How Does Alcohol Affect the Adolescent Brain

In “Scientists try to assess the impact of binge drinking on the brains of teens,” The Washington Post chronicled scientific exploration into binge drinking. According to the article, binge drinking can be defined as drinking five alcoholic drinks in two hours if you are a man and four in that same time frame for a woman, but one study found that incoming college students consumed twice that much.

Excessive use of alcohol takes a toll no matter what your age, however, adolescents who engage in binge drinking may not realize that they could be altering their development.

Starting at age 12, the human brain starts to decide what it really needs and what it doesn’t, fine-tuning the connections between neurons. The work the brain does at this time leads to clearer thinking and alcohol can interfere with this process.

“It is a very potent depressant that goes everywhere and affects every system,” said Marc Schuckit, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego and editor of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. “It affects every neurochemical system in the brain.”

According to scientists, “alcohol disrupts the workings of the frontal lobe, important in coordinating brain functions and modulating reasoning, intelligence and impulses.” Parents and those who work with teenagers often cite a lack of reasoning and an overabundance of impulsive behavior as why they seek to limit teenagers’ freedoms. So you can only imagine what happens when alcohol impairs an already impulsive teen mind.

Alcohol also impairs memory in ways that may not be readily apparent. The article also notes that it is possible for a teenager to engage in heavy drinking, remain conscious and continue to function in a seemingly normal way…however what that person may not realize is that they have damaged their memory. Instead of passing out, that person’s brain does not register new memories, so while they remained conscious while binge drinking, they will not be conscious of what happened during that time.

Whatever damage alcohol may have done, addiction recovery is still possible if a person is willing to work on it. At Transitions, helping people through their recovery journey is our main objective. We strive to produce realistic and high quality results. When developing a recovery plan for any one of our customers, we think long term.

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