If we combine medical-pharmacological knowledge and shamanic knowledge, we can get an interesting answer.
While religion and science are in conflict with each other, shamanism and science are in full harmony.
While there is a great barrier between religion and science, there is no barrier between shamanism and science. Shamanism is essentially just one of the scientific disciplines.
While religion is at odds with reason, shamanism is in line with reason. A well-known shamanic scholar, who spends most of his time among the indigenous shamans of the Amazon, has stated and repeatedly stated that shamans are very, very rational people. He literally said the word rational and repeated it several times.
A well-known shamanic scholar describes the effects of alcohol and sedatives/benzodiazepines as substances that violate and weaken the aura, disrupt the protective "mechanisms" of the biofield, and thus make a person highly vulnerable to negative energy influences. A person thus absorbs a lot of negative energy, which in practice manifests as suffering (in its various forms) and negative coincidences, misfortune in life. And we see that this also applies in practice – see the specific example of the alcoholic Ján Slota, on whom one misfortune after another has been piling up lately. From a former successful politician, a wreck on the fringes of society.
But alcohol also has a positive use in shamanism. Alcohol is used in shamanic acts as an aid in the most effective reception of the greatest amount of "positive" energy from the Absolute.
In shamanism, alcohol helps to receive/absorb both positive and negative energies into the consciousness/biopole of a person.
The common pharmacological effect of alcohol and sedatives is that they are agonists on inhibitory GABA receptors. GABA receptors are very richly represented in the brain, with approximately 30-45% of the total brain volume being represented by these receptors. These receptors are responsible for absorbing the electrical signal of the brain in neurons. Alcohol/sedatives further enhance the absorption activity of the electrical signal of nerve cells.
There is an interesting connection between shamanism and science: in science, alcohol enhances the absorption of electrical impulses in nerve cells, and in shamanism, alcohol helps absorb energy (prana/hu) into the aura.
(In this example, we can also see that while religion and science are in conflict (they are just blind dogmas and doctrines), shamanism and science are in full harmony).
A person who is under the influence of antidepressants such as sedative benzodiazepines or alcohol is like a vacuum cleaner of negative energy.
Those who have an alcohol addiction or use sedatives may exhibit aggressive behavior. Just as an alcoholic can be aggressive when under the influence of alcohol (or prone to criminal acts), the same applies to sedatives. An example is the former SMER MP Jánoš, who suffered from a panic disorder and used benzodiazepine sedatives (specifically bromazepam) for it. These drugs completely catastrophically changed his behavior: he brutally abused his wife, pointed a gun at her head, and committed other criminal atrocities against his wife. If a person is under the influence of these substances, they are more vulnerable to negative energies that then control them.