What is a depressant?
A depressant is a chemical that prevents the central nervous system’s function and disrupts our brain’s working processes, such as response, decision-making, and memory. At first, depressants make us relax. After we consume a lot of depressants, it reduces the competence of our brains. It also has impacts on many systems in our body.
Side effects of sedation from alcohol
Alcohol has many effects on our nervous system. The degree of impact drinkers will be given by alcohol depends on the amount of alcohol they have consumed. After the drinkers initially drink alcohol, the effects of alcohol are not severe. This is because the drinkers do not consume so much alcohol. The symptoms that are seen include being violent, alert, and chatty. After you drink so much alcohol, the toxicity from alcohol disrupts the working process of the brain system and reticular formation that controls the heartbeat of the heart in the brain system. The symptoms of the drinkers are severe. The drinkers are unconscious and have problems with breathing.
The symptoms of alcohol as a depressant
These are the symptoms that can be seen in people who drink alcohol. These are examples of the effects of alcohol as a depressant.
- Slow breathing: If you drink so much alcohol, alcohol will disrupt your system of breathing. Your breathing will become irregular. It will be slowed.
- Low blood pressure: Drinking alcohol can cause you to have low blood pressure.
- Slow reaction time: Alcohol will slow down the working process of your brain. One of the effects of alcohol on the brain is the slow reaction time.
- Poor eyesight: Alcohol will disrupt the function of the brain that works with your vision. When this part of the brain is disrupted, it causes you to have blurred vision.
- Dehydration: Dehydration can be one of the impacts of drinking alcohol.
- Losing memorization: Alcohol will slow down the working process of your brain. One of the effects of alcohol on the brain is the loss of memory.
- Sleepiness: Drinking alcohol can cause you to feel sleepy.
- Lower inhibition: After you drink alcohol, you will have lower inhibition. You will be brave to do some activity you do not normally do. For example, you dare to tell the secret to your friend. You may dare to have violence.
Neurotransmitter related to alcohol
These are the neurotransmitters related to alcohol.
Opioid: Drinking a small amount of alcohol causes the body to produce opioid chemicals, which gives the drinkers the feeling of happiness.
Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA): Gamma-aminobutyric acid is a chemical that prevents the working process in the brain. Drinking so much alcohol increases the production of this chemical. It can reduce the stress of the drinkers. However, it causes many problems. It makes the drinkers sleepy.
Moreover, the drinkers will have abnormalities in movement. If you drink alcohol regularly and stop drinking immediately, there is a reduction of gamma-aminobutyric acid in drinkers. It causes the drinkers to be anxious and have a seizure.
Glutamate: Glutamate induces the working process in the brain. Alcohol prevents the working of glutamate, which causes the loss of perception and learning.
Serotonin: It causes the working process of nervous systems in movement, memory, behaviour, and emotion.
Dopamine: Alcohol induces the body to produce dopamine, which helps the drinkers get the feeling of happiness. People try to drink alcohol to receive this feeling again and again. However, alcohol causes negative impacts on the body. When people drink alcohol from a young age, alcohol induces the body to produce so much dopamine, and it causes the destruction of functions in the brain, such as the ability to think and criticize. Alcohol obstructs the growth of the brain in children.
Alcohol and depression
Some studies show that depressants in alcohol can cause drinkers to have depression. Alcohol stimulates the body to produce more dopamine, which is a chemical that makes you happy. However, if you drink alcohol as a daily routine, your body will depend on alcohol to help itself produce dopamine. If you stop drinking alcohol, the body will not produce dopamine, and you will be unhappy. Therefore, It would help if you drank alcohol again and again and you could not stop drinking alcohol. After you drink alcohol one time, the next time you drink, you require more alcohol to make your body produce dopamine. The more you drink, the less dopamine is created in your body. That causes you to have depression.
The effect of alcohol on central nervous system
Alcohol slows down the working process of the central nervous system. Alcohol restrains the competence of neurons to transmit the impulse. Neurons use chemical and electrical signals to communicate messages to each other. Chemical signals can be called neurotransmitters. Alcohol intervenes in the working process of neurotransmitters on neurons. It causes the process of sending between neurons to be slowed down. That causes the activity in the brain to slow down, too.
The factor of different symptoms from alcohol
When people drink alcohol, the symptoms will occur to each person differently. After drinking alcohol in the same quantity, it does not mean that the symptoms of each person will be the same. The difference in symptoms in each person depends on age, gender, weight, chemical, and tolerance to alcohol of a person.
Alcohol is a depressant. It disrupts the working process of the brain and causes us trouble in many aspects. It causes many negative impacts on our body, such as blood pressure and breathing. It causes problems in brain function, such as memory, inhibition, and reaction. As you can see, there are many adverse effects of alcohol. Therefore, you should not drink so much alcohol.
