29/03/2022
Brilliant explanation of what alcohol does to our brains and lives.
Tolerance is our body’s way of trying to regulate itself. Our bodies are so smart, and if they notice that alcohol is coming in regularly, they change the chemistry so that drunkenness doesn’t happen so quickly.
When alcohol enters your system, it releases an artificially high level of dopamine - you get a massive hit of pleasure. Your brain knows that this isn’t right, so in order to calm things down, your brain releases a chemical called dynorphin. When this happens you might start feeling anxious or down - leading you to want another drink. This time, you go even lower.
As you become more and more numb, the endorphins don’t work as well and you never rise to the same level you were at just one drink ago. Each subsequent drink brings you lower and lower until you fall well below the baseline of happiness you started with.
When your pleasure levels are artificially stimulated like they are with alcohol on a regular basis, your brain gets used to it. And soon, you find you can no longer enjoy normal, everyday activities that used to make you happy.
Dynorphin affects the pleasure you get from everything. That means when you build a tolerance for alcohol, you’re also building a tolerance for s*x, laughter, and ice cream! Anything you used to find pleasing doesn’t do it for you anymore. You have to return to using alcohol in higher and higher quantities until you become more and more focused on your next drink. Eventually, everyday pleasures don’t even register anymore.
What you’re doing in building a tolerance for alcohol, is building a tolerance to fun, a boredom threshold for life.
For more on tolerance, join us in The PATH at https://tnmind.co/apr2022_path_fb
