Effects of Alcohol on the Body

The only real way to look at addiction is as both a psychological addiction and a physical dependence. These components are inextricably linked to the chemical changes that occur in the brain. In fact, both physical and psychological addiction activate similar regions of the brain. But, when you are developing alcohol dependence, you may struggle with strong compulsions and powerful cravings to drink in all kinds of situations.

It’s partly down to your genes,11 but is also influenced by your family’s attitudes to alcohol and the environment you grow up in. If you drink for long periods of time, it can physiological dependence on alcohol cause depression, and when you abruptly stop drinking, it can cause anxiety,” says Dr. Anand. If you believe you have an addiction, it’s never too late to look for help.

Impact on your health

Taken together, these results indicate that chronic alcohol exposure involving repeated withdrawal experiences exacerbates withdrawal symptoms that significantly contribute to a negative emotional state, which consequently renders dependent subjects more vulnerable to relapse. Chronic exposure to high doses of alcohol can result in profound changes in the morphology, proliferation, and survival of neurons. For example, new neurons normally are constantly generated from neural stem cells throughout the life of an organism. In alcohol binge-drinking rats, however, both the proliferation of neural stem cells and the survival of neurons produced from the stem cells during alcohol exposure are decreased (Nixon and Crews 2002). The prefrontal cortex and, particularly, the orbitofrontal cortex7 have central roles in executive functions, such as decisionmaking.

The word psychological can be defined as relating to, or arising from the mind or emotions. A psychological addiction then refers to how the individual can become mentally dependent on certain substances (usually mind altering) or behaviors. Even when the individual realizes the harm that alcohol and drugs are causing them they may continue to use because of these psychological symptoms – willpower alone is often not enough to overcome a psychological addiction. Alcohol tolerance happens when you need to drink increasing amounts of alcohol over time to achieve the effects you used to with smaller amounts of alcohol. And, since drinking more over time is how physical dependence occurs, tolerance is a tell-tale sign that your drinking is getting out of control. Being dependent on alcohol means a person feels they’re not able to function or survive without it and that drinking becomes an important – or sometimes the most important – factor in their life.

Signs That Tolerance or Dependence Have Crossed Over to Addiction

More recent studies have also indicated certain genetic, social, psychological, or environmental factors may also impact the body’s dependency on alcohol. Unhealthy alcohol use includes any alcohol use that puts your health or safety at risk or causes other alcohol-related problems. It also includes binge drinking — a pattern of drinking where a male has five or more drinks within two hours or a female has at least four drinks within two hours.

• In addition to these approaches, the negative reinforcing effects of alcohol can be examined using all the models described above (see the section entitled “Positive Reinforcement”), except that testing occurs during imposed withdrawal/abstinence from alcohol.
• Although the leading causes of liver cancer are hepatitis B and C, excessive alcohol use can also increase your risk.
• Alcohol withdrawal happens because your body is reacting to the lack of alcohol in its system.
• People who are dependent on alcohol often experience poor mental health.

However, many definitions of alcoholism exist, and only some are compatible with alcohol abuse. There are two major differences between alcohol dependence and alcoholism as generally accepted by the medical community. The function of GABAA receptors also is regulated by molecules known as neuroactive steroids (Lambert et al. 2001) that are produced both in the brain and in other organs (i.e., in the periphery). Alcohol increases the brain levels of many neuroactive steroids (Van Doren et al. 2000). This increased activity of neuroactive steroids in the brain following alcohol exposure is not dependent on their production by peripheral organs (Sanna et al. 2004). Together, these findings suggest that neuroactive steroids are potential key modulators of altered GABA function during the development of alcohol dependence, perhaps by acting directly at GABAA receptors (Sanna et al. 2004).

Addiction Destroys Dreams, We Can Help

Antagonism of the μ-opioid system also reduces the motivation to consume alcohol. New animal models of binge alcohol intake, such as the alcohol deprivation effect (ADE) and the “Drinking-in-the-Dark” technique, would help us to develop new treatment methods against alcohol dependence. In this chapter, neurobehavioral effects of both acute and chronic alcohol exposure are described.

• 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.
• From prescription drugs and alcohol to street drugs and hallucinogens, there are an unnerving amount of drugs available.
• Alcohol use disorder can include periods of being drunk (alcohol intoxication) and symptoms of withdrawal.
• Compounds targeting the glutamate systems also are being used in the treatment of alcohol dependence.

Samples were collected from the nucleus accumbens of alcohol-dependent mice that had undergone three cycles of chronic intermittent alcohol vapor exposure (red symbols) and nondependent controls (black symbols). Samples were taken before, during, and after the 2-hour drinking session, when the mice had the opportunity to voluntarily drink alcohol (15 percent vol/vol) or water. Alcohol intake during the drinking session was 3.04 ± 0.15 g/kg for dependent mice and 2.32 ± 0.28 g/kg for nondependent mice. Horizontal lines and shaded area represent brain alcohol levels (means ± SEM) measured in the dependent mice during chronic intermittent alcohol exposure (28.4 ± 3.5 mM). End-Stage – This final stage, known as the late stage, is described as total alcohol dependence, where you may experience uncontrollable alcohol consumption. Health conditions, like cardiovascular and liver diseases, may be caused or exasperated by your alcohol use, and death from alcohol poisoning or long-term effects of alcohol use is imminent if treatment is not sought.

What does it mean to drink in moderation?

As previously noted, increased anxiety represents a significant component of the alcohol withdrawal syndrome. Importantly, this negative-affect state may contribute to increased risk for relapse as well as perpetuate continued use and abuse of alcohol (Becker 1999; Driessen et al. 2001; Koob 2003; Roelofs 1985). Indeed, both preclinical and clinical studies suggest a link between anxiety and propensity to self-administer alcohol (Henniger et al. 2002; Spanagel et al. 1995; Willinger et al. 2002).