on by the brain’s naturally produced endorphins. But the positive effects of alcohol are only temporary.
With increased use of alcohol, the individual can become chemically dependent on the drug. He or she will need more alcohol or drugs to produce those numbing effects. Eventually, dependence can turn into addiction, which is characterized by compulsive use of the substance, tolerance to the drug and an insistence on abusing the drug in spite of its devastating effects.
The use of alcohol to numb PTSD symptoms leads to a vicious cycle. Drinking alcohol worsens the fear and anxiety of PTSD, which leads to a release of endorphins.
https://dualdiagnosis.org/mental-health-and-addiction/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-and-addiction/
Where does magnesium figure in all this?
Once again, research shows that low magnesium is directly linked to addictions and, not surprisingly, also linked to reduction in addiction and dependency:
For example, one NIH published research says, “
“Addiction is a dysregulation of brain reward systems that progressively increases, resulting in compulsive drug use and loss of control over drug-taking. Addiction is a brain disease. There is evidence that magnesium deficit is involved in addiction to various addictive substances (heroin, morphine, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, and others). Magnesium is involved in all the stages of addiction. Magnesium deficit enhances the vulnerability to psychoactive substance addiction. Stress and trauma reduce the brain magnesium level and at the same time favor addiction development. In experimental studies, administration of magnesium while inducing morphine dependence in rats reduced the dependence intensity. Magnesium reduces the NMDA receptor activity and the glutamatergic activity. Because stress and trauma induce hypomagnesemia with increased vulnerability to addiction, magnesium intake by people who are under prolonged stress could be a way to reduce this vulnerability and the development of addiction to different psychoactive substances. Anxiety and depression appear to be associated with increases in drug-related harm and addictive substance use. Magnesium anxiolytic effect could be important for the antiaddictive action. Addiction is characterized by relapses. Magnesium deficiency may be a contributing factor to these relapses.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30714574
Another study focused exclusively on PTSD and addictions:
“Addiction to different substances is considered to be a psychiatric disorder. Magnesium reduces the intensity of addiction to opiates and psychostimulants (cocaine, amphetamine, nicotine, and others). It also decreases the auto-administration of cocaine and the relapse into cocaine and amphetamine intake, as well as reducing the experimental addiction to morphine, cocaine and other substances in animals. In heroin addicts, alcohol consumers and other drug abusers, the plasma and intracellular magnesium concentration is lower compared to healthy subjects. We consider that one of the mechanisms by which magnesium reduces the consumption of some highly addictive substances is its moderate effect of stimulating the reward system. However, other main mechanisms involved in magnesium’s action are the reduction of dopamine and glutamate release at presynaptic terminals in the brain, the decrease of NO synthase activity, the stimulation of GABAergic system activity, the reduction of postsynaptic NMDA receptor activity, and the reduction of some neuromediators released by Ca2+ and acting at calcium channels. Apart from the action of magnesium ions during emerging addiction, administration of this cation after the appearance of withdrawal syndrome reduces the intensity of the clinical symptoms. There are data that show that stress increases the vulnerability of people to develop addiction to different substances, and also reduces drug-free time and increases the incidence of relapse in heroin addicts. Stress increases catecholamine release and stimulates magnesium release from the body. This decrease in magnesium concentration is one of the important factors that hastens relapse. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507260/