What are the real effects of alcohol on your body and mind?

Alcohol is the staple element in a lot of social situations, but is it harming you in the long term?

Most of us enjoy a tipple from time to time. Whether meeting up with friends or simply unwinding after a busy day, alcohol is part of normal life for many people. Yet while the odd drink is ok in moderation, the impact of significant alcohol consumption can be deadly.

Alcohol is a depressant, meaning it slows down activity in the brain and body. Because of this, it can cause drowsiness and make you feel relaxed, but at higher levels alcohol can cause serious side effects like slurred speech, vomiting and diarrhoea. In the long term, it can spell disaster for your mental and physical wellbeing. We’re going to take a closer look at the effects of alcohol consumption in both the long term and the short term.

The key to understanding alcohol’s effects on the brain lies in understanding what alcohol is and how it works

Alcohol is a depressant that affects the central nervous system, slowing down brain activity and disrupting normal functions of your body. This depression on the nervous system means alcohol works in a similar way to an anti-depressant or even a tranquilizer.

When you consume too much booze, it can lead to drowsiness, slower reflexes, and poor coordination. It also reduces your ability to think clearly or make decisions that are best for yourself or others around you.

By slowing down brain activity, alcohol impairs your judgement, which can result in accidents if you are driving under its influence. It also causes dehydration, which may lead to blackouts or memory loss if you drink too much alcohol over time (and may even lead you to do something dangerous).

When you drink alcohol, it causes your blood pressure to drop and your heart rate to slow down, as well as causing your mouth to become dry. The combination of these effects makes people feel relaxed or sleepy after drinking alcohol. This is because alcohol has broken the connection between the neurons sending messages to your heart, causing the heart rate to slow down.

When you drink, it enters your bloodstream quickly through your digestive tract and then travels through every organ in your body before being eliminated from your body as urine or sweat.

The initial high: dopamine and endorphins

The brain’s reward centre also releases dopamine after food or drink. This neurotransmitter is responsible for giving you a sense of pleasure and well-being, so when you drink alcohol, it can make you feel good — even if it doesn’t taste great or have any nutritional value at all. Alcohol also causes the release of endorphins and other natural painkillers in your body (including serotonin). These chemicals make you feel relaxed and good about yourself because they boost moods by reducing anxiety levels, while increasing feelings of happiness and euphoria.

In small amounts alcohol can cause relaxation, lower inhibitions, and increase sociability and talkativeness.

Alcohol has been shown to reduce stress levels by relaxing the body’s muscles, which can make you feel more relaxed and less inhibited. In addition to this effect on the brain, alcohol also alters your perception of time, as well as making it easier for you to focus on one thing at a time.

This means that if someone is talking with you while drinking then they will appear more social or outgoing because they won’t be distracted by other things happening around them, such as their thoughts drifting off into another direction or even being interrupted by someone else wanting attention themselves.

The comedown: slower responses and the dreaded hangover

While these effects can feel good at first, they can be accompanied by consequences that can be physically and mentally painful.

The most common side effect of alcohol consumption is that it causes people to become less attentive and slower in their responses. This means that even if you’re driving a car while intoxicated, you may not notice the signs of impairment or slow down enough to avoid driving into something – or someone!

It’s also important to note that alcohol affects everyone differently (some people have higher tolerance than others), meaning everyone will have different levels of impairment when they drink too much. The average person should expect some level of impairment after consuming four drinks or more; however, what determines whether someone has reached “too drunk” varies from person to person based on their own genetics, as well as environmental factors such as temperature and whether you’ve eaten. These can affect how quickly your body processes alcohol.

Alcohol affects your mouth as well as your stomach and intestines, so slurred speech is one of its most common side effects, especially for those who consume large amounts. Vomiting may occur when alcohol enters the bloodstream through your nose instead of through food that has been swallowed first. This can cause nausea or vomiting, sometimes accompanied by diarrhoea. Irritation of the digestive system caused by stomach acids and leftover alcohol can lead to serious levels of dehydration.

The morning after drinking, when you experience nausea or headaches, is often called a hangover. During this period, your physical and mental well-being find themselves in a state of flux as your body tries to get rid of the leftover alcohol. As well as exhaustion, illness and achiness, hangovers can also leave you feeling heightened levels of anxiety. Eating a hearty meal and drinking orange juice which has a lot of Vitamin C can help these symptoms, as well as rest and plenty of water.

Engaging in risky or dangerous behaviours

Alcohol works as a sedative, but it also lowers inhibitions. Drunk people may take part in risky or dangerous behaviours that they wouldn’t do if sober. For example, they may drive while intoxicated (DWI), engage in unprotected sex and even assault others. In addition to these common forms of alcohol use disorder (AUD), there are other forms such as binge drinking and heavy episodic drinking which can also lead to AUDs if left untreated.

Often, AUDs can lead to issues such as erectile dysfunction which can require prescription medication such as Viagra for men in need of a solution.

Because drink people are more likely to take part in dangerous activities, they are also more likely to be involved in accidents and injuries. Alcohol use is associated with putting both yourself and others at risk.

Whilst alcohol can make you feel good in small amounts, and is fine to consume every so often, developing a need for it can cause long term harm not just to you, but to others around you too.

If you think you always need a drink in a social situation to feel more confident, then this may be a sign that you have started to use it as a crutch. If you also feel that you are becoming less like yourself, angrier or more violent, consider limiting your alcohol intake or seeking support. Remember that alcohol is for recreation, and that if others around you don’t like how you act when you drink, this can be a big sign that it’s time to cutback. There is no shame in knowing when to stop, or quitting.

Reach out to someone you trust or an organisation online if you have questions or concerns about yourself or someone you know.