Inside your brain on Alcohol: understanding the effects
You’ve had a stressful day and want to unwind with a glass of wine. Or you’re out with friends and have a few pints of beer.
And if you have one too many alcoholic drinks, you may start to slur your speech and have trouble walking in a straight line — and that’s all before dealing with a hangover the next day.
Though alcohol is legal and normalized in our daily lives, it’s important to remember that it’s a drug like any other. It impacts the body in specific ways, can harm your health, and people can develop an addiction to it.
But have you ever stopped to think: How does alcohol affect my brain?
What is alcohol?
When people talk about drinking “alcohol,” they’re almost always referring to the consumption of ethanol. Ethanol is a natural product that is formed from the fermentation of grains, fruits, and other sources of sugar. It’s found in a wide range of alcoholic beverages including beer, wine, and spirits like vodka, whiskey, rum, and gin.
What is alcohol doing to your body?
After absorption, the alcohol enters the bloodstream and dissolves in the water of the blood. The blood carries the alcohol throughout the body. The alcohol from the blood then enters and dissolves in the water inside each tissue of the body (except fat tissue, as alcohol cannot dissolve in fat). Once inside the tissues, alcohol exerts its effects on the body. The observed effects depend directly on the blood alcohol concentration (BAC), which is related to the amount of alcohol the person has consumed. A person's BAC can rise significantly within 20 minutes after having a drink. When you drink alcohol, ethanol molecules are absorbed into your blood and, being small, they travel to virtually all parts of your body, including your brain.
Alcohol causes chemical changes in your brain, suppressing normal activity in the area that controls inhibition. So it has a depressant effect on the brain, which then has to readjust as the alcohol wears off (when it's been metabolized – broken down by your body’s systems). That’s why alcohol can contribute to feelings of anxiety.
Alcohol causes the brain’s reward system to release the motivational chemical dopamine. But over time, chronic drinking actually depletes the amount of dopamine in your brain, causing you to crave more alcohol and laying the groundwork for an alcohol addiction.
Alcohol is toxic – so your body has to work to get rid of it from your system every time you drink. Consuming several alcohol drinks in a short space of time puts you at risk of acute alcohol poisoning, and drinking heavily for months or years increases your risk of developing seven different types of cancer and other serious health problems.
What are Blackouts?
Alcohol misuse can cause alcohol-induced blackouts. Blackouts are gaps in a person’s memory of events that occurred while they were intoxicated. These gaps happen when a person drinks enough alcohol that it temporarily blocks the transfer of memories from short-term to long-term storage—known as memory consolidation—in a brain area called the hippocampus.
You Can Overdose on Alcohol?
Symptoms of alcohol overdose include mental confusion, difficulty remaining conscious, vomiting, seizure, trouble breathing, slow heart rate, clammy skin, dulled responses (such as no gag reflex, which prevents choking), and extremely low body temperature. Alcohol overdose can lead to permanent brain damage or death.
What is Alcohol Use Disorder?
As individuals continue to drink alcohol over time, progressive changes can occur in the structure and function of their brains. These changes can compromise brain function and drive the transition from controlled, occasional use to chronic misuse, which can be difficult to control and lead to alcohol use disorder (AUD). Individuals with moderate to severe AUD may enter a cycle of alcohol addiction. The extent of the brain’s ability to return to normal following long-term sobriety is not fully understood, but a growing number of studies indicate that at least some AUD-induced brain changes—and the changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that accompany them—can improve and possibly reverse with months of abstinence from drinking. (More detail about the neuroscience of AUD is provided in the Neuroscience: The Brain in Addiction and Recovery section of The Healthcare Professional’s Core Resource on Alcohol.)
About Kathy:
Kathy Murphy is a Certified Professional Recovery and Life Coach. She has 3 teenage children and lives in Westfield, NJ. She uses her own experience, strength, and hope to guide her clients to a life of sobriety. Feel free to connect with her at www.KMsobercoach.com or email kathy@kmsobercoach.com.
