What Is Alcohol Abuse?

Despite what the songs say, alcohol doesn’t go straight to your head – it’s got a couple of stops to make first.

Like everything else you consume, alcohol first goes through your digestive system. Ethanol, a substance produced from fermenting sugar, starch, and yeast, is the active ingredient in alcohol. It’s easily absorbed into your bloodstream once it hits the stomach and small intestine. If there’s food being digested, this absorption is slowed. That’s why drinking on an empty stomach gets you drunk much faster.

Once ethanol is in your bloodstream, it travels the same paths as your blood does, affecting every organ on the way. When it reaches the brain, you feel buzzed – or drunk, depending on the amount of alcohol you’ve drunk.

Meanwhile, the liver is at work breaking down the ethanol. Unfortunately, our livers can only break down so much alcohol at a time. It’s why advice like drinking water or coffee to sober up doesn’t work. As long as ethanol’s in your bloodstream, you’re feeling its effects. The processed alcohol is excreted in the usual ways.

There are multiple factors why some people are able to live with occasional alcohol use and others can’t. Like other psychoactive substances, alcohol causes the brain to release certain chemicals associated with feelings of pleasure and reward. Genetics may play a factor; the National Institutes of Health cites research showing a person’s individual genes can make them more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder.

This is one of the chief reasons people develop an alcohol use disorder. The chemical release alcohol causes can be so intense for some, they keep drinking and drinking to experience the same effect. Like other drugs, alcohol’s effects get dulled by repeated use, meaning users must consume more and more to feel the same rush ... or even to feel “normal.”

Outside factors play a big role in alcohol addiction, too. Alcohol often gets used as a coping mechanism. Some people may drink to combat boredom or stress; others may use alcohol in an attempt to deal with trauma, grief or anxiety in stressful situations.

Whatever the reason, heavy drinking over time will eventually cause a person to develop a physical dependence to alcohol. If they continue to drink heavily, they’ll experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop drinking. These symptoms can range from the minor, such as shakiness and anxiety … to far more severe, such as seizures, hallucinations and even coma.