Effects of Alcohol on the Body
How Exactly Does Alcohol Affect the Body?
Alcohol is a depressant, suppressing the central nervous system and slowing the body’s natural processes as it is absorbed into the bloodstream and distributed throughout the body.
This can result in symptoms like:
- Compromised decision-making skills and judgment
- Slowed reaction times or difficulty processing stimuli
- Compromised coordination
- Blurred vision
- Dehydration
Long-term effects of alcohol use include high blood pressure, elevated heart rate, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, weakened immune system, and liver damage.
The intensity of both short and long-term effects depends on several factors, from the amount of alcohol used to the frequency of alcohol intake.
How Does Alcohol Affect the Nervous System?
Alcohol disrupts the communication between the brain and the rest of the body, slowing down natural brain function.
Drinking both inhibits the production of glutamate, resulting in compromised alertness and focus, and enhances the effects of GABA.
These effects create many of the outward signs of drinking, from slowed reaction times and reflexes to compromised balance. Compromised decision-making skills, combined with slowed reflexes and judgment, also lead to more disastrous situations, such as driving under the influence.
Depending on the amount of alcohol ingested, it can also lead to memory loss.
What Does Drinking Alcohol Do to the Brain?
As alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream, it makes its way to the brain, affecting the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and dopamine production.
An impaired prefrontal cortex can lead to poor decision-making and judgment. Alcohol also affects the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for memory. Additionally, alcohol use forces the release of dopamine, or the “feel good” chemical that rewards a person for its use, causing a person to drink again despite other negative consequences.
Long-term alcohol use and alcohol abuse can also lead to mental health conditions, impacting emotional resilience and cognitive function, leading to feelings of anxiety, depression, panic, and more.
Professional help in alcohol rehab to overcome substance abuse and its effects on your physical health, brain, and emotional wellness is often necessary.
What Vitamins Are Depleted by Alcohol?
The vitamins commonly affected by alcohol use include:
- Vitamin B1, which is essential for normal brain function
- Folate
- Vitamins B6 and B12, which are responsible for the reproduction of red blood cells
- Magnesium
- Zinc
- Vitamin A, which impacts vision and the health of your immune system
Alcohol use leads to a lack of nutrients by depleting vitamins and compromising nutritional intake.
While rare, severe alcohol addiction and substance use disorder can lead to nutritional deficits, especially vitamin B1, which can lead to Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, a life-threatening brain disorder.
If you are concerned about a loved one, calling a healthcare provider or a professional treatment center can help you learn more about alcohol addiction and its effects. Medical professionals can guide you in exploring potential options and medically supervised alcohol detox.
Symptoms of Alcohol Withdrawal
What Is Withdrawal?
Withdrawal is what happens when those living with addiction suddenly stop the use of alcohol, bringing an array of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms.
Common withdrawal symptoms include:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Mood swings
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Insomnia or nightmares
- Elevated heart rate
- Shaking or tremors
- Sweating
- Difficulty concentrating
- Feeling easily angered or irritated
In severe situations, alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening. Seizures, disorientation, and delirium tremens (DTs) are all possible, demanding immediate medical attention from healthcare professionals or an emergency room visit.
However, the severity of withdrawal varies from person to person. You may have mild symptoms that can be managed with medication and professional care. Or you may have severe alcohol withdrawal that demands medical care. Professional detoxification treatment programs and medical detox are necessary to navigate these effects safely.
What Causes Alcohol Withdrawal?
Alcohol withdrawal symptoms are the result of changes in brain chemistry over prolonged alcohol use.
The brain can make real changes in itself to compensate for the use of alcohol. When alcohol is removed, it can react unexpectedly. The brain may be unable to regulate emotions or brain chemistry on its own, resulting in alcohol withdrawal syndrome and a wide range of potential effects as the brain begins to readjust to the absence of alcohol.
How Is Withdrawal Diagnosed?
Alcohol withdrawal can be diagnosed by professionals using a combination of symptoms, history of alcohol or substance use disorder, or tools like the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol (CIWA-Ar) to determine the severity of withdrawal.
Withdrawal Symptoms Duration
How Long Does Alcohol Withdrawal Last?
Each person’s challenges will be different, and there is no definitive alcohol withdrawal timeline; however, most people complete alcohol detox in 5 to 10 days.
The first stage of alcohol withdrawal occurs during the first few hours, typically from about 6 to 12 hours since your last drink. Withdrawal symptoms can begin to present themselves, including anxiety, irritation, sweating, or insomnia.
After about a full day since your last drink, the second stage begins, where these symptoms can become more challenging, adding confusion, high blood pressure, shaking, and more intense mood swings.
The third stage of withdrawal symptoms hits its peak about 72 hours following your last drink, with the most intense physical, mental, and emotional challenges. However, getting over this 72-hour hurdle is when withdrawal symptoms will typically begin to lessen.
Effective detox treatment programs and collaborating with professionals can provide the support and medical supervision necessary to overcome these initial challenges.
What Are the Last Stages of Alcohol Withdrawal?
The last stages of alcohol withdrawal occur during the third stage, typically about three days since your last drink, when symptoms are at their most severe, bringing mental health challenges like anxiety and depression, tremors, and a risk of intense challenges like delirium tremens that demand medical attention.
However, not all people will experience the same journey with withdrawal. Some people may experience these stages longer than others.
How Long Does Acute Alcohol Withdrawal Last?
Acute withdrawal describes the stages of alcohol withdrawal following the cessation of alcohol use, beginning within a few hours after your last drink and persisting for a few days, or even up to a week.
Understanding the challenges of acute alcohol withdrawal can help you or your loved one commit to a dedicated detox program to navigate these challenges and create a plan for success.
These challenges include:
- Alcohol cravings: Typically begin within hours of your last drink, and can continue even past acute withdrawal
- Anxiety: Can begin within hours of your last drink, and can persist for weeks or longer, depending on underlying mental health needs
- Depression: Can begin within hours of your last drink, and can persist for weeks or longer, depending on underlying mental health needs
- Nausea or gastrointestinal symptoms: Can occur within about 12 hours to a day, and can last for 1 to 3 days
- Sleep disturbances, insomnia, and fatigue: Can occur from the first night in detox, and last for days to weeks, but with symptoms typically lessening after a couple days
- Cognitive symptoms: Occur after about a day into detox, with effects lasting multiple days to weeks before clearing
- Sweating, shaking, and tremors: Typically occur within about 6 to 12 hours since your last drink, with effects lasting about 3 to 5 days
- Seizures: Will typically occur within the first 12 to 48 hours of detox and withdrawal, but the risk window can extend to about 72 hours
Working with trained professionals can ensure you have access to the resources you need to navigate your unique challenges and take detox at your own pace.
What Do Alcohol Cravings Feel Like?
Cravings are much more than just feeling like you want a drink; rather, they are an encompassing compulsion to engage with alcohol, overtaking other thoughts, priorities, and coming with both a hyperfocus on alcohol use and physical symptoms like shaking and tightness.
Alcohol cravings can also bring emotional challenges like stress, anxiety, or even desperation that can make it feel like only drinking alcohol can bring relief.
Working with professionals in detox and continuing to refine strategies in outpatient care at Harmony Grove Behavioral Health can ensure that you have access to the support, community, and recovery capital necessary to navigate cravings and maintain your hard-earned sobriety.
Signs It’s Time to Get Help
What Are the Risk Factors Associated With Withdrawal Symptoms?
Factors that can inform the severity of withdrawal symptoms include:
- How long you have been drinking, the frequency of alcohol use, and the severity of addiction, including persistent use, binging, and more
- Age
- Underlying mental health disorders like anxiety, depression
- Medical concerns, from heart disease to liver damage
- Having a history of past withdrawal
- Compromised nutritional needs and vitamin deficiencies
- Polysubstance use, or using alcohol alongside other substances like opioids, marijuana, or other drugs
Each journey overcoming alcohol use disorder (AUD) is different. Your unique experiences, history with alcohol, and underlying risk factors all inform your recovery journey, especially during detox and withdrawal.
What Are Severe Symptoms of Alcohol Withdrawal?
Severe withdrawal symptoms and challenges necessitate professional medical care, including seizures, audio hallucinations, visual hallucinations, olfactory hallucinations, fever, high heart rate, and intense nausea.
Intense challenges also include delirium tremens (DTs), which can be a life-threatening risk during withdrawal. These can be in addition to long-term challenges associated with alcohol abuse, including cardiovascular disease or liver disease.
Professional medical detox is crucial when beginning your journey to healing from alcohol addiction, ensuring severe symptoms can be managed.
What Is Delirium Tremens?
Delirium tremens is an intense and life-threatening form of alcohol withdrawal that includes disorientation, hallucinations, confusion, intense agitation, and dangerous changes to heart rate, which can present a high risk of complications without medical support.
When Do Symptoms Indicate a Medical Emergency?
Recognizing signs of seizures, hallucinations, intense confusion or disorientation, or intense shaking can all be reasons to contact emergency services for support.
Even if symptoms seem mild, calling for more information or if a person has a history of severe withdrawal symptoms can be crucial for the safety of all involved.
Treatment for Withdrawal
What Treatment Is Available for Alcohol Withdrawal?
Treatment for alcohol withdrawal involves evidence-based individual therapy, inpatient medical supervision at a dedicated detox facility, nutritional support, and medication-assisted treatment (MAT), such as benzodiazepines, as necessary to navigate specific challenges.
Should Alcohol Withdrawal Seizures Be Treated With Anti‐Epileptic Drugs?
Anti-epileptic drugs are not typically effective on their own to address alcohol withdrawal.
Rather, working with addiction specialists to explore MAT may be more appropriate, or may be used in conjunction with other forms of direct addiction recovery support.
What Treatment Options Are Best for My Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)?
Overcoming AUD involves a combination of various treatment options, often incorporating MAT as necessary, evidence-based treatment, holistic healing therapies, and a safe and curated sober environment devoid of unnecessary stresses or other challenges.
How Long After Stopping Drinking Will I Start to Feel Better?
It depends. Withdrawal symptoms are at their most intense throughout the week after stopping drinking, and then will begin to subside.
However, there can still be a myriad of changes and challenges ahead, with persistent challenges throughout the first month or two, with noticeable improvement possible during this time.
Evidence-Based Treatment for Alcohol Addiction
What Behavioral Therapies Help Treat Alcohol Dependence?
Evidence-based therapies and behavioral health specialists can help through cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), motivational interviewing (MI), as well as group therapy and support groups to learn from professionals and peers alike.
Will I Require Medication to Manage Symptoms?
Not everyone will require medication.
Talking to a professional can help you determine if medication is the right path for you.
Will Treatment Address Co-Occurring Disorders?
Dedicated dual-diagnosis treatment to address alcohol use alongside underlying mental health needs is available, with specialized programs to address these challenges.
Working with Harmony Grove Behavioral Health to determine your needs and goals can help you address each of these challenges in tandem for a transformed, sober life.
What Role Does Peer Support Play in Treatment?
Peers provide a wealth of new and practical strategies for navigating sobriety, all while creating a place of acceptance, belonging, and accountability that celebrates sobriety, reinforces motivation, and builds on a culture of support for lasting change.
Long-Term Healing From Alcohol Addiction
How Can I Prevent Alcohol Withdrawal?
Preventing withdrawal is challenging if alcohol use is already a regular part of daily life.
Working with a healthcare professional to taper off alcohol, staying hydrated and eating healthy, and working with professionals can help to mitigate the severity of withdrawal symptoms.
What Lifestyle Changes Protect Sobriety?
Keeping active and adhering to a routine, eating healthy meals, engaging in daily mindfulness, and working with professionals to practice stress-reduction techniques, coping strategies, and challenging self-destructive behaviors and beliefs are all part of building a lifestyle that celebrates and protects your hard-earned sobriety.
What Resources Will Help Me Continue to Build Skills and Coping Strategies?
Ongoing therapy in detox, residential, and outpatient care, access to digital support groups such as Harmony Grove Behavioral Health’s sober alumni app or other dedicated sober digital spaces, access to professionals and educated family members, and developing communication and boundary-setting skills can all help you build the recovery capital necessary for lasting success.
Should I Include Loved Ones in My Treatment and Recovery?
Yes, loved ones who express support and a willingness to heal with you are amazing resources.
Incorporating loved ones into healing to develop communication, provide education to family members on effective supporting options and how to prevent unintentionally enabling further use, hold a person accountable, and create a safe, supportive, and accepting home atmosphere in sobriety can all be major benefits to your healing.
However, it takes effort from entire families, not just one individual, to create this effective culture at home.
FAQs
While 7 days of rest can help begin the healing process, the liver will need more time to fully repair from the damage of addiction.
It depends. Most people begin to feel a significant change after a couple of weeks of sobriety.
However, you will continue to feel better and make new strides as long as you are reaching new milestones.
Yes, insurance can cover the cost of addiction treatment.
However, exactly how much is covered will depend on your health insurance plan and the level of care you receive. Calling to discuss your needs and navigate the world of insurance can ensure that you begin your journey with confidence.
Nutritional deficits, emotional needs, disrupted sleep cycles, and more can all contribute to intense feelings of fatigue that are common when quitting alcohol as the body begins to heal.
Clearer skin, a healthy diet, a healthy gastrointestinal tract, and increased focus and energy levels can all indicate a healing liver.