowel, vascular and mental health issues has been known for decades and, since the approval by the FDA (in the late 1980s) of a handful of expensive, dangerous and addicting drugs known as the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), has been heavily exploited by the pharmaceutical industry (hereinafter known as BigPharma).

Serotonin was first discovered in the bloodstream of animals in the 1950s or 60s as an important natural vasoconstrictor (causing constriction of blood vessels) and blood coagulant. Several decades after those discoveries the serotonin molecule was re-discovered in the brain, where it was found to function as an important neurotransmitter (a natural biochemical, one of as many as 60 others – most of them still a mystery to neuroscientists - in the complex brain, that allows nerve impulses in various brain neurochemical systems whose transmission is otherwise electrical).



Serotonin was ultimately found by basic science neuroscientists to have only one common precursor in the human diet. That precursor substance is an amino acid (the basic small molecule building blocks of proteins) known as l-tryptophan. Tryptophan is one of the eight amino acids found in the proteins that humans can normally obtain only through their diets. These eight amino acids (of 20 amino acids commonly found in dietary proteins) cannot be manufactured from other sources and are thus is known as “essential” amino acids. (Amino acids such as tyrosine, the precursor of the natural antidepressants dopamine, norepinephrine and adrenalin can be metabolized by humans from phenylanaline - which is one of the other “essential” amino acids.)

It is important to re-emphasize that the natural antidepressant serotonin can only be increased in the body and brain by the ingestion of one of it’s two precursor amino acids – tryptophan (which is found in protein, protein powder nutritional supplements or as an amino acid supplement) and/or 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), an amino acid that is extracted from a bean from Africa.

The claims of BigPharma that the SSRI drugs increase serotonin levels in the brain is really only a clever partial truth (a plausible “white lie”). In actuality, SSRI drugs only temporarily and momentarily increase the levels of serotonin in the gap between serotonin nerves (called the “synapse”) while – long term – they actually decrease and wasting the stored-up serotonin in the pre-synaptic nerves. The serotonin is actually depleted by the SSRIs well-advertised and, at the same time, poorly explained function: the inhibiting (= disabling) of the reuptake pump’s physiologically normal recycling of the neurotransmitter back into the pre-synaptic nerve, which allows repeated reuse of the same serotonin molecules for future nerve impulse transmission. Thus, the unadvertised result of repeated inhibition of the reuptake mechanism is the long-term depletion (and destruction by synaptic enzyme systems) of serotonin directly because of the drug’s major mechanism of action.

This depletion of stored-up serotonin helps to explain the phenomenon of “Prozac Poop-Out” which commonly results in the need to increase the dosage of an SSRI to obtain the same artificially stimulating effect or to avoid the common withdrawal symptoms that happen when the drug is stopped abruptly, the dose decreased or the synapse function altered and/or damaged.

Patients on any number of prescription or illicit brain-altering drugs commonly develop withdrawal symptoms by just staying on the (increasingly ineffective) initial dose (a “poop-out” phenomenon also known as “tolerance”). Tolerance happens with the regular use of dependency-inducing drugs such as dopamine/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor psychostimulants such as *******, the amphetamines (including ********), methamphetamine, Ecstasy, Effexor, Wellbutrin and the *******-like drug Ritalin) or the GABA agonists such as the tranquilizers/anti-anxiety drugs/hypnotics/sleeping pills such as ******, *****, Klonopin, Restoril, ******, Lunesta, etc.

The basic science realities of the amino acid-derived dopamine and GABA – and the dangerous synthetic drugs that BigPharma uses to exploit basic neuroscience and cunningly market their patented, highly profitable and addictive products - will be dealt with in forth-coming articles.

But the important issue of this article (especially for people who want to take control of their own emotional and mental health issues) is that synthetic brain-altering drugs, which are all lethal at a certain dose (as opposed to the benign and healthy neurotransmitter precursors), never, never cure mental ill health. At best, they only mask symptoms that are often misinterpreted as representing “mental illnesses”. Indeed, neurological dysfunction caused by psychotropic drugs is almost universal. These unintended adverse effects commonly cause symptoms that mimic mental illnesses. (See the extensive lists of adverse neurotoxic and psychotoxic “adverse” effects of any prescription psych drug in the dispensing pharmacy’s product insert or in the PDR [Physician’s Desk Reference] to confirm this reality for yourself.)

Smart post right here.

I wouldn't know the effects on the brain but you can ask your doctor. But I highly doubt that he will tell you that alcohol is the better option.

In fact, I would imagine your meds would work far more effectively if you're taking them on a regular basis.

I don't know the neurochemistry involved, but I do know that humans have been drinking alcohol for thousands of years and will have adapted to a brain swimming in ethanol

Humans have been taking anxiety meds for 100(?) years or however long they've been invented... no adaptation

Stop being a pussy. I pop ecstasy pills every weekend and you're out here pissing your pants about alcohol and meds.

I had severe severe anxiety when i was 120 pounds at 18. Now no anxiety. I attribute this 90% to weights and self help books. Some people should be on them. I was with someone that was raped as a kid. She was an anxiety ridden nutbag that would jump at small things. In most guys cases though youre a big oussy living the porn, video games, tv, movies lifestyle and its made you socially retarded.

If you read that article, proper protein intake also increases brain serotonin naturally. Healthy living through whey protein!

Drinking alcohol will increase your anxiety levels you stupid fuk.