Alcohol MESSES WITH your brain
Your brain is still developing. It’s already reached its biggest size, but it’s still growing in other ways. It has lots of plasticity which is important for training it to adapt, respond to the environment, and learn new skills. Alcohol messes with this growth and can cause permanent damage and impact your health for years to come. Let’s call it what it is: brain damage. Waiting until your brain is fully developed to drink alcohol is smart. And who doesn’t want to be smart?
The CEREBRAL CORTEX is the outer layer of the cerebrum. It’s responsible for your memory, attention, perception, awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. You don’t want to mess with this. But by consuming alcohol, these functions can slow down.
The FRONTAL LOBE is one of the major lobes of the cerebral cortex. It’s responsible for your motor skills. It also gives you your conscience which informs you on what’s good and bad, right and wrong. Think of it as your BFF for all good life decisions! The consumption of alcohol makes it harder to control urges and emotions. Habitual drinking can damage this area permanently.
The HYPOTHALAMUS is the part of the brain that controls the nervous system and regulates sleep and emotional activity. Drinking alcohol affects this functioning. Drinking, hunger and thirst may increase while the heart rate decreases. Drinking can affect one’s mental health big time.
The HIPPOCAMPUS is responsible for your memory. Drinking alcohol disrupts short- and long-term memory. It can make it harder to learn in school and remember important things. Sometimes people can’t remember what they did while drinking, like sending text messages or posting things on social media. Yikes!
The CEREBELLUM controls your coordination, speech, balance, and movements. Drinking can make it harder to control these things. This is why people who have consumed alcohol slur their speech and stumble. Those problems, which we all associate with being drunk, show that alcohol has literally and fairly immediately, disrupted the drinker’s brain functions. It’s not a pretty sight.
The MEDULLA controls respiration and circulation as well as the body’s temperature. Drinking alcohol lowers the body’s temperature which can be dangerous and result in hypothermia. It can also result in respiratory failure meaning people overcome by alcohol can just stop breathing.
You might not realize that alcohol consumption can have a negative effect that can last for years. In fact, because your body is still developing well into your teenage years, alcohol can actually create permanent damage that could seriously compromise your abilities as an adult.