Stressful situations are widespread in our society. People are always faced with problems dealing with their physical problems, social life, family life, and their finances. These are the different factors contributing to feelings of apprehension, and most people will look for ways to relieve their tension.
Most likely, these people will resort to alcohol to manage their stress – this is prevalent in today’s culture. But drinking alcohol repeatedly will lead to neurological adaptations and biochemical changes, which will drive the person to keep on drinking more alcohol.
The body physiology behind addiction explains why the so called “alcoholic individuals” feel the periodic urge to drink. Alcohol dependency will:
· Affect the neurotransmitters and the brain.
· Greatly affect GABA (increases the inhibitory activity) and glutamate receptors (decreases the excitatory activity).
· Disrupt glutaminergic and GABAergic transmission, causing apoptosis (these are primary ways that alcohol affects the brain by suppressing its activity).
· Increase dopamine “rush,” which disappears after the body’s alcohol level stops increasing. This will encourage you to drink more alcohol so that you can get “high” again.
· Increase blood alcohol concentrations to toxic levels. This is dangerous because the dopamine rush will be gone but there will still be a high alcohol content in your body. You will not realize that this is happening, so you will continue drinking – this is the reason why some heavy drinkers die from alcohol blood poisoning.
Just like other chemical substances (drugs and cigarettes), alcohol can be very addictive and usually cause tolerance and dependence.
Tolerance occurs when the individual consumes alcohol continuously but is no longer achieving a maximal effect from it. You have alcohol tolerance when you need to increase the amount of alcohol you must consume to produce the desirable effect. This means that your brain is already less sensitive to alcohol but the toxicity to your brain cells remains the same.
Dependence, on the other hand, is characterized by abnormal consumption of alcohol and lack of drinking control. You already have alcohol dependence when you possess intense and uncontrollable craving for it. The three stages are:
Acute drug effects – release of dopamine into the “pleasure center” (nucleus accumbens), which causes pleasure and will stimulate more usage of alcohol.
Neuron Changes – transition to addiction, as the body becomes more accustomed to the alcohol in the body. This is where the plasticity of the body’s neurons begins to reshape its synapses. The body starts having withdrawal symptoms (such as sleep disturbances, shaking, and anxiety) when the alcohol is no longer in the body.
Addiction – the damage has been done due to alcohol dependence, which means that there is already a strengthening of the synapses and permanent cellular changes.
If you need help with alcoholism or drug addiction please visit one of the many sites of the Sober Sources Network. Our live forums may be found at the Sober Village and Recovery Works.
