What is the effect of alcohol on memory? Alcohol intoxication occurs after drinking alcohol-containing beverages as a result of impaired brain function.
Violation of speech, coordination of movements, distortion of vision and memory lapses – all these phenomena occur in the body after taking a certain dose of alcohol.
The more often a person consumes alcohol, the faster the state of alcoholic intoxication comes and lasts longer, and all this will lead to irreversible processes in the cerebral cortex.
The harm of alcoholic beverages becomes obvious, ranging from the usual forgetfulness of what is happening to complex diseases that are sometimes impossible to cure even in specialized clinics.
Memory loss with alcohol
- Often there are memory lapses after alcohol.
- A person after sobering up does not remember what happened to him, where he was, how he got home, with whom he talked, what he said.
- Complete or partial loss of memory after alcohol is alcohol amnesia.
- There are partial failures, short-term clouding of memory, especially often this happens if the alcohol is of poor quality or the person was hungry before drinking alcohol.
That is, a short-term clouding of consciousness is in most cases a banal alcohol poisoning, which is not an indication of alcoholism as a disease. In this case, most often, memory loss after alcohol occurs in such a way that a person does not remember events from some point until falling asleep. After sleep, such a person usually feels unwell, has an aversion to alcohol, he tries to recall events in his memory and feels a sense of shame.
People suffering from alcoholism, on the other hand, relate to memory lapses quite normally, even positively: I don’t remember, I didn’t control myself, etc. The thoughts of an alcoholic are such that any act committed in a state of intoxication and unconsciousness is not considered serious, since he committed in a mental confusion.
However, such lapses in memory do not lead to good things. A person suffering from alcoholism, being without memory, can commit a crime that he will not remember after sobering up. There are frequent cases of murder, violence, aggression from outside, who were unconscious due to the use of alcoholic beverages, and in the Criminal Code, the presence of alcohol in the blood when committing a crime is an aggravating circumstance, and not a mitigating one, as alcoholics believe.
Why does memory disappear after alcohol? Alcoholism is a disease that occurs in three stages. With frequent alcohol abuse in the first stage of alcoholism, a slight partial loss of memory appears – the so-called alcoholic palimpsest. This is such a violation of consciousness, in which there are no details, features, details of ongoing events in the memory. At the same time, the person remembers the events themselves. It is from an alcoholic palimpsest that amnesia and complete memory loss develop.
At the first stage of alcoholism, the patient develops an obsessive desire to drink strong drinks, nervousness arises, which can be calmed down only by drinking a dose of alcohol. At the first stage, the patient’s gag reflex disappears from an overdose of alcohol, that is, the body’s protective reaction to intoxication stops working.
At the same time, the aversion to alcohol that occurs in the morning after an overdose of alcohol disappears, and the ability to drink alcohol for several days in a row appears. At the first stage of alcoholism, a person still lives a seemingly normal life, but at the same time he is constantly looking for an excuse to drink. The weather is good, the weather is bad, any holiday, bad luck, stress – there is no reason not to drink for everything.
From the anticipation of drinking alcohol, the mood rises sharply, and a person receives moral and mental satisfaction from drinking alcohol. A person has a memory impairment when intoxicated.
In the second stage, the patient begins to change personality. Memory lapses become longer and more significant. You don’t remember anything after drinking. Especially the patient forgets his stupid, inadequate and ridiculous behavior, and he ceases to be ashamed of him.
In the second stage, the alcoholic develops a physical dependence on alcohol and a hangover.
Stage 3 is the most difficult, when a person completely loses control over himself, he can no longer live without alcohol, everything else fades into the background, alcoholic amnesia develops: memory disappears almost completely and for a long time. There is a complete degradation of the personality, a person falls into a binge, there is such a mental illness as delirium tremens.
How can I restore memory in the treatment of alcoholism
What is the treatment for alcoholic amnesia? How to regain memory after drinking? Amnesia of intoxication is associated with intoxication of the body after drinking. To get rid of alcoholic amnesia, you will first have to admit that there is a problem – the disease of alcoholism. And of course, the disease must be treated. You should consult a narcologist, who, depending on the stage of the disease, will prescribe individual treatment.
First of all, in the treatment of alcohol dependence, the desire of the patient himself is necessary. To restore nerve connections in the brain, doctors prescribe B vitamins in the form of injections at the initial stage and in tablets to maintain treatment.
Doctors also prescribe various nootropics and neuroprotectors to the patient to speed up the metabolism of brain tissues. With the use of such drugs, brain functions are restored faster. To improve blood circulation, vascular agents are prescribed that enhance the nutrition of the brain with blood and oxygen.
To restore memory in alcoholic amnesia, a special diet is recommended. Coffee, any alcoholic beverages should be excluded from the diet, and a lot of fruits and vegetables containing vitamin B should be eaten.
Like any other disease, alcohol amnesia is easier to treat in its early stages. It can be cured only by completely giving up alcohol.