What Happens When You Stop Drinking And Get Clean?

What happens when you stop drinking?

What happens when you stop drinking? It's a common question because problem drinking is a serious plague in today’s society.

Sometimes, it’s because people are looking for a way to escape their own bleak realities. In other cases, it’s because they’re exposed to alcohol at a young age and find it difficult to go on without its influence.

Regardless of the reasons they’re drawn to their poison of choice in the first place, many people strive to break away from their dependency on alcohol. Some succeed on their own while others need motivation. Knowing the benefits of not drinking can sometimes be enough to pull others through to success.

To help you in your journey of self-betterment, we’ve put together a list of how quitting your addiction can affect your body as well as your mind. Read on and know why quitting drinking is the best decision to make

1. The Risk of Cancer Drops

Everyone knows that heavy drinking is one of the most common causes of cancer. The reason for this is because alcohol is a harmful substance to antibodies responsible for keeping tumor cells in check. So, the more you drink, the more antibodies become targeted by the alcohol.

Often, your mouth, neck, esophagus, and stomach are the organs who are likely to have a growth occur. This is because they’re the ones who come into contact with alcohol first. You also have a chance of getting liver and intestinal cancer as a result of alcoholism.

Once you stop though, your body will be able to produce and regulate the antibody production. This means less tumor growth, leading to a decrease in the likelihood of cancer.

2. Your Moods Start to Become More Positive

People often drink alcohol to generate a numb feeling or what they call a buzz. They claim it makes them feel elated while they’re under the influence. This claim is true but they don’t accept they will end up feeling worse in the long run.

This is because alcohol dampens the neurons in your brain. This makes communication between your brain cells harder and causes you to feel numb. This will also prevent you from feeling certain emotions like joy and such when the effects of alcohol start to fade away.

Next time you’re reaching for a drink, stop for a moment and think. Is a temporary relief from stress worth the numbness you’ll feel in the long run?

3. You’ll Start to Notice You Look Younger

After a few days since your last drink, you’ll start to notice a change in your appearance. You may find yourself looking fresher and more attractive than usual. What happened to help this change occur, you ask?

It’s because you’ve stayed away from alcohol that caused this to happen. Alcohol is a diuretic; this means it helps you have an easier time passing urine. This is all well and good but the problem begins when you don’t drink enough water.

Alcohol will sometimes cause you to pass more urine than your body intends. When this happens, they take away some hydration coming from your skin. This will leave you with drier and less elastic skin.

Stopping yourself from drinking allows your skin to rejuvenate though. Collagen returns at a slow pace, making your skin elastic again. Hydration is also regulated once again, giving you a healthier physical look.

4. Losing Weight Becomes Much Easier

There’s always been a link between heavy drinking and obesity. The reason for this is because alcohol has close to twice the calorie count of carbs and proteins. In fact, it’s 2nd only to fat when it comes to caloric content per gram.

Not only that, but the body also processes alcohol as sugar. This means it holds on to it as it mistakes it for an energy resource. Later on, it will then convert it to fat and store it around your body.

The danger grows once the fat begins to surround your organs. When this happens, it can put a lot of stress on whatever organ it surrounds, more than the organ can handle. Organ failure is only a stone’s throw away from this point.

You should consider substituting alcohol with anything else for the matter. Water is the best choice but if you’re looking for a more creative alternative, all mocktails still carry even fewer calories than alcoholic drinks do.

5. Cognitive Functions Start to Improve

As mentioned above, alcohol dampens the communication between your neurons. Some people think this only means you have a slower response time than you should. Little do they know this also opens up other possible cognitive impairments.

For example, prolonged exposure to the effects of alcohol can lead to an individual having problems with their memory. For the most part, it’s only misinterpretations of past events. Heavy drinkers may experience a total loss of memory though.

Your focus also starts to wane as you continue drinking. This makes it so you have trouble whenever you’re presented with different options. Also, you have a shorter attention span even after the effects of alcohol leaves.

The moment the alcohol levels start to go down though, basic functions start to come back too. The first function you should notice to come back is your ability to focus. This is a good thing because this will help you stay motivated to stay sober.

6. What Happens When You Stop Drinking: Immune System

One of the best benefits of not drinking is that your immune system becomes better. The reason for this is because nothing will be there to suppress it once you stop drinking.

Alcohol does 2 things to make your immune system weaker. The first way is more direct as the substances in alcohol target the system itself. The moment your body digests and processes alcohol, the immune system weakens.

This makes it easier for foreign bacteria to invade your body and infect you with diseases. The 2nd way is by slowing down your white blood cells. They, too, become affected by the alcohol in your body.

This results in them responding slower to any foreign threats you get. What's good about this though is its effects only last while there’s alcohol in your body. Purging alcohol makes your immune system stronger as soon as it leaves.

7. You Can Worry Less About Heart Disease

Drinking alcohol has a negative impact on both your blood and your heart. Combining those together is a surefire way to have complications in your cardiovascular system.

Your blood becomes thinner as a result of drinking alcohol. This makes it so you carry fewer nutrients to the different parts of your body. Your brain then sends a signal to your heart telling it to double the effort to supply the necessary nutrients to whichever part of your body needs it the most.

Your heart can handle this task but with alcohol in the equation, there’s an added risk to your heart.

Alcohol can cause some damage to your heart once you introduce it to your body. It can weaken it by causing small tears to appear in the muscle lining of your heart. This can lead to many complications like a heart attack or even total heart failure.

8. Avoid Complications in Nervous System

Your cardiovascular system isn’t the only body system targeted by alcohol. Your nervous system is also at risk when you drink alcohol.

Mild cases involve a loss of hand-eye coordination. You can recover with ease in these cases, often only needing some therapy to get through it. Severe cases are sometimes irreversible though.

These cases often involve paralysis due to the decrease of gray matter in your brain and spine. This can also lead to several ailments like Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

If you’re starting to feel like your hands and eyes can’t work well together, you may want to stop drinking. Doing so may save you from a lifetime of serious complications.

9. What Happens When You Stop Drinking - Sleep

Many people believe drinking alcohol helps with sleep. This has some truth in it but for the most part, it only applies to moderate drinkers. Heavy drinkers though have it worse as they often don’t realize drinking gives them insomnia.

This is because being under the influence triggers 2 different brain activities. One such activity is the delta activity. This is responsible for deep sleep and increasing your cognitive capacity during it.

On its own, it’s a boon, but alcohol also triggers the alpha activity of your brain. This alpha activity only takes place when a person is awake. The conflicting activities make your body believe you’re getting rest when you’re awake.

This makes it harder for people to sleep as the body thinks it’s already had sleep not too long ago. This can mess up your sleep rhythm and may lead to insomnia.

What Happens When You Stop Drinking?

Life gets better, that's what happens when you stop drinking?

These are only some of the benefits of not drinking you can reap if you quit today. They all won’t come at once, so it’s best to get started as soon as you can. Get started today and reap the benefits sooner!

Looking for help with your alcohol problem? If you are, contact us here! We’ll help you reap the benefits of quitting drinking as soon as you can!

If you are ready to call time on problem drinking right now, why not click here and reserve your place on our next free quit drinking webinar?