You Already Know What A Cigarette Does To Your Brain

Hollywood Spent Sixty Years Selling You That Image

That Was Just The Opening Act

The Cigarette Was Dangerous In A Way That At Least Looked Dangerous

The Drink Was Different

The Drink Looked Like Arrival

OKAY BACK FROM HAPPY HOUR 🥃

James Bond Does Not Order A Beer

He Requests A Martini

Shaken, Not Stirred

Three Words That Became A Personality

The Slow Pour Over Ice In Every Crime Drama

The Champagne Toast At The Moment Everything Finally Worked Out

The Whiskey Poured In Silence After Someone Lost Everything

Hollywood Did Not Just Glamorize Drinking

It Assigned Meaning To Every Single Version Of It

Celebration. Sophistication. Grief. Rebellion. Control. Release

The Drink Was Never Just A Drink

It Was A Signal About What Kind Of Person Was Holding It

And Unlike Cigarettes, The Industry Never Had To Pay For That Image

The Culture Built It Voluntarily

Maintained It Enthusiastically

And Is Still Maintaining It Right Now

Alcohol Is A Central Nervous System Depressant

That Is Not An Opinion

That Is Its Pharmacological Classification

The Primary Mechanism Is GABA

Gamma Aminobutyric Acid

GABA Is The Brain's Main Inhibitory Neurotransmitter

Its Job Is To Slow Neural Activity Down

Alcohol Amplifies GABA's Effect

It Binds To The Same Receptors And Makes Them More

Responsive Than They Were Designed To Be

The Result Is The Feeling You Know

Muscles Relax

Anxiety Quiets

The Volume On The Thoughts You Were Trying To Outrun Drops Several Notches

This Is Not A Side Effect

This Is The Effect

At The Same Time, Alcohol Suppresses Glutamate

Glutamate Is The Brain's Primary Excitatory Neurotransmitter

The One Responsible For Sharp Thinking

Fast Reaction Time, And Accurate Memory Formation

When Glutamate Is Suppressed, Judgment Slows

Inhibitions Lower

The Prefrontal Cortex

The Part Of The Brain That Asks Whether This Is A Good Idea

Goes Quiet

The Social Version Of You Steps Forward

The One That Feels Easier To Be

While GABA Is Doing Its Work

Alcohol Is Also Triggering Dopamine Release In The Nucleus Accumbens

The Same Reward Center Nicotine Hits

The Same Structure That Evolved To Register Food

Sex, And Social Connection As Worth Repeating

Alcohol's Dopamine Spike Is Not As Precise As Nicotine's

Nicotine Reaches The Reward Center In Ten Seconds

Alcohol Builds More Gradually

But The Effect On The Brain's Memory System Is The Same

The Brain Records What Was Happening When Dopamine Arrived

The Lighting. The Music. The People. The Feeling Of Not Worrying For An Hour

Those Details Get Encoded As Context For The Reward

Next Time Any Of Those Details Appear, The Brain Fires A Signal That Says

Last Time This Happened, Something Good Followed

Go Back

Here Is What The Film Never Shows You

The Morning

Alcohol's GABA amplification does not last

When It Wears Off, The Brain Compensates

Glutamate, Which Was Suppressed All Night, Rebounds

It Overcorrects

Neural Activity That Was Being Slowed Now Runs Hotter Than It Did Before The First Drink

This Is Why The Morning After Drinking Feels Like Anxiety

Not Tiredness

Anxiety

Racing Thoughts. A Low Grade Sense That Something Is Wrong

The Restlessness That Makes You Want To Not Be Inside Your Own Head

That Is Not A Hangover

That Is Glutamate Rebound

It Is A Neurological Withdrawal Event

And It Happens After A Single Night Of Drinking

The Brain That Woke Up Slightly More Anxious Than It Was Yesterday Is

The Brain That Gets Offered A Drink Again At The Next Social Event

The One That Makes The Second Drink Feel Like A Return To Baseline

The One That Learns

Quietly And Without Your Consent

That This Is How You Feel Normal