When the Buzz Backfires: ADHD, Alcohol, and the High Cost of Self-Medication

Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

Imagine you’re living in a body wired like a pinball machine—flashing lights, relentless motion, reactive tilt sensors.

That’s ADHD for many adults: a combination of emotional speed, impulsivity, and executive dysfunction. Now add alcohol. For some, it’s used as a numbing agent, a social lubricant, or a momentary off-switch for a brain that never quite powers down.

But a new French study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research (Luquiens et al., 2025) suggests that this combination—ADHD and alcohol—doesn’t merely fail to soothe. It amplifies suffering.

Alcohol, already notorious for wreaking havoc on mood and cognition, exacts an even steeper toll on quality of life for those with ADHD, particularly those stuck in patterns of emotional suppression and impulsive regulation.

Let’s explore why this interaction is especially toxic, what clinicians can learn from it, and how we might support neurodivergent clients in more adaptive emotion regulation.

The Study: Trainwrecks and TRAIN Trials

The researchers pulled data from the TRAIN study—a clinical trial in France aimed at exploring cognitive training for alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Out of 206 participants, 40 had comorbid ADHD, and all had a recent history of heavy drinking (over 60g/day for men, 40g/day for women). Despite being newly abstinent (7–30 days sober), the effects of long-term alcohol use on mental health and cognition were still palpable.

Using a battery of psychological assessments—including the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Montreal Cognitive Assessment—the study sought to map how impulsivity, suppression, and emotional control intersect with quality of life in those with ADHD and AUD.

Spoiler: It’s not pretty.

Key Findings: Emotional Suppression and the ADHD Trap

People with ADHD in the study reported significantly lower quality of life than their non-ADHD counterparts with alcohol use disorder. But more specifically, their difficulties stemmed from how they attempted to manage emotion—not just the raw intensity of emotion itself.

• Suppression backfires: Emotional suppression (shoving feelings into the mental junk drawer) was more common in the ADHD subgroup and strongly associated with reduced well-being.

• Impulsivity makes it worse: High impulsivity scores also correlated with lower quality of life. This supports the idea that impulsive behaviors—like binge drinking or explosive reactions—may be used to short-circuit distress but end up deepening it.

• Emotion regulation is key: Those who could flexibly regulate their emotions—without shutting them down or acting them out—reported better quality of life, even within this high-risk group.

These findings echo a longstanding paradox in the ADHD community: the emotional dysregulation that defines much of adult ADHD is both underrecognized and poorly treated. Alcohol often becomes a workaround, but it's one with a punishing hangover—emotionally, neurologically, and relationally.

Why This Matters in the Therapy Room

If you're a clinician working with a neurodivergent adult struggling with substance use, this research is a flashing neon sign: pay attention to emotional regulation strategies.

Many adults with ADHD reach for alcohol not to party—but to quiet the internal storm.

Unfortunately, they’re more likely to pick strategies like suppression, dissociation, or impulsive action, all of which backfire.

This has major treatment implications:

• Don't assume emotional awareness: Clients may not be consciously aware of their suppression tendencies. They may identify as “not emotional” or “just stressed,” masking a lifetime of unacknowledged inner chaos.

• Address suppression as a survival skill: Avoid framing suppression as maladaptive from the start. It may have been necessary in childhood. But now, it’s a costly coping strategy that trades short-term relief for long-term distress.

• Use somatic and experiential tools: Techniques like emotion labeling, body scans, or even Internal Family Systems (IFS) can help clients build tolerance for difficult emotions without resorting to numbing.

• Collaborate across providers: ADHD and AUD each warrant treatment in their own right, and ideally in tandem. Medication management, trauma-informed care, and cognitive-behavioral interventions should be integrated.

Cultural Narratives: Booze, Bravado, and the Mask of Competence

Our society still romanticizes alcohol as the socially acceptable medication.

For people with ADHD, who are often high-functioning but emotionally exhausted, this myth is seductive.

Alcohol appears to offer the things they feel perpetually deprived of: calm, focus, connection. But in reality, it undercuts the very systems they most need to shore up—emotional regulation, memory, and executive function.

And please, let’s not ignore gender.

Men with ADHD are often socialized to suppress emotions even without alcohol.

Add alcohol and you get emotional suppression squared—plus an increased risk of externalizing behaviors, violence, or legal trouble.

For women, alcohol may mask emotional overload but can fuel depression, trauma reenactment, or relational dysfunction. The result? A population that’s over-drinking, under-supported, and misunderstood.

Final Thoughts: Don't Blame the Buzz—Treat the Dysregulation

The real culprit here isn't alcohol alone. It's the system of dysregulation that leads ADHD adults to seek alcohol as a form of emotional management. The French study is a sober (pun very much intended) reminder that clinicians must look beyond the substance to the scaffolding of the psyche beneath it.

We need a new model of care—one that respects the neurodivergent nervous system, de-pathologizes emotion, and invites clients to co-create healthier rituals of self-regulation.

Until then, a heartfelt reminder: what feels like a shortcut may actually be the long way down.

Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.

REFERENCES:

Luquiens, A., Mura, T., Dereux, A., Louville, P., Donnadieu, H., Bronnec, M., Benyamina, A., Perney, P., & Carre, A. (2025). ADHD and alcohol: Emotional regulation efforts pay off in quality of life points. Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Barkley, R. A., & Murphy, K. R. (2006). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A clinical workbook. Guilford Press.

Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348

Weiss, M., & Hechtman, L. (1993). Hyperactive children grown up: ADHD in children, adolescents, and adults. Guilford Press.

Wilens, T. E., Martelon, M., Joshi, G., Bateman, C., Fried, R., Petty, C. R., & Biederman, J. (2011). Does ADHD predict substance-use disorders? A 10-year follow-up study of young adults with ADHD. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 50(6), 543–553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2011.01.021