Alcohol is trusty in that way: you know that if you have a drink(s), your nerves will calm, tightness in your body will loosen, inhibitions will drop, your negative mood will elevate and anxiety will dissipate.
This is the reason that self-medication with alcohol is so common — particularly for those with underlying anxiety conditions.
What you might not know, however, is that the mid- to long-term effects are quite different.
“Anyone who has ever taken a drug has experienced the brain’s adaptive capacities,” writes Neuroscientist Judith Grisel, PhD, in Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction.