Why Do We Drink It? The First of 3 Reasons We Drink (DAY 8)

The past couple of lessons have focused on how to avoid drinking it (“Play the Movie Forward,” “Surf the Urge, Mindfulness exercises), along with the health impacts and Just the Facts about alcohol. Today’s lesson helps us understand why we drink it in the first place!

This video focuses on the first of three reasons why people drink: The Substance. Alcohol is an addictive substance! It impacts our brain chemistry and releases dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with the learning process. Watch the video to learn more! Then read the excerpt from Holly Whitaker’s book, Quit Like a Woman, below.

Holly Whitaker sums up this dopamine / dynorphin cycle nicely in her book, Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol, as follows:

“The thing is, even one glass of wine is disruptive. The body is constantly seeking homeostasis, or balance, so the moment you ingest any drug, your body begins a counteractive process. Judith Grisel explains this in her book, Never Enough, as an A-B process; the effect of the drug causes A process, and in trying to adapt to that A process, the body initiates a counteractive B process, which tends to last longer than the A process. As Grisel explains it, “The states of withdrawal and craving from any drug are always exactly the opposite of the drug’s effects. If a drug makes you feel relaxed, withdrawal and craving are experienced as anxiety and tension.”

Alcohol is a depressant, so if we’re using it to relax, we’re actually netting out with more anxiety because of this A-B process -- one drink leaves us more stressed, tense, anxious, and depressed. And this effect isn’t reserved for heavy drinkers; withdrawal and craving are things we experience any time we consume a drug. One glass is one dose.”

You can’t unlearn that!