How Does Alcohol Make You Drunk?
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It’s fairly easy to recognize when someone is drunk. Their speech becomes slurred, their movements uncoordinated, and their judgment and inhibitions go out the window. But have you ever wondered, why does alcohol make you drunk? What exactly is happening inside the body and brain?
In this post, we’ll explore how alcohol interacts with our bodily systems to cause many of the symptoms we associate with being drunk. We’ll also offer tips on how to avoid intoxication. Let’s get started!
What is in alcohol that makes you drunk? To understand the answer, it’s helpful to understand exactly what alcohol is. When we talk about alcohol in the context of beverages, we’re referring to active ingredient ethanol. This clear, colorless liquid is produced through the process of fermentation, in which yeast converts sugars into alcohol. For instance, beer is made from the sugars in malted barley, wine from the sugars in grapes, and vodka from the sugars in potatoes.
When we drink beverages that contain ethanol (the active compound in alcohol), the chemical enters our bloodstream quickly, circulates throughout our body, and travels to various organs. We can gauge how much alcohol has affected us from our blood alcohol content (BAC), which tells us just how much alcohol has entered our bloodstream. For instance, a BAC of 0.08 indicates that there are 0.08 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of a person's blood, which is often the legal driving limit.
Alcohol’s effects are more obvious at greater blood alcohol concentrations. At lower BAC levels, people might experience feelings of relaxation and sociability. However, when BAC rises, these sensations can morph into unsteady movements and poor judgment — and at dangerously high concentrations, we can experience loss of consciousness or alcohol poisoning.
Many of the signs we associate with being drunk — such as slurred speech, poor coordination, and impaired judgment — are due to alcohol’s effect on the brain. In fact, alcohol typically reaches our brain within 5 minutes, and we can begin feeling its effects within 10 minutes. But what makes you drunk exactly?
Alcohol crosses something called the blood-brain barrier, a group of cells surrounding the brain that protects it from invaders such as toxins and bacteria. Some substances are able to pass through if they dissolve easily in water or fat, and alcohol is one of those substances.
Once alcohol enters our brain, it triggers a number of processes that lead to the typical signs of drunkenness. Our brains are highly complex structures that contain a delicate balance of neurotransmitters — chemicals that carry signals between nerve cells. Two neurotransmitters in particular are responsible for causing many of the symptoms we associate with intoxication.
The more alcohol we consume, the more alcohol builds in our bloodstream, and the greater the effects on GABA and glutamate. This is why intoxication leads to slower reaction times, slower thought processes, loss of motor control, slurred speech, dizziness, and lowered inhibitions.
Now that we have a general understanding of how alcohol causes intoxication, let’s get a bit more specific: what parts of the brain does alcohol affect that makes us drunk? Here’s a look at 6 areas of our brain that alcohol acts on to cause those familiar symptoms of intoxication:
With alcohol affecting all these different parts of our brain, it’s no wonder we start to lose control of our movements, speech, and judgment!
Feeling drunk might initially involve a short-lived “buzz” caused by a rush of dopamine. We might then feel sluggish and uncoordinated as the depressant effects kick in.
The neurotransmitter chaos created by alcohol can lead to unpredictable moods — laughing one minute and crying the next. We could even get aggressive or make impulsive decisions.
If we continue to drink, our coordination is likely to worsen, we might slur our words, or we could be hit by a wave of fatigue (and maybe even fall asleep!).
How much alcohol makes you drunk? If you ask two different people, you’ll get two different answers. That’s because a lot of factors go into how alcohol affects us.
So what can we do to avoid intoxication? Is it possible to still drink without becoming drunk? Yes! However, given alcohol’s negative effects on both our short- and long-term physical and mental health, it’s worth limiting consumption or quitting alcohol altogether. It’s even possible our body is sending us signals to reduce drinking. However, if we do choose to drink, here are 6 tips for avoiding intoxication:
Many of the signs we associate with intoxication arise because alcohol slows brain processes and activity. It acts on important neurotransmitters and affects the parts of our brain associated with balance, coordination, judgment, memory and decision-making. While no one is immune to alcohol’s intoxicating effect, various factors can influence its intensity, such as our weight, sex, age, and drinking speed. We can avoid intoxication by practicing mindful drinking, hydrating as we drink, and eating food while drinking.
If you’re looking to cut back on your alcohol consumption but not sure where to start, Reframe can help. We’ve helped millions of people not only change their relationship with alcohol, but develop healthier lifestyle habits that enhance their well-being.
1. What is alcohol?
When we talk about alcohol in beverages, we’re actually referring to ethanol — a clear, colorless liquid that is produced through the process of fermentation, in which yeasts convert sugars into alcohol.
2. How is intoxication measured?
We can gauge how much alcohol has affected our bodies from our blood alcohol content (BAC) — a measurement that indicates the amount of alcohol in a certain amount of blood. For instance, a BAC of 0.08 indicates that there are 0.08 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of a person's blood, which is often the legal driving limit.
3. What are some of the most common signs of intoxication?
The most common signs of intoxication include slurred speech, poor judgment, lowered inhibitions, lack of coordination, sleepiness, dizziness, and heightened emotional reactivity.
4. How does alcohol make you drunk?
Alcohol makes us drunk because of its effects on our brain. It’s a central nervous system depressant that slows down brain activity and interferes with our brain’s communication pathways, which affects how our brain processes information.
5. Does water make you drunker during a night of drinking?
It’s actually quite the opposite! Drinking water will help replenish the nutrients you lose by drinking and help you decrease the severity of your next-day hangover.
6. What parts of the brain does alcohol effect that cause intoxication?
Alcohol affects many areas of our brain, including the frontal lobe, amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, cerebellum, and medulla.
7. What factors influence alcohol’s effects?
The rate and intensity of alcohol’s effects vary from person to person due to a variety of factors, such as our weight, sex, age, ethnicity, the type of alcohol we consume, how fast we consume it, how much food we’ve eaten, our medications, and our overall health.
8. What are some tips for avoiding intoxication?
If we choose to drink, we can avoid intoxication by practicing mindful drinking, counting our drinks, sipping slowly, not mixing drinks, hydrating with water, and eating something while drinking.
Cutting back on our alcohol consumption is one of the best things we can do for our overall well-being. So why not download Reframe right now and give it a shot?
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