How Does Alcohol Affect The Brain?

"How Does Alcohol Affect the Brain?"

Alcoholism is characterized by the addiction to alcohol that is out of the drinker's control. Not being able to stop using alcohol can cause severe physical, mental, emotional and spiritual consequences. Alcoholism is a chronic progressive disease that can be fatal if left untreated. In reality people drink for many reasons such as; it helps them relax, gives them confidence, helps them sleep, helps reduce anxiety, stops them from worrying about things, deal with stress, deal with panic attacks, because they are depressed, because they are dependant on it, even to counter-act withdrawal symptoms. With these reasons people use alcohol to self medicate, but what they don't know is that in reality it makes all of the symptoms worse. In the short term effect it may increase confidence, be relaxing and reduce anxiety or worries, but in the long term alcohol actually has the opposite effect by having people who drink heavily for a period of time usually experiencing an increase in anxiety and may also get panic attacks. A study conducted in the Netherlands among 15 to 25 year-olds found these as the common answers to why people drink alcohol"Ð'...

Sociability (71%)

Like the taste (51%)

Feel at ease (12%)

Get intoxicated (6%)

Get drunk (2%)

Because everybody does it (6%)

To forget problems (0%)

It is common knowledge that after a few alcoholic drinks someone may become unstable on their feet, they may begin to slur their speech, and we know it's unsafe to drive a car in such a condition. But what really goes on inside our brain when we consume alcohol that causes such effects? Once alcohol has reached the brain it can have quite a significant effect on how the brain functions. The more alcohol consumed, the further it goes into the brain, causing worse effects. A study examining thirteen (13) areas of the brain (frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, occipital lobe, basal ganglia, thalamus, limbic system, midbrain, cerebellum, insular, anterior cingulated gyrus, posterior cingulated gyrus, and paracentral) during intoxication showed decreased absolute metabolism for all thirteen (13) areas. However, there were three (3) areas which showed the greatest affect. Those were the occipital lobe, which controls vision, the cerebellum cortex which has to do with balance, attention, and movement, and then the temporal lobe which handles hearing. Alcohol interferes with communication between nerve cells in the brain by suppressing the activity of excitatory nerve pathways and increasing activity of inhibitory nerve pathways. This is why we see drunken people become sluggish in their behavior.

The steps to follow in order to get help are:

First step: accept they need help

all alcoholics need help in order to stop drinking, but some people just won't accept they need help because they are afraid to admit the have become alcoholics. They think they can control the alcohol, what they don't know it's that alcohol controls them.

Second step: support from family and friends.

It's really important to get support from family and friends because the second most affected ones are the closest people to them, because they suffer when they see their loved ones under the effects of alcohol doing stupid things.

Third step: find a place:

after the addicted person admits they have an alcohol problem and need help, its really important to find the right place to treat their addiction, where they will find the help they need. While they are on treatment its really important that the family keeps supporting them all the time because they feel that someone cares about them and they keep the treatment, but if they get support at the beginning and after they loose it, they wont have a reason to keep with the treatment and they would leave it with no success.

The treatment consists on meetings where a group of people share their experiences and after they talk to specialists who help them fix their problems. When their problem is more severe some people have to talk to psychologists and