E99: Why We Can Never Drink Again (Neuroplasticity and Permanent Changes)

Gill discusses neuroplasticity. There’s an invisible line that we all cross, which marks the transition from social drinking into problematic drinking. The time it takes for you to cross the line depends on your genetics, how vulnerable your brain is to alcohol-induced changes, your life circumstances, how young you begin drinking, and more. Alcohol damages and changes our brains when we drink heavily for extended periods of time. Pathways are carved into the brain as we train our brains to rely on alcohol to socialize, relax, feel happy, or deal with hard times. In this episode she explains how alcohol changes the brain, why these changes are permanent, and how this influences relapse. She has some interesting studies to tell you about that looked at animal models of relapse after months of sobriety and how alcohol and other drugs encourage our reward system to have even more plasticity.

What to listen to next:

E46: Neuroplasticity Helps us Recover

E97: Why We Keep Believing it’ll be Different this Time

E62: Dopamine Deep Dive

E91: Do You Want to be Sober or Do You Want to Drink Without the Consequences?

E81: Why We Drink: Social Drinkers vs Problem Drinkers

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Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice.

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