Is alcohol a depressant or an stimulant? why?
536700
Mellow moods from a little bit of liquor?  There is the obvious depressive effect but there is also a decompressing effect as people let go of their reserves and inhibitions.  That has the social effect of appearing as a stimulant.  Sort of reminds me of a roller coaster, you climb a hill and coast in some crazy ways.  It is fast, it is exciting, and it is coasting.
427026
Hallucinogens, narcotics, depressants and stimulants.  This link: http://www.health.org/govpubs/rpo926/ has a good list of each type.
44195
Most professionals would answer yes, IF one meets other criteria.  Obviously quantity of alcohol consumption, frequency, and other deeper psychological factors (what triggers the drinking, impact on relationships, etc).  \nBasically if alcohol is interfering with a "normal" lifestyle (which mind you, is subjective) then you're probably an alcoholic.
638359
Lots of stuff.  Alcohol is a poison --if you drink enough.  It dehydrates you , so i imagine the brain is also dehydrated.  i understand that heavy drinking can kill brain cells, but i don't know how much that source considered to be "heavy."
564471
Comparing alcohol and marijuana is like apples and oranges.  Alcohol is lethal, in and of itself.  Look at all the laws now mandated over drunk drivers to give you an idea of how powerful it is.  It ruins society by the violence it creates; jobs are lost; families of alcoholic parent(s) are destroyed, the list goes on.  Alcohol is extremely bad for the human body as well.  It wreaks havoc on your major organs, which ruins the lesser ones.  \nMarijuana is a depressant as well, but far less destructive to society as a whole and to the human body.  Most marijuana users get high and stay at home, enjoying its effects, get the munchies and don't ruin innocent people. If I had to pick which was the least dangerous to society and the human body, it would definitely be marijuana.  My grandfather was an alcoholic and I can't begin to list the problems he gave his poor family until the day he died.  Maybe if he was a marijuana user, he could've just mellowed out instead of endangering all of us for decades.
404455
a lot of times an alcoholic can suffer from depression and will resort to alcohol as means to escape their depression. only a psycologist can actually determine if the person has depression and what may cause it.
904326
Alcoholism is an addiction. Most Alcoholics won't admit that they are alcoholics. They spend most of their time looking forward to their next drink.  That's why it's a disease. It takes over their ability to reason and their freewill.  Their body has to have that alcohol and their just not satisfied until they get it!!
117535
The alcohol actually messes with your brain chemistry. It slows the reuptake of seratonin, for one, making you "happy" and "relaxed". It also affects the areas of the brain that control thought, reflexes, and all senses except hearing. Once your kidneys filter it out of your blood stream, you return to "normal".
1053757
Alcohol can sometimes make depression go away. WHEN YOU'RE DRUNK, PASSED OUT, OR BLACKED OUT.\n\nBut self medicating with alcohol will not cure anything.
359124
Contact your primary care physician and discuss mixing the two.  Alcohol is a depressant and will adversely affect the person mixing alcohol and psychiatric medications.  Another concern is the possibility of needing medical inpatient detox due to the quantity and duration of the drug use.  This can also be discussed with your primary care physician or the person can be assessed at a psychiatric and/or substance abuse inpatient facility in their area.  The assessment could very well be free.  If an emergency medical condition arises get to an emergency room immediately.  Hope this helps in some way.
100230
Pro: Extra energy, if taken before you drink alcohol it takes longer for you to get drunk!!\n\nCon: Higher heartrate
959026
Caffeine is a stimulant, just like many ADHD meds.  I don't know about Concerta specifically, but Ritalin is actually a chemical derivative of caffeine.\n\nThe reason that stimulants help ADHD is that they increase the levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine in the brain.  Epinephrine you might have heard of - it's also known as adrenaline.  Anyway, these two neurotransmitters are invovled in alertness and focus.  Higher levels help you focus better (ADHD or not).  Caffeine helps everyone focus, regardless of whether they have ADHD.  For that matter, so do the prescription stimulants used to treat ADHD.\n\nThere's nothing "metabolically different" about kids with ADHD, and caffiene is not having the "opposite effect" as it does on most people.  Caffiene improves focus and concentration for EVERYONE.  It's not acting as a sedative in people with ADHD, it's acting as a stimulant.  Stimulants increase the production of epinephrine and norepinephrine, which allow you to focus, and also improve impulse control.  It's the improved impulse control that lets you seem less "hyper."  For people who don't have any problem with impulse control to begin with, having more energy makes them more active, or "hyper," but it's not the same "hyper" as what's associated with ADHD.  The hyperactivity part of ADHD is more to do with a lack of impulse control than an excess of energy.  Stimulants fix that lack of impulse activity by increasing frontal lobe activity.  They do the same for people who don't have ADHD, but it doesn't produce a noticable change in behavior because they weren't deficient in it to begin with.
39523
Alcohol has GREAT medicinal effects, as does marijuana ... no ... alcohol is absolutely horrible and if it were put to a vote today ( by the AMA, NIH and WHO ) would absolutely be ILLEGAL.  Too many detrimental effects whereas, marijuana has calming effects ( on most people ) and also has tremendous medicinal effects.  No one has ever died from an overdose of marijuana ... the same can NOT be said about alcohol ... \n\nAlcohol is much more addictive.
266993
People are classifying things wrong.\n\nStimulants make you more awake and makes parts of your brain more active, depressants make you sleepy and make parts of your brain less active, and hallucinogens cause hallucinations (you see/hear/feel things that aren't really there).\n\nStimulants ("uppers"):\nCaffeine\namphetamine/methampetamine/"ice" (a form of freebase methamphetamine)\nCocaine/crack (a form of freebase cocaine)\nNicotine\n\nDepressants ("downers"):\nAlcohol\nValium/Xanax (benzodiazepines, prescribed for anxiety)\nHeroin/morphine/codeine (these are opiates)\nDemerol/Fentanyl/Nalone/oxycontin (synthetic opiods, used as pain killers)\nNitrous Oxide (aka laughing gas, used for anesthesia)\nEther (formerly used for anesthetia)\n\nHallucinogens/Psychadelics:\nLSD (aka "acid")\nPsilocybin ("magic mushrooms")\nPeyote/mescaline\n\nSome other common drugs need special classification.\n\nPCP and Ketamine (Special K) are horse tranquilizers.  in humans, they have bizarre properties, because the way they work is strange (they bind to a site inside the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor, so they can only affect regions already active).  They have some properties of depressants (people are said to feel no pain, and their thinking becomes muddled), they have some hallucinogenic qualities (some people hallucinate on some occasions), and they have some traits of stimulants (people can grow active or violent on PCP--users are notorious for being hard for police to get under control).  Some classify PCP, ketamine, and Nitrous Oxide as dissociatives, which form their own special class.\n\nMarijuana is likewise odd.  Hallicinations can happen, but are generally rare.  Many people find that it makes them sleepy, and it definitely is known to delay your reaction times, but it isn't like a traditional depressant.  Finally, it has some (very few) traits that are seen as stimulatory, because some people like to be incredibly active while using them (a competitive snowboarder got caught with THC in his system a few years ago), and it can cause extreme paranoia (generally associated with stimulants).  In my opinion, it is best that cannabinoids are considered their own seperate class of drugs.\n\nMDMA (aka Ecstacy, E, X) is another oddball.  Some people put E along with drugs like LSD and mescaline into a category called "entheogens," as these drugs are all known to make people highly introspective.  It is often called a psychadelic, but primarily because it works on the same sorts of receptors that psychadelics work on (aka serotonin receptors).  The best category for MDMA is enactogen, which applies to a subset of psychadelics that don't necessarily cause hallucination (like LSD).  Though MDMA is an amphetamine derivative, the most significant of its affects are not stimulatory.  The term enactogen applies to these sorts of drugs that exert their primary effects on a person's emotional state.  Stimulants and depressants are defined by the levels of mental arousal they give, and psychadelics are defined by the alteration of senses.
1123790
alcohol is a drug, smoking is a drug....it depends on the doses you put in your body to see which damaging effect is worse...plus they target different areas of your body : alcohol the liver, smoking the lungs - plus it'd depend on which tissue is able to withstand more of the drug...you can't outright assume one affects your body in a more detrimental way than the other...
1012722
Chemical properties:\nThe vapour can form explosive mixtures with air.\nFlammable liquid. Reacts violently with a wide range of oxidants. Also reacts with disulfuryl difluoride, phosphorous (III) oxide, platinum, and potassium tert-butoxide. Incompatible with acetyl chloride, bromide pentafluoride, and calcium hypochlorite.\n\nEthanol produces a variety of physiological and behavioral effects. The most prominent effect is referred to broadly as "intoxication". At low doses, users experience a mild excitement and become more talkative. This is accompanied by a decrease in perceived stress and anxiety and a mild euphoria. At higher doses individuals become cheerful, loud, boisterous and begin to lose self-restraint. Memory, concentration and insight become impaired, which is accompanied by incoordination and changes in sensory function. These effects are typically followed by sleepiness. At higher doses, subjects often experience nausea and vomiting, followed by lethargy and stupor.\n\nThe primary effect of ethanol on the central nervous system is as a depressant. Although the effects at low doses appear to be stimulatory, the increase in mood and behavior is the result of "disinhibition", the inhibition of normal inhibitions. In other words, behavior that is normally suppressed by fear or anxiety is released by the inhibitory effects of ethanol.\n\nChronic use of high doses of ethanol leads to changes in the brain and behavior. One of the first changes is tolerance, a decrease in the effects of ethanol. As a result of tolerance, higher doses of ethanol are necessary to achieve the same effects. Tolerance to ethanol is the result of several processes. First, the enzyme responsible for the destruction of ethanol in the liver, alcohol dehydrogenase, is upregulated by chronic use. The increased activity of this enzyme breaks down ethanol more rapidly, leading to decreased effects. This form of tolerance is known as metabolic tolerance, since the metabolism (or breakdown) of alcohol is decreased. However, metabolic tolerance does not completely explain the dramatic decreases in effects seen with chronic ingestion. In addition to changes in the metabolism of ethanol, there appear to be decreases in the neuronal response to this drug. With chronic use, the response of neurons to the presence of alcohol is diminished. This form of tolerance is known as "physiological" tolerance, since the physiology of the central nervous system appears to change in response to chronic alcohol.\n\nThe second major change seen in response to chronic ingestion of ethanol is physical dependence. Following chronic use, there are physiological changes that lead to a requirement for the drug. With the development of physical dependence, further administration of ethanol is necessary to avoid a physiological disturbance. This disturbance is known as a withdrawal (or abstinence) syndrome. The withdrawal syndrome for ethanol is severe and can be life-threatening. The symptoms of withdrawal are generally opposite the the acute actions of the drug. Thus, where the acute actions of ethanol are depressant, the withdrawal syndrome involves hyperexcitability. With lower levels of physical dependence symptoms include agitation, tremors, muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, sweating and vivid dreaming. With higher levels, these progress to disorientation, confusion, hallucinations and seizures. Without treatment, a severe case of ethanol withdrawal often leads to death.
690023
Caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world. It is a Central Nervous (Brain & Spinal Cord) stimulant that causes increased heart rate and alertness when taken in moderate amounts.\nWhen taken in high doses it causes anxiety, dizziness, headaches, "the jitters", and insomnia. It is so addictive that it causes withdrawl symptoms when its consumption is abruptly halted.\nNext time you want a coke...grab a bottle of water, instead.