What is Alcohol Addiction?

Hello Drinking Livers,

Alcohol is the most depressing substance on earth. Really! I know it feels like the best thing when you are drinking, mostly because we have culturally pedestalised its significance, and jumbled up its effects as euphoria, but in the long term it is extremely harmful and is a leading cause of deaths worldwide. But drinking is different from addiction. So let’s talk about addiction.

Alcohol addiction is when the brain becomes rewired to rely on alcohol for pleasure, stress relief, or emotional regulation; and when personal, social, or genetic factors reinforce that dependency.

Alcohol stimulates dopamine (the “pleasure” chemical) and GABA (which calms the brain). Over time, the brain adapts to this, reducing its own production of these chemicals leading to the need for more alcohol to feel normal. This is the same as the ‘increasing tolerance’ for alcohol.

Where the brain/body feels anxious, restless, or low without it, is the ‘dependence’ on alcohol. The saddest part is that gradually people no longer drink to feel good, they drink to avoid feeling bad.

Drinking is a weird habit and because of its general acceptance in society it very easily becomes tied to our lives, experiences, instances, people, emotions, or routines such as ‘I need a drink to unwind’, ‘I always drink with friends’, etc. This is a symptom of the brain forming cue-reward loops that makes it automatic and harder to break the cycle.

It goes without saying that stress, trauma, grief, or emotional pain often lead people to self-medicate with alcohol. People use it to numb feelings, feel socially relaxed, or escape boredom. And mental health issues definitely increase vulnerability. But this repetitive behaviour often leads to dependencies more often then not.

There is also a vast amount of research that suggests that people with a family history of addiction are more likely to develop alcohol dependence.

Cultural acceptance of drinking, “it’s normal to drink every weekend”, normalizes frequent use while ease of availability plays a big role in its regular consumption. Growing up in a home with regular or abusive alcohol use also increases the risk.

Drinking heavily before age 21 can significantly increase the risk of lifelong addiction. The adolescent brain is still developing and more vulnerable to dependency.