Alcohol. Beer. Liquor. Liquid Courage.
It’s literally all poison to our bodies. Don’t believe me? Keep reading.
Its funny how sloppy disrespectful drunks ALWAYS feel the need to ridicule us sober folk. Remaining sober in social situations can be very difficult. I am often called ‘boring’, ‘old’, ‘lame’ etc. Again the ironic nature of some drunk idiot spouting out this verbal venom is somewhat comical.
Your body treats alcohol like a poison because that’s what it is. It’s something that it doesn’t want inside of you. To fight it off and to sober up, your body releases an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase.
This enzyme will snatch a hydrogen atom off the alcohol molecules in whatever $5.00 car bomb you just slammed with your friends and will render it into a non-intoxicating acetaldehyde. Great right? Except more often than not, you’re slamming shots and drinking quicker than your body can produce this powerful enzyme.
So what happens to all the alcohol that your body actually absorbs? Well for starters, it will inhibit your brain cells. Not like you have much concern for your brain if you are drinking copious amounts but here’s the scoop: alcohol affects the way your neurons get their firing triggers from glutamate. Alcohol interferes with the glutamate receptors in your brain and hurts their ability to send off the normal “fire” messages. This impacts every single action across your brain: muscles, speech, coordination, judgement, classiness, and so on.
So why can you never rememberl it being such a ‘good time’ when you drink? The way your brain makes memories is so complex that even Bill Nye struggles with it…… and he’s a science guy. Memories are, however, linked to NMDA. Alcohol interferes with this receptor, so good luck remembering dancing on the bar with the lampshade on your head.
Why do you throw up when you’ve had too much alcohol? HELLO?!?!?! Has your body ever rejected yams and chicken? Unless you’re allergic, the answer is no. Why do you get hangovers? Because your body was literally up all night trying to repel and correct the poison that you put in it.
I have been sober since January 2012 and don’t plan on ever drinking again. I just tell people I’m allergic since very few people can wrap their heads around the fact that I don’t want to poison my body. For years I drank because I had very low self esteem and I needed the liquid courage in order to feel comfortable talking to ‘dudes’. It wasn’t until I began taking fitness and nutrition seriously did I feel comfortable enough to stand my own in social situations. I also drank because I was unhappy with my life and I needed an escape. Again, this was something I have out grown thanks to my adherence to a healthy lifestyle.
The bottom line? You do NOT need to ditch your class, poison your body, and toss aside your inhibition in order to be accepted and loved. If this is the case you need to ditch your current social circle – you deserve better than that.
With love from the Trench kitchen,
xoErika♥
