Drinking alcohol might make you feel good at the moment, but it has profound momentary and lasting effects on your body.
It’s easy to see how alcohol negatively impacts the body. It’s also well-documented how prolonged alcohol use can affect your heart, liver, and immune system. What isn’t as easily apparent, however, is how alcohol affects the brain.
The relationship between alcohol and the human brain is a complex one. Part of the reason people enjoy drinking alcohol so much is because of the dopamine and serotonin being released when it’s consumed. These momentary feelings of euphoria, relaxation, and happiness can quickly give way to darker and more harmful side effects.
In this post, we’re going to discuss some of these neurological effects of alcohol and look at how small issues build up over time to become serious ones. Addiction and the brain are intertwined and the line between feeling good and doing harm can often become blurred.
The key to managing alcohol use is doing so in moderation, but addiction complicates matters. Read on to find out what alcohol is doing to your brain and why it’s harmful.
The Short-Term Effects Of Alcohol On The Brain
When you have a drink or two, or even several, in a night, you’re not likely to notice any serious or lasting neurological effects. However, things do occur in the short-term that start to alter how your brain works and thus, some of your behaviors. Here are the areas of the brain that alcohol most drastically affects.
Talking Neurotransmitters
The first thing that alcohol does when it enters your bloodstream through your stomach lining is altered the neurotransmitter levels in your brain. These are the little electrical signals that your brain is constantly sending out to different parts of your body to control how you feel emotionally and physically.
Your GABA levels are slowed down when you drink alcohol. This is the cause of slurred speech and slow movements that many experience when they’ve had too many drinks. Your cerebellum and cerebral cortex, which help you with balance and information processing respectively, are also slowed down on alcohol.
On the other hand, your glutamate neurotransmitter is sped up on alcohol, which is the thing that regulates dopamine levels in the brain. More dopamine means more pleasure, so this is essentially one of the reasons that people desire alcohol. Likewise, increased serotonin levels also increase feelings of pleasure and happiness.
Your Lowered Inhibitions
When you’re intoxicated, one of the more complicated results is your lowered inhibitions. Feeling less inhibited often leads to the uncharacteristic and sometimes reckless behavior that a lot of drinkers talk about. So, why does this happen?
In addition to the other neurotransmitters that we discussed earlier, alcohol increases the amount of norepinephrine in the brain. This increases excitement and arousal, which can lead to lowered inhibitions.
Alcohol also decreases activity in your prefrontal cortex, which is the decision-making center of your brain. When you’re drunk and your prefrontal cortex is being inhibited, that’s when you see people acting without considering the consequences of those actions.
Loss of Consciousness
When enough alcohol is consumed, one can experience a loss of consciousness and/or total memory loss. This is what we call “blacking out” and it can put the person in extremely dangerous situations.
One of the reasons this happens is due to alcohol’s effect on your hippocampus, which is the region of your brain that creates and stores memories.
How Alcohol Affects the Brain Long-Term
While these short-term effects might seem fairly harmless, and even enjoyable for some, they can lead to bigger issues when alcohol is consumed in greater quantities over longer periods of time. When you become dependent on alcohol, you’ll see both your body and brain break down in frightening ways.
As many alcoholics have probably experienced, as you drink more frequently, those serotonin and dopamine receptors in your brain become worn out. This is how people develop a tolerance for alcohol, requiring them to drink a higher quantity to get the desired effect.
Since alcohol has a laundry list of negative effects on the rest of your body, the more you drink, the worse you’ll feel. Then, instead of drinking to feel good, you drink more to avoid feeling bad. It’s a vicious cycle that can snowball quickly.
Alcohol kills brain cells and damages the wiring in your brain. While the cells do regenerate, it’s not exactly clear to what extent you can regain your full brain function. According to this 2008 study, people that had 14 or more drinks per week over a 20 year period had a 1.6% smaller brain than non-drinkers. Alcoholism is also proven to increase the likelihood of memory loss in old age.
Behavior In the Long-Term
Then there are the behavioral impacts of alcohol consumption. What may seem like appealing side-effects of drinking, like feeling less inhibited or getting a dopamine rush, can begin to alter your lifestyle and relationships in the long-term.
Here are a few of the most common consequences of this behavioral change:
- You’re more likely to be open to trying other, more harmful drugs.
- Finding yourself in unsavory and dangerous situations could make you the victim of a crime or a criminal.
- Engaging in unwanted sexual encounters and the consequences of doing so.
- Having violent outbursts that could get you seriously injured or killed.
Addiction makes it difficult to see how alcohol is negatively impacting your brain and thus, your life. Perhaps you’ve already experienced some of these dire consequences, but it’s not too late to turn it around. With the right treatment, you can kick your alcohol addiction and let your brain recover.
It Might Be Time For a Medical Detox
If you’re concerned about your or a loved one’s drinking habit, it might be time to seek treatment. We’ve learned how alcohol affects the brain negatively, but simply quitting isn’t easy. Once your body is dependent on alcohol, detoxing can be a very uncomfortable process.
At Realign Detox, we can help you recover from your alcohol addiction with our program that minimizes the pain and discomfort of the detox process. We provide the best possible care and aim to set our patients up for a successful and happy life without addiction, so contact us today to get started on the road to recovery.