The Long Term Mental Effects of Drinking and Driving

If you’re thinking about getting behind the wheel after a few drinks, you should strongly reconsider.

There are the obvious and acute reasons why drinking and driving is a bad idea, but think of the ramifications to your mental and emotional health over the long term.

Drinking and driving can end lives, and it can change lives forever. Either way, the effects are never positive, and the consequences can be severe.

The long-term effects of drinking and driving are more than meets the eye. When you’re involved in trauma, whether you’ve caused it or not, there’s a mental impact.

And there’s also a link between alcohol abuse and mental health.

In this post, we’re going to explore the long-term mental effects of drinking and driving and how to avoid them.

The drunk driving problem

Did you know that teenagers are three times more likely than more experienced drivers to get into a car accident (according to data from the CDC)? And when you add alcohol impairment to the mix, the results can be catastrophic.

And it’s a major problem for young, inexperienced drivers. Of all fatal crashes in 2017, the highest percentage of drunk drivers was in the 21- to 24-year-old range, according to data from MADD.

Trauma and mental health

Even when drinking isn’t involved, car accidents come with a risk of a trauma-related adjustment disorder. Such disorders include major depressive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and certain personality disorders.

Such a disorder will impact the remainder of a person’s life and can be devastating to anyone’s personal or professional life. It’s especially devastating when a teenager suffers from such an adjustment disorder. Not only are their brains still developing but they also have to endure most of their lives with the trauma-induced disorder.

Here are some tips to help you avoid drinking and driving:

• Have a plan for getting home. This may involve designating a driver or calling an Uber, but it shouldn’t involve driving after drinking.
• Don’t let friends drive after they’ve been drinking. You may have to be firm, but a night of hard feelings is always better than the alternative.
• Talk to the teenagers in your life about the responsibility of driving and the very real consequences that they could face.
• Know your limits. You may feel like you’re okay to drive, but understand that your judgment is also impaired after a few drinks. So, it’s important to gauge your ability to drive on the amount of alcohol you’ve consumed instead of how you feel. If you’ve had more than two drinks in an hour, your mental processing will be slowed and you’ll experience a reduced ability to perform simple tasks. Bottom line: you’ll be too drunk to drive.

Effects of drinking with a mental disorder

It’s common for someone with a preexisting mental disorder to abuse a substance like alcohol. Alcohol and recreational drugs are often used to self-medicate an underlying condition. In many cases, this leads to addiction.

So, it’s quite possible that someone who is drinking and driving has a preexisting mental disorder. Add the trauma of a drunk driving accident and the effects could be absolutely devastating to the person’s mental health.

Bottom line

Forgetting about statistics and facts, let’s explore what could happen if you decide to get behind the wheel after having one too many alcoholic beverages.

At best, you might get pulled over by a police officer and be sent to jail. In itself, that could be a traumatic experience. But that’s far from the worst-case scenario.

At worst, you could cause a car accident that leads to fatalities. Regardless of circumstances, you will be the guilty party if you’ve been drinking and driving. And if you’re guilty of taking someone else’s life, that’s something you’re going to have to live with for the rest of your life. The event itself will likely be imprinted in your memory and cause a post-traumatic disorder like PTSD. The accident itself and the after-effects on your life are catastrophic.

If you’re in the habit of drinking and driving, it’s time to take things very seriously. When this is a habit, it’s a matter of time before something terrible happens, and that can have a lifelong effect on your physical and mental health.