Your Nightly Glass of Wine Is Sabotaging Tomorrow's Mental Health

Bradley Cooper sat in a car at 29 years old, watching his life fall apart. His friend Will Arnett had just confronted him about his drinking. Years later, Cooper would describe that period as when he felt "lost" and "totally depressed," admitting that continuing down that path meant he was "really going to sabotage my whole life." Across the country, pop star Demi Lovato was having her own reckoning. At 19, she found herself drinking vodka from a Sprite bottle at nine in the morning. As she later told a crowd of fans, "I was throwing up in the car and I just remember thinking, 'This is no longer cute. This is no longer fun. And I'm just like my dad.'"

But their stories didn't start there. They started with what seemed harmless—a drink to relax after a stressful day, a glass of wine to quiet anxious thoughts, a beer to help fall asleep.

Sound familiar?

The Glass of Wine That's Stealing Your Tomorrow

You pour a glass of wine after a long day. Your shoulders drop, your racing thoughts slow down, the tension melts away. Finally, you can breathe.

This is self-care, right? This is how adults unwind.

But the next morning, you wake up feeling off. More anxious than usual. Your mood feels fragile. Small problems feel overwhelming. You're irritable with your kids or partner. You can't quite put your finger on why, so you push through the day. And that evening? You pour another glass. Because you need to relax.

You're caught in a loop you don't even see.

The Chemical Hijack: What One Drink Does to Your Brain

When you drink alcohol—even just one or two glasses—it disrupts multiple neurotransmitter systems that regulate mood, anxiety, sleep, and motivation. That first sip floods your brain with GABA, the primary calming neurotransmitter. This is why you feel relaxed within minutes. Alcohol also triggers dopamine release, creating that pleasant sensation.

But while you're enjoying that calm feeling, your brain is already working to counteract it. It produces less GABA naturally. It recalibrates its baseline to compensate for the alcohol's presence. Then you go to sleep (poorly, but we'll get to that). And while you sleep, the alcohol leaves your system. Now your brain is out of balance. It's been suppressing its natural excitatory signals to counteract the alcohol. But the alcohol's gone, and those signals are suddenly unopposed.

This is why the next day, you feel anxious, on edge, emotionally fragile. Your brain's stress response is hyperactive. Your nervous system is jumpy. Small annoyances feel like major crises. You're not imagining it. You're experiencing the neurochemical rebound effect of alcohol—even from moderate drinking.

The Sleep Lie

Many people drink wine specifically to help them sleep. And yes, alcohol makes you drowsy and helps you fall asleep faster.

But it destroys the quality of your sleep.

Alcohol suppresses REM sleep—the stage where your brain processes emotions and consolidates memories. It fragments your sleep architecture, causing you to wake up multiple times even if you don't remember it. The result? You "slept" for eight hours but wake up feeling unrested. Your emotional regulation is impaired. Your stress resilience is shot. You're more reactive, more anxious, more prone to negative thoughts. And because you feel terrible, what do you do that evening? Pour another drink to "relax."

Alcohol is a depressant. Regular drinking reduces the natural production of serotonin (your mood stabilizer), dopamine (your motivation chemical), and GABA (your calming neurotransmitter). Even moderate drinking—a glass or two most nights—keeps these systems slightly depleted. You start to need the alcohol to feel normal because your brain has adjusted to its presence.

People with anxiety and depression are especially vulnerable. Research shows they experience more severe mental health impacts from the same amount of alcohol compared to people without these conditions.

Demi Lovato, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, speaks openly about this. She explained that the intense mood swings left her confused, and when people are confused, they tend to self-medicate. Her father struggled with both drinking and mental illness, and she found herself searching for "what he found in drugs and alcohol."

What started as a way to cope became the thing that made coping impossible.

The "Just One Drink" Trap

You might be thinking: "But I only have one or two drinks. That's not a problem." If you're having that glass of wine most nights? If you look forward to it all day? If you feel like you need it to unwind? If you're drinking because you're anxious or stressed or can't sleep? Then it's not the amount that's the problem. It's the pattern. And it's the reason.

You're using alcohol as a mood management tool. And it's terrible at its job because it creates the very problems it promises to solve.The anxiety you're drinking to relieve? Alcohol is making it worse. The stress you're trying to escape? You'll feel it more acutely tomorrow.The sleep you're chasing? You're getting lower-quality rest. The low mood you're trying to lift? Alcohol is dragging it down further.

What Your Body Is Trying to Tell You

Beyond the mental health impact, even moderate drinking affects your body:

Disrupted blood sugar, leading to mood crashes and irritability

Dehydration, causing fatigue and headaches

Inflammation throughout your body

Disrupted gut bacteria, which affects anxiety and depression

Increased cortisol (stress hormone) production, even hours after drinking

The Path Forward

Bradley Cooper got sober at age 29, and he's now been sober for nearly two decades. He credits his career success and personal happiness to that decision. Demi Lovato has spoken about how addressing her drinking changed everything: "Mental health is something that we all need to talk about, and we need to take the stigma away from it. Let's let everybody know it's OK to have a mental illness and addiction problem."

But you don't have to wait until things fall apart. You don't have to hit rock bottom to make a change.

Here's what happens when you stop that nightly drink:

Within 3-7 days: Your sleep quality improves dramatically. You wake up feeling actually rested. Your anxiety decreases noticeably. Your mood becomes more stable.

Within 2-4 weeks: Your brain chemistry starts to rebalance. You produce more natural GABA, serotonin, and dopamine. You feel calmer without needing the wine. Your energy increases.

Within 2-3 months: Your emotional resilience is stronger. Stress doesn't knock you down as easily. You handle problems more rationally. Your relationships improve because you're not as irritable.

The Hard Truth

If you need alcohol to relax, you don't have a relaxation problem—you have an alcohol problem. Not in the way you might think. The problem is that you've taught your brain that alcohol is the solution to stress, anxiety, or sleeplessness. And your brain believed you.

Now it's creating the very problems that alcohol promises to solve, ensuring you'll keep coming back for more.. The good news? Your brain can unlearn this. But it requires actually stopping long enough for your neurochemistry to reset.

If you're drinking most nights to cope with anxiety, stress, or depression, try a 30-day break and pay attention to how you feel.

Find other ways to signal "end of day"—hot shower, tea ritual, evening walk

Address the underlying stress or anxiety with a therapist rather than self-medicating

Notice how much better you feel in the mornings without the rebound effect

You don't have to end up where Bradley Cooper or Demi Lovato did to make a change. You can catch it now, while it still feels like "just a glass of wine."

Because that glass of wine isn't helping you relax. It's borrowing tomorrow's peace of mind and charging you interest. And eventually, that debt comes due.