system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Alcohol is a "depressant", but does nervous system depression cause actual depression? If so, how?

There's a lot of information and references to alcohol being a depressant as it depresses the central nervous system. However, there's not much info about it from that point on and on some level, it seems the connection to depression as mental health issue, at least based on cheap internet articles, is based on the use of the term 'depressed'.

I understand why alcohol is not helpful on a practical level, but many imply that it will make you depressed or exacerbate on a physiological level.

Can anyone help explain this better?

Edited for clarity.
gpt
"To depress" means to slow down, bring down, or otherwise "lower" something.

Alcohol, as a depressant of the central nervous system, slows down its function. It slows your reflexes, dulls your mind, and reduces your inhibitions.

Depression as a mental health issue is a lowering of your mental state. You don't feel as happy or as fulfilled as you once did or feel like you're not getting anywhere in life.

Two uses of the same word, just like getting "high" from drugs isn't the same meaning as climbing "high" on a ladder.