What does alcohol do to you? You may have heard that alcohol will help you relax and loosen you up. What it does is depress your central nervous system. Why? Because alcohol IS a depressant. It affects the brain’s ability to send messages throughout your body.

So how does that affect you?

When you drink, messages from your brain to the rest of your body get interrupted. Your reactions become slower, like not being able to stand up or walk a straight line. You begin to have trouble understanding what people are saying to you or what is happening. The alcohol is affecting parts of your brain called the cerebellum and cerebral cortex. But wait, wait…there’s more…

Alcohol also depresses the hypothalamus. That gets really scary because the hypothalamus controls your body’s metabolism, heart rate and blood pressure, among other things. If blood pressure and heart rate get too low, someone could slip into a coma or die. How much alcohol would result in an overdose? It’s hard to say because every person’s metabolism is based on many things, not just weight.

Have your parents ever said, “What were you thinking?” That may be because your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that makes decisions and helps you understand long-term consequences, doesn’t really get hard wired until around 24 years of age. Add alcohol to the mix, which will further slow this brain activity, and you have a recipe for potentially dangerous and regretted decisions.

And if that wasn’t enough, the memory-forming part of your brain, the hippocampus, is affected by alcohol, too. Who wants to lose memories like your first kiss, hanging out with your best friends, that game-winning goal, or the material you covered for your test? If you drink too much, instead of all saving those pleasant or helpful memories, your brain will lose them.

Lastly, if your consumption is high or frequent enough, or if you have alcohol dependency in your family, your brain may lead you to addiction. The younger you start drinking, the more likely you will experience major problems related to alcohol or addiction.

Alcohol has all kinds of effects on the brain: it’s called BRAIN DAMAGE and is pretty similar having your bell rung on the football field. Studies have shown that brain activity in a teenager who drinks is similar to someone who has suffered concussions.

Binge Drinking

While most teens are not regularly drinking alcohol, you may know some who drink a lot and drink fast. That’s binge drinking and doing so puts them at risk. Every year, there are over 190,000 ER visits for people under the age of 21 for alcohol related conditions and injuries (Source: Centers for Disease Control). Others might have well-meaning friends who put them to bed to “sleep it off”. Some will feel horrible the next day but recover. Some are not so lucky.

By the way, binging for a guy is consuming five (5) or more drinks in a two-hour time frame. For a girl, that means having four (4) or more drinks in two hours.

Remember, there is no safe amount of alcohol for those under 21 or for those who have alcohol dependence in their family! Furthermore, one drink can impair judgment, risking trouble with the law, school or parents.

Drink Equivalencies