What Alcohol and Drugs Can Do For YOU

Alcohol and Drugs make you feel happy
At first, after using alcohol or drugs, you are joyful and ready to party and have a good time. However, alcohol and most drugs are actually categorized as a “depressant”—meaning that after a brief high, the chemical is actually meant to cause you to be depressed. Many people—especially alcoholics and opium-users (such as heroin addicts)—like the substance because they have put their negative feelings aside for a time. Unfortunately, that feeling is very temporary, and then they feel depressed for a much longer time—then they want to go back to get more of the substance so they can feel good again. This is a perpetual cycle of depression, and the only way of escape is to get out of the substance that is bringing you down.

They give you energy
After using alcohol or drugs you feel that you could do anything, lift anything, you are ready for anything—especially meth or coke. Certainly those drugs do grant a person more energy for a period of time. However, all of these substances actually are tearing your body apart. They increase your chance of getting Hepatitis C or liver damage. They leave your body feeling more tired, and long term use causes you to die young, possibly from overdosing or a greater chance of an accident, but the use itself will eventually kill you. Long term alcohol or drug use is a slow suicide.

They make you feel smarter
A person using alcohol or drugs, when they are in their “high” stage, they feel that they are having great insight that they wouldn’t have otherwise. This is especially true of those who use marijuana, meth, coke or psycadelics. However, the opposite is actually true. Most drugs (and certainly alcohol) slow down reaction time, and slow down the brain processes. The “insights” some people get are simply rambling, which leaves them feeling that while they were high they understood everything, but once they came down they forgot what they had understood, and their notes or drawings don’t make sense anymore. The reason for this is that there was no great understanding, just feeling. Drugs and alcohol actually make you stupider, but you only feel smarter. This is a dangerous combination.

They help you deal with your emotional issues
There are people who have real social and emotional issues and they can take certain drugs or drink alcohol and they feel “normal”. A person with ADHD might take meth and feel better for a while, while another person can take heroin and their pains are gone for a time. However, all of these solutions are only temporary, and when it is over, you are stuck with an addiction that does not solve any of your problems but actually gives you more.

They cover up your shame
Many people who use alcohol or drugs have deep issues of shame, in which they feel rejected or a failure, and they use their substance to cover up this shame so that they don’t have to experience it. But when they come out of their high, their feeling of shame is deeper than before, because they realize that they have failed even worse due to using the alcohol or drugs. The substances are simply shame machines, which do not pull you out of the shame, but they continually grind you back into it, deeper and deeper.

They make it easier to deal with people
While a person is in their “high”, everyone seems so easy to deal with. The shy person can suddenly speak easily with others and the socially inept can be confident. However, everyone who has to deal with someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol does not find them easier to deal with, but think of them as jerks. The reason for this is that the person who has used is actually apathetic about what responses they will get to what they do. They are confident because they no longer care about other people and what they really need. And the others around them are stuck dealing with this person who is a stupid and doesn’t care about other’s feelings—in other words, a jerk.

They help you forget your problems
Alcohol and drugs are the great “cover up” so that all of our problems and pains and difficulties are forgotten for a time. Unfortunately, this forgetfulness isn’t just a “black out” but a form of chosen schizophrenia. Alcohol and drugs actually make you into a different person, one that is deceived and foolish, one that doesn’t care about anyone or anything and makes life for everyone around them worse.

They make you feel all is right between you and God
For those who are concerned about their relationship with God, when one is high, they feel that their relationship with God is the best it has ever been. They do not feel condemned before God, they feel positive and everything is good. However, God himself says that a person who is “filled” with a substance, such as alcohol or drugs and so cannot control themselves, they cannot be filled with God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit is essential for living the Christian life, and the one who drinks or uses are actually exchanging the substance for a Christian life. Although they feel right with God, they are actually at a low point, and God will not listen to their prayers at that point.

They make you feel all is right between you and the spirit world
It is true that alcohol and drugs open a person up to the spirit world and makes them more influenced by that alternative world. Unfortunately, the Bible says, that most of that world around us are filled with demons and evil spirits that want to destroy us and to tear apart our relationship with God. Every time we use, we are opening ourselves up to demonic influence, which will destroy our lives one bit at a time, until our whole lives are a misery, a life of destruction both for ourselves and those around us.

They make you feel good about the future
For many people, alcohol and drugs gives them hope for the future. The Bible says, however, that the best hope for our future is the kingdom of God—God in us right now and us in God’s people and life. This is the true hope and blessing of God. But those who are characterized by alcohol or drug use do not have a part of this future, they cannot participate in this hope. The life they are now living is the best they will ever receive— and it is a life heading toward misery and death. And after their death they will gain nothing from God but punishment for the misery and apathy they have given to others and to God’s will.

Alcohol and Drugs feel like more life—but they are ultimately misery and death.

Confronting Depression

Depression is not a feeling or a mood. Rather, depression is a draining of one’s energy, usually in response to great stress in one’s life. It can be a part of a normal life, but often depression becomes overwhelming, taking away the ability to experience joy in anything, or to accomplish anything for God. When depression seems too much to bear, it needs to not just be lived with, but confronted. Below are some things to warn against in depression, and then some steps to confront your depression.

What not to do in depression

Don’t beat yourself up (Romans 14:4)
Depression is a response that is normal in your body. Don’t blame yourself for what you had no control over. Don’t blame yourself for what you are unable to do, even though you could have done it at other times.

Don’t blame others
It is easy to blame others for how you feel, especially if they have done something wrong to you. But how we respond to someone’s actions is not their fault. Some might respond in anger, in anxiety, in depression. But we cannot blame another because we are miserable.

Don’t doubt God or his ways (Deuteronomy 6:5)
In depression, many doubt God or decide to give up on trying to follow Jesus because it is “too hard.” But God wants to assist you through and out of your depression, and Jesus died to free you from all oppression, even your depression. Don’t give up on the One who is your deliverer.

Don’t use it as an excuse to do what you know is wrong (Colossians 3:5)
Many people do certain things because they want to overcome their stresses, to feel better. But to act in sin to overcome depression—using alcohol or drugs or to yell at someone, for example—does not assist your depression, but only gives you guilt that causes you to deepen your depression.

Don’t isolate (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Those in deep depression often want to be by themselves and not to have anything to do with anyone because people are just too stressful. But to isolate is to give into the depression and only deepens it.

Don’t doubt those who love you (Colossians 3:12-13)
Those who have proven themselves to be your friends and to help you often seem unsympathetic or distant when you are depressed. Perhaps they don’t know what to do for you or maybe they are trying to not treat you any different and finding it difficult to do. Remember, though, that they have not changed in their care for you, so don’t give up on them.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep (Matthew 5:37)
Often in our depression we want to pretend that we are just as able as any other time to do what we would usually do—but we are not able to. When we are depressed, we have to take care to promise to do only what we can—even if it seems that we ought to be able to do more.

Try not to express negative thoughts to those not ready for it (Galatians 6:1)
We need to confess our faults, and communicate our needs, but not everyone is ready to hear the amount of negativity our mind is feeding us when we are depressed. We need to chose those whom we communicate to carefully, so that we do not destroy others with our words.

Confronting depression
Depression isn’t just to be lived with, it must be confronted and dealt with so that we can live before God with all the energy he gave us. While it may sound like just another stress to deal with, in fact it is a simple way of living:

1. Pray for deliverance (Luke 11:5-13)When we are oppressed by our moods or lack of energy, we need to be persistent in praying to God for deliverance. Deliverance won’t come from a person or an organization, it comes only from God. We must ask him continually for deliverance. The Holy Spirit is the power of God and when we are depressed, that is the power we need. Jesus said to keep praying for that power and we will receive it.

2. Deal with the cause of depression
Often there is a reason for our depression that can be resolved: perhaps we are guilty about our sin, perhaps we are anxious about our security, perhaps we are oppressed by the evil one. If so, we can deal with these issues, and soon the depression will lift away.

3. Be grateful to God (Psalm 86:12-13)
In depression, we think no one and nothing is on our side. At these times, we need to remember all the blessings that God has given us, all the purposes he has shown us, all the works he has accomplished for us. We need to make a list of thanksgiving, so that we can give thanks to God for what he has done.

4. Resist the evil one (James 4:7)
Many times depression is an oppression visited upon one by Satan to keep one from service to God. In that time, all one has to do is command the evil one to go and he will leave. At times it is good to seek out others to pray for you in this as well.

5. Balance your rest (Proverbs 6:10,11; Psalm 127:2)
We need to have just the amount of sleep we need. If we have too little, we will be overstressed and our depression will deepen. If we have too much, we will never move to have the energy we need to live. We need to get the sleep we need, even as God has blessed us with it, but not take advantage of having too much.

6. Balance stressful situations (Matthew 22:39)
Depression is often a response to overstress, and so we don’t want to overwhelm ourselves unnecessarily. However, we also want to balance ourselves to remain involved in life, so that our body isn’t overreacting to any and every kind of stress. We need to remain active, be involved with people, but we also need to have time by ourselves, resting before the Lord.

7. Balance your nutrition (I Kings 19:7)
Depression is either caused by or induces a chemical reaction in your brain. God has given us chemicals to balance out depression in the brain—and we gain these chemicals by eating good food that the Lord gave us. Often in depression we aren’t hungry or just don’t eat. But if we don’t eat, we will not heal. We need to eat nutritionally, especially fruits and vegetables and whole grains, all of which give us energy. Also B-complex vitamins can often renew our energy.

8. Do God’s work empowered by the Spirit (Acts 1:8)
God has given each of us certain tasks that we are to do. If God had given us the task to do, then he also will provide us with the power and energy to do it. Often, when we are depressed, the best thing to do is what God has called us to do—then we are no longer dependant on our own power, but on the power of the Spirit.

9. Tell your issues to a believer you can trust and listen (James 5:13-15)
It is good to meet with brothers and sisters who will appreciate our trials and recommend positive courses of actions to deal with it. We can pray for each other and encourage each other in overcoming our needs.

10. Take medication (I Timothy 5:23)
It is not always helpful to take medication, but sometimes it is, and there is nothing wrong with needing medication to help you do what the Lord asks you to do. In evaluating a medication, remember this one test: Is this medication helping me to do what is right before the Lord or not? Is it giving more self-control so I can honor the Lord with my actions? If it does, it might be a positive medication for you.

Confront Depression with Righteousness