Alcohol can impair judgment, leading to poor decision-making and regrettable choices. Without alcohol, you can regain control over your decision-making abilities, leading to more thoughtful and calculated choices. This clarity of mind enhances your ability to evaluate situations and make decisions that align with your values and goals. Choosing to live without alcohol is an investment in your relationships, ensuring they are based on mutual respect and genuine connection.

Myths about Drug Detox

Consuming excessive amounts of alcohol increases your risk of suffering from poor sleep quality. At Sequoia Behavioral Health, we understand how intimidating it can be to take the first steps toward sobriety. That’s why our mental health experts are here to guide you along your healing journey and teach you how to live a life that’s free from the constraints of alcohol. In severe cases of alcohol withdrawal, someone may experience additional symptoms like seizures, hallucinations, intense tremors, and even death. Even just one bout of drinking too much may weaken your body’s germ-fighting power for up to 24 hours. Over time, large amounts of alcohol blunt your immune system and your body’s ability to repair itself.

Can Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Help Treat an Alcohol Addiction?

If you have 5-6 drinks in a single session, you can suppress your immune system for up to 24 hours, according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation. If you drink regularly, alcohol can also prevent nutrients from feeding your immune system. It also reduces the white blood cells in your body, making it more difficult to fight off disease. In a month’s time, though, your immune system will have the ability to recover.

The Benefits of Outdoor Activities and Nature in Addiction Recovery

Moore hypothesized that instead of causing cancer to develop in the first place, these findings may suggest that alcohol instead promotes cancer’s growth once it gets a footing in the body. To confirm this speculation, however, the team would need to conduct a long-term study of moderate drinkers, the authors noted in their report. Given how many variables there are, it is hard to define what happens when you stop drinking an “average” drinker. Two-thirds of adult drinkers, however, say they exceed these levels at least once a month, a 2014 study found. Understanding this connection between detoxing from alcohol and mental clarity can empower individuals on their recovery journey, promoting healthier decision-making and emotional well-being.

If you’ve been drinking for a while, you will probably be surprised by how much being sufficiently hydrated improves your health. Chronic dehydration can affect how you feel, how your skin looks, your hair quality and your overall well-being. By the first week after stopping alcohol, you will be more hydrated. The effects of being well-hydrated will continue to build, having more positive results as you continue sobriety. Before abstaining, the study participants were drinking around 13 drinks a day over 12 months, Vice reported.

Substance Use Treatment Centers

Your pores return to normal, skin redness reduces, and you’re less likely to get wrinkles from dehydration. In other words, you’re more likely to end up with glowing, healthy, gorgeous-looking skin. When you reduce alcohol and increase your water intake, you’ll increase hydration. When you’re hydrated, you have more energy to get through your day and more fortitude to say yes or no to activities that promote new goals and habits, like consuming less alcohol. While this marijuana addiction might not seem like the most important benefit on this list, weight loss is about way more than vanity.

• Chronic use alters motivation systems, leading to patterns of drinking that favor relief from negative emotions over the pursuit of pleasure.
• Improved sleep quality contributes to better mood and energy levels throughout the day, further boosting emotional well-being.
• “People often describe to me that they now realize how much the alcohol altered their behavior and relationships.
• When someone drinks alcohol regularly or in large amounts, their mind and body will go through changes to adapt to its presence.

• Your health and wellness is unique to you, and the products and services we review may not be right for your circumstances.
• Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
• Alcohol and heavy drinking can cause long-term, negative impacts on the brain, including poor memory and slower reflexes.
• Frequent alcohol use can contribute to weight gain and obesity in several different ways.
• As liver damage progresses, you could end up with acute alcoholic hepatitis, a serious, life-threatening inflammation of the liver, the result of which can be liver failure and death.

Since melatonin is a hormone that plays a pivotal role in a person’s sleep-wake cycle, also known as circadian rhythm, impacting its secretion can wreak havoc on a person’s ability to get some quality shut-eye. When people want to lose weight, skipping their favorite sugary foods or hitting the gym a bit more is often the first step. But since alcohol provides 7 calories per gram (compared to 4 calories/gram for carbs and protein), avoiding the booze can help reduce weight, mainly if your drink of choice contains a large volume of alcohol. Although it can help some people fall asleep, alcohol is known to significantly impact someone’s quality of sleep. When people go to bed with alcohol in their bloodstream, their sleep cycles and circadian rhythm get disrupted.