“This article is part of our series, The Belief Bucket, where we debunk common myths about alcohol and its perceived benefits.”
- Introduction: What is the Belief Bucket?
- Myth #1 – Relaxation (Alcohol helps me relax) ← you’re here
- Myth #2 – Happiness (Alcohol makes me happy)
- Myth #3 – Reward (Alcohol is my reward)
- Myth #4 – The Rosy Effect (Remembering only the good times)
- Myth #5 – Taste (Alcohol tastes amazing)
- Myth #6 – Social Ally (Alcohol helps me socially)
- Myth #7 – Sleep (Alcohol helps me sleep)
- Myth #8 – Moderate Drinking (Our obsession)
- Myth #9 – Boredom (Alcohol solves boredom)
- Myth #10 – The Buzz (Alcohol feels amazing)
Why We Believe Alcohol Relaxes Us
It’s easy to see why this belief sticks. One drink in and your shoulders drop, the edge from the day softens, and maybe there’s even a little wave of calm that washes over you.
That shift feels like relaxation, so our brain makes the connection: alcohol equals calm.
But here’s the truth. What’s really happening is a chemical reaction. Alcohol slows brain activity and releases dopamine, giving your thoughts a temporary quiet. That quiet feels peaceful, but it’s really just a pause button.
As soon as your body starts processing the alcohol, it kicks out stress hormones like cortisol to restore balance. So the calm you felt in the moment is often followed by more tension later.
What looks like relaxation is often just a brief numbing, followed by a spike in stress.
What True Relaxation Looks Like
Real relaxation is calm, contentment, and a sense of ease. It’s what you felt as a kid when you had nothing to worry about. Your body feels safe. Your mind feels light.
The kind of “relaxation” alcohol gives you doesn’t match that. It’s:
- Short-lived
- Shallow
- Often followed by physical or emotional fallout
That fallout can look like:
- Anxiety the next morning
- Irritability as alcohol leaves your system
- Fatigue that hangs around for hours or even days
Think about holiday drinking. Maybe you’ve had a trip where you drank from morning to night, every day. It might have felt relaxing at the time. But when you got home, you needed another vacation just to recover. That’s not relaxation. That’s recovery from self-inflicted stress.
Four Ways Alcohol Creates the Illusion of Relaxation
1. Total Inebriation
Sometimes it’s not relaxation, it’s your nervous system being overwhelmed. Enough alcohol and your brain slows down so much that you stop worrying. Not because the problems are gone, but because your thinking is dulled.
The cost?
- Hangovers
- Memory gaps and regret
- Physical stress from detoxing
That’s not peace. That’s brain malfunction followed by punishment.
2. Pre-Inebriation
Sometimes you feel “relaxed” before you even take a sip. You pour the first drink, exhale, and feel comfort knowing more are on the way.
That’s not the alcohol working, it’s anticipation. You’re looking forward to escape, not actually finding peace.
True relaxation doesn’t depend on what’s in the fridge or how quickly you can feel numb.
3. Easing Cravings or Withdrawals
This one’s sneaky. If you haven’t had a drink in a while, you might feel edgy or irritable without knowing why. That’s often mild withdrawal, your body craving the chemical balance it’s gotten used to.
When you finally drink, that discomfort fades, and it feels like relief. But the discomfort was caused by alcohol in the first place.
The same goes for mental cravings. If you’ve been thinking about drinking all day, the first sip feels like relaxation. But really, it’s just ending a state of agitation alcohol created.
4. Confusing Relaxation With Drinking
Many of us drink in the same moments we naturally unwind, after work, on weekends, during downtime. Over time, our brain merges the two experiences.
So when we finish work, put our feet up, and pour a drink, it feels like the drink is making us relax. But the real reason we’re relaxing is that work is done, we feel accomplished, and we’re finally resting.
When alcohol is removed, we might feel restless at first because our brain expects it. That’s conditioning, not proof we need it to relax.
The Stress Cycle Trap
Here’s the exhausting loop many drinkers get stuck in:
- Alcohol creates anxiety through chemical changes.
- We feel regret over what we said or did.
- We get frustrated that we can’t seem to stop.
- We drink again to get rid of the anxiety and frustration.
It’s a hamster wheel. The only way off is to break the cycle entirely.
Breaking the Cycle Feels Amazing
When you take alcohol out of the equation, something incredible happens, you rediscover natural relaxation.
You can sit in the quiet and feel calm because your life is peaceful, not because you’ve sedated yourself. You wake up without anxiety. Your baseline mood becomes steady and light.
Non-drinkers experience this every day. They don’t need alcohol to relax because they’re not living with the stress that alcohol itself creates.
Why This Belief Is False
Here’s the bottom line:
- Alcohol doesn’t teach you to relax, it teaches you to depend on it.
- The calm it gives you is temporary relief from stress it caused in the first place.
- The cycle leaves you with more stress than you started with.
- Sober living brings peace and contentment most drinkers rarely get to feel.
If you want real relaxation:
- Recognize that alcohol creates stress, it doesn’t solve it.
- Identify your true sources of stress and deal with them directly.
- Practice ways to unwind naturally until they feel normal again.
Alcohol doesn’t relax you. It tricks you. It gives you a moment of quiet, then takes more than it gives.
When you remove it, you find a kind of calm that doesn’t fade when the glass is empty, a steady, reliable peace that’s yours to keep.
— Brent
Next in the series: Myth #2 – Happiness (Alcohol makes me happy) →