Got Brain Fog? Here’s How Alcohol Affects Your Dopamine and Reward System

As a neurohormone, it’s also released by the hypothalamus in your brain, where hormones are produced to regulate your basic bodily functions and mood, like heart rate, temperature, sex drive, sleep, and hunger. Basically, dopamine is involved in almost every area of your thought and reward system. So the healthier your brain is, the better it can use dopamine effectively and communicate messages between nerve cells and the rest of your body. That means you can go after your goals much more easily, without losing motivation. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that works with the reward center of your brain, making you feel pleased, satisfied, and motivated. Whenever you get that rush of pride after accomplishing something, dopamine is probably surging in your brain.

For those with alcohol use disorder, withdrawal is just the first (but very important) step on a long journey to recovery. These first few weeks are critical because they are when the risk of relapse is highest. For people who experience hallucinations as part of alcohol withdrawal, these may begin in the 12- to 24-hour time frame. When that person cuts out alcohol, there is a period when their brain hasn’t yet received the message and still overproduces the stimulating chemicals. With alcohol out of the equation, though, these chemicals cause withdrawal symptoms.

Addiction Info

If a pregnant woman cannot abstain, she should aim to reduce her alcohol consumption as much as possible. Korsakoff syndrome often appears after an episode of Wernicke’s encephalopathy, which is acute alcohol-related brain dysfunction. When the liver is not able to filter this poison quickly enough, a person can develop signs of alcohol poisoning or alcohol overdose. An overdose of alcohol affects the brain’s ability to sustain basic life functions. Binge drinking also affects the cerebellum (which helps regulate balance) and the cerebral cortex (which is responsible for taking in and processing new information). When these regions of the brain are slowed down, a person might feel dizzy and stagger when walking, have blurred or double vision, and have difficulty paying attention to things going on around them.

Even low levels of consumption can harm your health; higher levels of consumption have worse effects. Some of those effects, like slurred speech and diminished memory, can be quite clear; others, like long-term cellular damage, may not be as obvious. Feeling mentally drained happens to everyone alcohol brain fog from time to time, especially when experiencing sleeping difficulties. But brain fog is not the same as fatigue or lethargy, although they often go hand in hand or co-occur with symptoms of other conditions. Brain fog can be hard to define since it is not a medical term or diagnosis.

Drink plenty of fluids

Over time, people who consume large quantities of alcohol develop a tolerance to the drug. This dependency means that their brains crave the drug, causing them to experience withdrawal when they do not drink. Severe alcohol overdoses may cause permanent brain damage even if the person survives. A recently released study by the RAND research group revealed the many ways that sleep deprivation negatively affects brain function. Consistently running on lack of sleep decreases the brain’s ability to solidify memory and clear out toxins, as well as lowers your ability for higher cognitive functions, such as basic multitasking.

Depending on the severity of the brain fog and other related symptoms, a healthcare provider may recommend medication, therapy, or other interventions to support recovery. Seeking professional help can be essential in managing brain fog and promoting overall well-being. Sometimes, brain fog may go away on its own within a few days or weeks after quitting drinking. This can be especially true for individuals who have not been drinking for an extended period or who have mild to moderate alcohol use disorder. Brain fog is a common experience for many people who have recently quit drinking alcohol.

Brain Fog Symptoms

Alcohol dependence happens when our brain chemistry adapts to the presence of alcohol, leading to a reliance on it to feel ‘normal’. This dependence plays a significant role in the intensity and duration of brain fog during withdrawal. The more prolonged and heavier the alcohol use, the greater the probability that the brain fog will remain for a longer time.