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What happens to your body when you’re drunk

poledriver

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 21, 2005
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What happens to your body when you’re drunk

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THE Australian relationship with alcohol is complicated. It’s a colourful thread woven into the fabric of our society.
As a chemical, alcohol is a very simple molecule, but its effects on the brain are quite complex. Different people respond differently to alcohol in different situations.

Consumed orally, alcohol enters the bloodstream through the gastrointestinal tract. The amount that is absorbed varies depending on an individual’s genetic make-up and any medical conditions. It also varies depending on whether there is food in the gut, since this can reduce absorption into the bloodstream.

The size of the person and ratio between muscle and fat will also affect the rate at which the person’s blood alcohol concentration rises with consumption.
Because alcohol is water-soluble, if two people weigh the same, the person with more muscle and less fat will have a lower blood alcohol concentration than somebody with more fat and less muscle after consuming the same amount of alcohol.
Once in the bloodstream, alcohol affects many of our body’s organs, but the nervous system (including the brain) is key in terms of behavioural effects.

Alcohol acts as a central nervous system depressant. This means it slows down the rate at which brain cells and other nerves in the body communicate with one another.
Some people are surprised to find out alcohol is a central nervous system depressant since a low dose of alcohol can often lift one’s mood and act as a social lubricant.

LOW DOSES

The reason alcohol acts as a social lubricant is because it reduces the functioning of the limbic system of the brain. The limbic system is responsible for producing emotions that drive anxiety and fear. As such, we tend to feel a little less socially awkward after a few drinks.

In addition, alcohol reduces the functioning of the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain responsible for higher-order cognitive processing (including reasoning and judgement). This leads people to be less inhibited and more impulsive after they have had a few drinks.

One danger of this reduction in inhibitions and impaired judgment is that people can sometimes consume more alcohol than they had originally intended.

HIGHER DOSES

As the dose of alcohol increases, so does the impact on the brain. Functioning of the prefrontal cortex becomes further impaired such that people’s behaviour becomes even more uninhibited and judgment further impaired.
Consequently, our behaviours are increasingly driven by the more primitive parts of the brain. Hence the potential increase in aggression and sexual prowess.

Alcohol also impacts on the cerebellum — the region at the back of the skull that co-ordinates muscle activity. Motor co-ordination increasingly becomes impaired as the dose of alcohol increases. Along with this comes the sensation of dizziness that can lead to nausea and vomiting.

High doses of alcohol also slow down the rate at which neurons communicate in the parts of brain that are essential for controlling our vital processes such as heart rate and breathing (the pons — part of the brain stem that directs messages to the cerebellum).

In an alcohol overdose, a person will stop breathing completely, causing death.

SET AND SETTING

While the pharmacology of alcohol has a significant role in some of the subjective effects we experience from it, both the influence of the individual’s pre-drinking psychological state and the environment in which they’re drinking cannot be underestimated.
In terms of setting, think about the difference between drinking at a wedding and drinking after a funeral. The pharmacology of the drug remains the same, but the setting has a major influence on the way we experience its effects.

Alcohol can exacerbate negative moods, so you should avoid drinking if you are not in a good frame of mind. The power of the mind is important here. People will begin to show minor signs of alcohol intoxication when provided with a placebo.
In studies where people are provided with a placebo they are told is alcohol, they are just as likely to want to engage in risky or sensation-seeking behaviours, feel sexually aroused and sedated. This can partly be explained by conditioning, in which the body has a learned chemical response when exposed to a stimulus.

People’s expectations about the type of beverage they drink also affects their subjective experience. You might have been told that gin makes you feel depressed, so you feel more depressed after drinking gin.
So, this Christmas, drink only if you’re feeling festive and maybe switch out the gin for some eggnog.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/ch.../news-story/4223e325c6d825d1a6ff648618e7ae4a?
 
Alcohol = Worse drug you can take.

Wish I never touched the shit.
 
Yeah same, I find it very addictive as well as damaging. Alcohol and tobacco are both equally shit because of how damaging and addictive they are in my books.
 
yeah. Alcohol really got me started at a very young age. I grew up in a shitty home, and it took away those feelings of abandonment and bitterness. I also probably never would have tried other drugs if alcohol didn't make me feel so good. I even continued drinking abusively all the way up till age 28...however I continued using other drugs I had also become dependent on.

That was a horrible detox I will tell you. Even with morphine and benzos I think I barely made it through it. I had to kneel on all fours in the shower because I was throwing up and shaking so much. I kept getting vertigo.

This is the drug that should be outlawed. More fights, more domestic violence, more rape all come from this one molecule than any other molecule out there.
 
I'll say it again: if there is such a thing as a "gateway drug," for me Alcohol wins hands down. It brings about a reckless reasoning in me which has very nearly gotten me killed on several occasions (and out of my own stupidity).
 
Alcohol is probably the strongest drug I have taken (at "common" dose ranges).
It fucks you up more (= removes you from "consensus reality" more) than many drugs, at common dose ranges.
Maybe psychedelics are roughly equally powerful in this way, but mostly without a) the addictive potential, and b) the potentially reachable LD-50.
Also, the effects are so numbing, as opposed to psychedelics (which are mostly sharpening, if I may characterize them in this way) that I am not a big fan of being drunk.
But, alcohol is legal, so it's got that going for it...
(and it can taste really good, so there's that, too)
 
yeah. Alcohol really got me started at a very young age. I grew up in a shitty home, and it took away those feelings of abandonment and bitterness. I also probably never would have tried other drugs if alcohol didn't make me feel so good. I even continued drinking abusively all the way up till age 28...however I continued using other drugs I had also become dependent on.

That was a horrible detox I will tell you. Even with morphine and benzos I think I barely made it through it. I had to kneel on all fours in the shower because I was throwing up and shaking so much. I kept getting vertigo.

This is the drug that should be outlawed. More fights, more domestic violence, more rape all come from this one molecule than any other molecule out there.

NO drug should be outlawed. You can't blame the molecule. Alcohol was outlawed in the U.S. and it only caused the same problems drug prohibition is still causing: violence and making criminals rich.
 
alcohol...the first drug i did, the first one i got addicted to...fuck ya in my opinion, i think its the worst. crazy how its legal too.
 
alcohol...the first drug i did, the first one i got addicted to...fuck ya in my opinion, i think its the worst. crazy how its legal too.

How is it crazy?? The other drugs being illegal is what is crazy.
 
I wonder how many people would drink if all drugs were legal and easily available.
 
I actually think that the alcohol culture would fade (not completely of course) after a few generations with completely legal and regulated-available drugs. At first, I imagine, there would still be some kind of stigma and distrust associated with rec. drugs other than alcohol, nicotine and caffeine, but as time went on people would realize that what they'd been taking was actually goddamn poison and switch to more benign and harmless drugs like cannabis, stims-empathogens, opioids, benzos. Because really, who the hell wants to wake up with a debilitating hangover every time one decides to party?
 
Beer is delicious though. Plus it can be social during consumption. Splitting some pubgrab over a pint with friends has some parallels to doing lines or smoking a bowl with a bunch of friends. Popping a benzo and then eating some nachos is weird.

Having said that hard liquor retarded. Last time I had a hangover I was barfy until 6pm the following day, which in comparison makes E come down to be a cakewalk.
 
What about a nicely tasting drink that contains no alcohol, but instead has a low concentration of some benzo (or anything else for that matter), that you can chug at the bar with your friends and become mildly intoxicated that way? It's all about the culture and what we're used to. Sure, I would choose beer over such a drink any day purely out of social reasons, but that doesn't mean that won't change sometime in the future.
 
^id drink that over booze anyday. I can drink a few beers while I'm eating but just chugging beer all night suuucks. The weight to fucked up ratio is all off, now if I'm trying to piss myself, then its liquor all the way. But that was when I was much younger lol
 
Alcohol is only "good" cuz it happens to be acceptable and consumed by many people. Sometimes it's tasty but liquor and spirits are not goot mom talk about toxic affect.
 
I don't really get why people think alcoholic drinks can be tasty. They can be tasty without the alcohol, surely? I mean pure alcohol tastes like ass, especially in higher concentrations. Then again, I'm not a big fan of fancy drinks so maybe I'm not in the position to judge. I prefer good ol cheap beer.
 
I don't really get why people think alcoholic drinks can be tasty. They can be tasty without the alcohol, surely? I mean pure alcohol tastes like ass, especially in higher concentrations. Then again, I'm not a big fan of fancy drinks so maybe I'm not in the position to judge. I prefer good ol cheap beer.

Try some good beers ( some expensive and 'good' beers taste like ass and a half so I mean just find some nicer ones u like) and maybe have a perfectly mixed crown and coke or whatever , margarita... They don't taste like alcohol just awesomeness juice (or whatever lol) that gets you drunk and happens to be alcoholic. I think straight alcohol , especially like hard liquor and high proof awfulness like ever clear, 151, etc. that stuff is rank as shit can get oh lawdy
 
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