The Science Behind Sobriety: How consuming alcohol affects the mind.
What even is alcohol and where does it come from?
Alcohol in its simplest definition is fermented carbohydrates. These carbohydrates can be sugar or starch and produce ethyl alcohol or ethanol. By fermenting these starches, you use an anaerobic process which converts sugars to energy. Just about any plant can be used to create alcohol. For example, tequila is a liquor distilled from blue agave or, alternatively, vodka can be created using rye, potatoes or wheat!
As alcohol spreads through the bloodstream, it has many effects on the human body; Some enjoyable, some less so.
Alcohol travels through the circulatory system, eventually making its way to the brain. Here, it reaches the brain’s neurotransmitters. These are chemicals that are responsible for your brain cells communicating information to each other. Alcohol slows this down, causing communication to be slow and thus reactions, rational judgment and motor skills becoming stunted also. This also relaxes the body thereby calming any adverse effects of daily life such as anxiety or worrying. Alcohol also reduces external stimulation. This combination results in that addictive high of feeling drunk, along with the release of dopamine it also provides. Furthermore, it is a depressant for areas in the brain such as the Central Nervous System, creating slurred speech and poor physical judgement. This is reinforced by the prefrontal cortex being slowed, an area of the brain responsible for comprehension of certain actions. This explains why often, when drunk, a person may not be able to understand their own actions and thus have poor decision making judgement.
The effects of alcohol seem to be more negative than positive. So, why is it so ingrained into university culture and everyday society?
In short, this substance is addictive. It rewards the brain with dopamine, a chemical known to give humans the ‘feel good factor’. This causes alcohol to sometimes provide a euphoric feeling and calm a person down if anxious therefore associating the brain, over time, will associate alcohol with having a chemical benefit, despite its very obvious downsides. This can then build into an alcohol tolerance. Overtime, as a body becomes accustomed to this substance, it may require more to create the same euphoric feeling. This tolerance can then turn into dependency which is where the line between social drinking and unhealthy, dependence relationship, can blur. The brain effectively moulds to rely on the alcohol’s chemical benefits causing activities that may have once provided enjoyment to a person, become boring and dull. The brain then causes itself to depend on alcohol to provide happiness and excitement. Without it, the Central Nervous System may experience what’s known as withdrawal symptoms; The body will physically display its dependency on alcohol by increased anxiety and sometimes nausea and seizures in extreme cases. Chronic use of alcohol also leads to the dysregulation of stress and worry, by altering the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal’s axis, thus causing an increase in depression and anxiety. Ultimately, alcohol has no real long term benefit and can become a slippery slope if binge drinking or a poor relationship with it occurs.
Although science can explain its addictiveness, social norms and cultures also have an influence on its use. Alcohol, as mentioned previously, can relax a person. A timid university student starting in a big city may use it to feel more outgoing and relive any social anxiety. Freshers week adds to this. It’s a time literally designed to bond at university, using alcohol as a buffer. Promotions such as Freshers week deals on alcoholic drinks push for this and assert the consumption of this substance. ‘Pres’ short for ‘pre-drinks’ is also another social norm intertwined with university culture. It allows for students to golf gatherings where they can chat and mingle with cheap wine or beer. This acts as not only a socialising event but also a way to allow students to become drunk while avoiding pubs, bars and clubs costly prices.
Picture taken by author at a flat-party
On a larger scale, there is very much a pub based culture in Britain. Many say that people can be too old for nightclubs, but one thing that seems to never expire is a pint down at the local. Although seemingly minor, these cultural aspects woven into today’s society shows how it can seem difficult to remain sober in a world full of beer drinkers and wine sippers!
Beer Fear
Beer Fear or Hanxiety ( a hybrid of hang over and anxiety) references that awful, embarrassed feeling a person gets after a night of too much drinking. If the side effects such as vomiting and headaches of alcohol were not enough, the feeling of humiliation also arrives with it. Given that your inhibitions had been stunted the night before, you may often feel the regret of your previous drunk actions. This can be due to many factors such as extreme dehydration and incredibly low cortisol levels leading to your body’s lack of stress and logic regulation. These effects can last for up to hours and even days. The lack of judgement from the night before may and will also provide memories that will be embarrassing for life! Ask anyone, I’m sure you’ll see their face scrunch in regret over events that happened years ago!
Benefits of Sobriety
First of all, being sober ensures that everything discussed above does not happen! There will be no early morning regret, no loss of rationality and no scrapes from drunk tumbles. In fact, ditching the alcohol and opting for a sober lifestyle increases general joy and fulfillment of life. It prevents gut inflammation while also allowing the appreciation of genuine social interactions. It prevents dependency on synthetic happiness and allows for better emotional regulation. Not only this, but alcohol is a carcinogen meaning that little to no consumption of this substance will decrease your risk of cancers such as liver, kidney and pancreatic.
For more inspiration on staying or becoming sober, give the website an explore!