Alcohol Brain Fog: How to Heal Your Brain

Towards the end of my drinking days, I had difficulty thinking clearly. The medical community often refers to the “four stages of withdrawal” as a roadmap for what someone might expect right when they stop drinking. Remember that it’s important to connect with a medical professional before you stop drinking to ensure that you can go through each stage safely. Spending time in nature has been shown to have many benefits for brain health.

This can leave you feeling confused, forgetful, and perhaps indecisive or unable to focus. Brain fog can be caused by stress, lack of sleep, an unhealthy diet, changes in hormones, medication, or a medical condition, including COVID-19. With COVID-19, the brain is compromised by either direct https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alcoholic-ketoacidosis-symptoms-and-treatment/ injury from the virus itself or from immune system overactivation that leaves a simmering but gradually fading inflammation behind in the brain. Do you feel as though your thinking is less sharp and your memory muddier today than it was before a COVID-19 infection during the pandemic?

Things you can do to minimize brain fog

Many of us are very familiar with the expected 2–3 day effect alcohol has on our thinking, which makes it much more difficult to process and think through various complex ideas. Brain fog can clear with a combination of techniques and daily practices. People with an AUD have a protracted withdrawal phase due to the alcohol’s potent effects on neuroreceptors, which can last up to 26 weeks after alcohol cessation. Even two drinks a day can make a difference in brain size, but as always, the more you drink, the worse the effect. That’s why the more motivated you are to learn something, the more engaged and interested you become – hopefully making the learning process an enjoyable or worthy endeavor. A person should check themselves into an alcohol detox program and receive medication to wean themselves off drinks.

• Whenever you get that rush of pride after accomplishing something, dopamine is probably surging in your brain.
• Addictive drugs such as alcohol provide fast intoxicating pleasures and impair a person’s impulse control and other higher cognitive functions.
• “Your sensory uptake has been dulled, so you’re not going to be taking in new information as well,” said Pagano.

Your brain fog may also be another side effect of the symptoms that accompany withdrawal. For instance, insomnia might make it hard to think well during the day. As the alcohol is metabolized and nutritional states are restored, alcohol brain fog can clear with time. Once alcohol is eliminated and alcohol withdrawal symptoms subside, people recovering from an AUD will feel more like themselves again.

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The symptoms of brain fog can include confusion, difficulty concentrating, and short-term memory loss. Brain fog does not have an official test so your healthcare provider could help from there. The impact of alcohol on the brains of young people is particularly serious.

• It worked so well that he ran a pilot study among 38 long COVID patients.
• The first and most important thing to do is to see your doctor and share with them all of the lingering symptoms you are experiencing.
• Our counseling staff provides individualized treatment and care for our clients with an emphasis on tailoring treatment to the specific needs of each individual.

Alcohol affects the brain and body in specific ways and habitual excessive drinking leads to areas of damage. In addition to the symptoms of anxiety, patients may experience pains and aches in their muscles when they stop drinking. These symptoms may range from feeling tired and having a lack of energy to experiencing tightness in the muscles or restless legs. There are many other conditions that can cause these aches in the muscles, including vitamin deficiency, low blood sugar levels, metabolic disorders, and others. Still, the damage done by alcohol is particularly problematic because some of the shrinkages are almost certainly due to cell death. Fortunately, some of the alcoholic brain changes result from cells growing in size.

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Additionally, heavy alcohol consumption causes inflammation in the stomach lining with leads to malabsorption of important nutrients, like thiamine. When someone stops drinking, it causes their body to go into a state of physical and emotional stress. This can result in heart problems and stomach aches that may be accompanied by nausea or vomiting. A person’s natural chemical balance may be disturbed by alcohol use, which causes them to experience trouble sleeping and restlessness when they stop drinking. This can also result in headaches, nausea, and vomiting when they try to sleep.

The brain has a remarkable ability to repair itself, but it takes time. How long it takes for your mind to recover after over-consumption of alcohol depends on the severity of the damage done. The more intense or frequent the alcoholic blackouts are, the longer it will take your brain’s neurotransmitters to return to normal activity levels. Generally, though, it may take up to two weeks for the brain’s chemistry to return to normal after experiencing extended periods of alcoholic blackout. Your head seems to be in the cloud after binge drinking with your siblings.

“They become much more likely to seek alcohol and to rely on it to cope with negative feelings,” said Ray. “Often when people start drinking, they drink to feel good—but as they drink more chronically, they have to drink to avoid feeling bad.” People who drink regularly may also notice that booze doesn’t have the same effect on them as it used to. “With chronic drinking, the wiring element alcohol brain fog to your brain’s reward system can get worn out and lose some of its normal functioning,” said Pagano. “You build up a tolerance, and after a while, you don’t feel as good as you once did with the same amounts of alcohol.” Alcohol also lowers inhibitions and clouds judgment, which could lead a person to engage in risky behaviors like having unprotected sex or driving a car while drunk.

When an alcoholic quits drinking, these cells return to average volume, suggesting that some alcohol-induced brain damage is reversible. Behavioral and cognitive problems, such as behavioral changes, learning difficulties, and loss of IQ points, can develop as a result of alcohol use. Young people will need to pay attention to these effects in order to avoid short-term and long-term consequences. It is important to remember that your body is going through a lot when you first stop drinking alcohol. The brain is so good at adjusting to changes regarding what you put into your body that it figures out how to function during times when you are drinking heavily. Once you take away the chemical reactions that alcohol causes, your brain has to refigure out how to work normally again.

And they may have fewer
numbers of brain cells (i.e., neurons) or fewer neurons that are able to function
correctly, leading to long–term problems in learning and behavior. Women
are more vulnerable than men to many of the medical consequences of alcohol use. Studies
comparing men and women’s sensitivity to alcohol–induced brain damage,
however, have not been as conclusive. When a person stops drinking, he or she will experience a state of brain fog, which happens when the chemicals in his or her brain that are used to regulate emotions are disrupted.