Wondering what happens when you drink alcohol everyday?
This blog explores the outcome of regular alcohol consumption.
Boozing may be cool. You may feel like a part of the circle. However, your body doesn’t consider it cool. Instead, it has unhealthy effects on your body and mind. You may also have to suffer from mental and physical problems due to excessive alcohol consumption.
According to a report, intense alcohol intake led to almost 95,000 deaths each year in the United States from 2011 to 2015.
So, it is better to give up drinking than to have your name on the list.
While it is challenging to give up your drinking addiction all at once, gradual changes can help you skip unhealthy habits.
For instance, knowing what happens when you drink alcohol everyday can help avoid the habit. Let’s begin the article to find out more…
What Happens When You Drink Alcohol Every Day?
Too much of anything is bad.
In terms of alcohol, the popular proverb alters, even a little alcohol is bad.
Hitting the bar and placing an order for your favorite booze may just be a regular thing. However, your regular alcohol consumption is decaying your body as well as your mind at a slow pace.
You won’t even realize putting your health in danger. Only after a significant period do you observe the harmful effects of daily drinking habits.
Here’s what happens if you drink alcohol everyday.
5 Severe Physical Effects of Regular Alcohol Consumption
Drinking may be fun. But for your body, it is a disaster. You are putting yourself at great risk.
Boozing affects your bodily processes. Surprisingly, it can also trigger numerous health problems. Here’s how alcohol affects the human body and its severe effects.
#1. Inability to Stack on Muscles
Besides making you bulkier, booze hits your workout as well. Alcohol consumption interferes with your bodybuilding processes.
Even after working out for hours, your muscle gaining rate would be disappointing. Moreover, higher alcohol consumption decimates your testosterone production.
With a low t-level, your bodybuilding efforts face a huge setback. You are unable to have an effective bulking rate.
On the other hand, your workout hours go down. With insufficient effective workouts, your muscle-building rate reduces.
#2. Weight Gain
Drinking damages you inside out. It makes you consume an abundance of empty calories.
Undoubtedly, it is challenging to burn unnecessary calories off. Plus, it even slows down your metabolic activity. This triggers the fat-storage issue, which doesn’t help either.
Your body utilizes alcohol for energy. Instead, your body begins to store your meals in the form of fat reserves. It becomes challenging to eliminate excess body fat.
Also, studies have clearly shown how alcohol triggers weight gain issues.
#3. A Weakened Immune System
GI bacteria play a key role in strengthening immunity. However, drinking alcohol can hamper your disease-protecting system.
It can increase the risk of ailments like infection, pneumonia, and certain cancers.
Drinking alcohol everyday for 30 years has a further greater impact. It prevents communication between bacteria.
Eventually, this impairs immune response while increasing the risk of health issues.
#4. Digestive Problems
In the beginning, your gastrointestinal tract bears the impact of alcohol until it is absorbed in the bloodstream.
However, it triggers different issues in your digestive function. It hits your microbiome, mainly the healthy gut bacteria.
The imbalance in good and bad bacteria affects your stomach functions. The most common outcome of this interference is Ulcers and inflammation.
In many cases, drinking alcohol everyday for 40 years can cause liver diseases.
#5. Difficulty Sleeping
What happens if you drink everyday? Well, you’re likely to have a bad sleeping pattern.
Boozing may make you feel relaxed. However, what your body undergoes is a completely different tale. Drinking results in exceeding heartbeat and breathing rate.
This creates trouble while you try to sleep. It also doesn’t get you relaxed enough to sleep.
Moreover, it affects your sleep phases and REM cycle. You face a real-time sleep issue in the first place. Alcohol consumption even reduces melatonin production responsible for controlling the sleep-wake cycle. Henceforth, your sleeping pattern faces a significant setback.
People wonder— what happens when you drink alcohol everyday then stop? To answer, it does have a noteworthy impact on your physical health.
Recent psychological studies indicate various health problems. Depending on the alcohol consumption duration, the issues can be short-term or long-term.
Now that we’ve got an idea of how alcohol affects your physical health, let’s look into the mental side.
The Mental Effects of Alcohol Consumption
Earlier studies limited the impact of alcohol intake on physical health only.
Surprisingly, various research indicates its possible effect on mental health as well. So, it’s high time you start to question what happens if you drink alcohol everyday for a year and how it affects your mental wellbeing.
To date, researchers have explored both short-term and long-term impacts.
Here, let’s explore the possible shortcoming of alcohol consumption. The effects are prevalent in both a mature alcohol abuser and a beginner.
Short-Term Mental Effects of Alcohol
Alcohol abuse has immediate mental effects. Binge drinking doesn’t limit to minor harms only.
It can affect the balance of your mind. Here, you’ll find out the most common mental health problems due to excessive alcohol consumption.
#1. Anxiety
Alcohol abuse provides a quick sense of ease, but it is short-lived.
Of course, the short-term relief happens due to the chemical changes in the brain triggered by booze. It is just a dopamine rush. The more you drink, the more you feel relaxed. So, you drink even more.
However, quick relaxation shortens your capacity to face anxiety. When you aren’t full of booze, your ability to deal with real-life problems reduces. Henceforth, this exceeds your anxiety level even more.
#2. Behavior Changes – Violence, Sexual Assaults, Intimate Partner Violence
Alcohol abuse relaxes your mind but triggers involuntary responses. You don’t have control over your nerves because of the drunkenness.
This can make you do things you would regret later. And, in the long run, violence and aggression become part of the personality.
The short-term mental effects of alcohol abuse are clear. It can trigger various aggressive responses.
But, in the long run, such responses can become a part of your personality. As a result, your habit of boozing to fight off anxiety can even exceed.
So, now we hope you already are aware of what happens if you get drunk everyday.
Apart from the short-term impact, you may have to deal with the long-term impact of alcohol consumption.
The Long-Term Impact of Alcohol Abuse
The short-term effects of alcohol consumption can cause you trouble. However, what’s even more problematic is the long-term impact of drinking.
Here, you’ll find out the major impact of alcohol consumption in the long run.
#1. Depression
Various studies indicate a link between heavy drinking and depression.
Although it is challenging to establish or distinguish cause and effects, it is prevalent. In other words, drinking doesn’t trigger depression. But it may affect certain nervous functions resulting in symptoms of depression.
According to a study, heavy drinking can lead to depression. In contrast, stopping or reducing alcohol consumption can improve your mood. Plus, it is best to avoid drinking while taking antidepressants as it can lead to side effects.
#2. Suicide, Self-Harm, and Psychosis
As discussed above, alcohol tends to provide temporary relaxation. However, it causes a long-term void in your mental state. You can lose inhibition and begin to behave impulsively.
In various cases, it can result in situations like self-harm and even suicide. In fact, several studies discover a direct link between excessive alcohol abuse and desperate thoughts, suicide attempts, and death from suicide.
Moreover, intense drinking can trigger psychosis occasionally. The symptoms of mental illness include hallucinations and delusions.
It is the result of intoxication and withdrawal. And reducing alcohol consumption can help fight off the problem.
After going through the sections, you must have some clarity about what happens when you drink alcohol every day. Clearly, your drinking habits can have mental as well as physical impacts.
You can suffer from various health conditions as a result of excessive alcohol abuse.
However, it doesn’t stop at this point. You can even face mental issues.
The best way to refrain from the problem is to skip the alcohol. Or, if possible, limit your alcohol consumption.
To accomplish this task, you need to know how much alcohol is too much in the first place.
How Much Alcohol Is Too Much?
Everyone knows binge drinking is bad. Even drinking is bad.
The outcome of alcohol abuse is vicious, but completely cutting off alcohol is challenging. The only way to overcome the scenario, in this case, is to limit your drinking.
For that, you need to know how much alcohol is too much for you? Let’s find out the standard, heavy, and moderate drinking limits.
What Is a Standard Drink?
In the US, a standard drink is 0.6 ounces (1.2 tablespoons or 14.0 grams) of pure alcohol. Usually, this would be equal to:
- 12-ounces of beer (5% alcohol).
- 5-ounces of wine (12% alcohol).
- 8-ounces of malt liquor (7% alcohol).
- 1.5-ounces of 80-proof (40% alcohol) distilled spirits or liquor (e.g., gin, rum, vodka, and whiskey).
The standard limit for different drinks is given above. Now, it’s time to know how much alcohol is too much when you’re drinking.
What Is Excessive Drinking?
Excessive alcohol abuse involves binge drinking, drinking daily, and heavy drinking. It even includes drinking by expecting women or underage folks, i.e., people younger than 21.
#1. The most common excessive drinking habit is binge drinking. Here’s the limit:
- For males, 5 or more drinks in a go.
- For females, 4 or more drinks in a go.
#2. Here’s what is counted as Heavy drinking:
- For males, 15 or more drinks every week.
- For females, 8 or more drinks every week.
Though excessive alcohol consumption is concerning, these people aren’t alcoholics. Moreover, they may not be alcohol dependent.
What Is Moderate Drinking?
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans offer a clear guideline on drinking. According to them, it is better for adults of legal drinking age not to drink.
If they want to keep it in moderation, here’s the recommendation:
- For males, not more than 2 drinks a day.
- For females, not more than 1 drink a day.
This doesn’t imply non-drinkers should begin boozing. Instead, it is a recommendation stating less alcohol consumption is better than excessive alcohol intake.
While you know the amount of drinking in various conditions, some people should avoid boozing altogether.
Who Should Not Drink Alcohol?
Avoid drinking if you fall into any of the following categories.
- Younger than age 21.
- Expecting moms.
- Indulge into activities demanding skill, attentiveness, and coordination.
- People on prescription or over-the-counter medications, which may interact with alcohol.
- People with certain medical conditions.
- Folks recovering from alcoholism abuse.
Following the guidelines is important. It lessens the risks related to alcohol abuse. Of course, you won’t want to suffer from its consequences.
But how can you avoid the outcome of what happens to your body when you drink everyday? Let’s check out some tips.
How To Reduce Alcohol Consumption?
Alcohol consumption is a huge problem. Quitting it is nearly impossible for those who are addicted.
However, there’s a better way. You can reduce your alcohol intake. Gradually, you would find it easier to quit drinking.
Here’s how to reduce alcohol consumption…
#1. Maintain a Drinking Diary
Keeping a specified diary helps track your alcohol consumption. You should note down information about how much you drink and how often.
Also, keep a drinking goal. Compare both data. Of course, also make sure you aren’t exceeding your alcohol consumption limit.
#2. Noting down
Make notes of your drinking encounters. This helps limit your alcohol consumption. In turn, it helps you feel healthier and better.
#3. Set a Drinking Goal
You should limit your alcohol consumption. Try to drink less than the specified amount. And never exceed the limit.
Certainly, this will help avoid the consequences of drinking alcohol everyday for 10 years or even fewer years than that.
#4. No Booze in the House
To further limit your alcohol intake, it is better to keep no alcohol at home.
#5. Drink Slowly
Don’t drink on the go. Instead, take small sips. This helps limit your alcohol consumption.
After drinking alcohol, drink soda, water, or juice. It reduces your alcohol intake.
#6. Alcohol-Free Days
Plan your drinking days as well as non-drinking days. In a week, keep two non-drinking days.
You can even abstain for a month or a week. Certainly, taking a break from drinking will only benefit your health.
#7. Deal with Peer Pressure
Learn to say no. You may even want to skip drinking. However, drinkers around you won’t let you quit alcohol. The only way left is to practice saying no to drinks and stick with it.
#8. Stay Busy
Ignorance is bliss; so is staying busy. It can make you forget drinking for once. Instead, you can indulge in sports, eating out, watching movies, or shopping.
Or you can take a long way to free yourself from the temptation of drinking. Build a hobby. Learn to play a musical instrument or you can learn to paint.
#9. Watch Out for Temptations
Some triggers can exceed the number of your drinks. Avoid such situations.
Certain feelings can also make you go for it. However, you should monitor your feelings and learn to overcome temptation.
#10. Support is Necessary
Reducing alcohol consumption isn’t easy. Motivation and support from family, friends, and counselors can help. Ask for support when in need.
#11. Persistence is Important
The alcohol consumption reducing strategy is effective. However, you need to follow it rigorously. This is the only way to lessen your drinking habit.
Drinking too much alcohol symptoms are concerning. Alcohol consumption does no good. Of course, these strategies are the finest way to reduce boozing. At last, here’s a summary of what happens when you drink alcohol everyday.
The Wrap Up
Alcohol can be a part of your current lifestyle. Of course, it may appear cool to have colored glasses in your hands, and this may give you certain advantages in your circle. It may help you fit in and impress others around.
However, it is not good for your health, both physically and mentally.
You already have read and understood what happens when you drink alcohol everyday. It increases the risk of various health problems. It even affects your fitness level, triggering weight gain.
Moreover, it degrades your workout performance, making it hard to achieve bodybuilding goals.
On the other hand, it has both short-term and long-term mental health consequences as well. Studies found that it can lead to depression. In other cases, it led to suicidal thoughts too.
Thus, it is better to quit alcohol, but it is an unrealistic expectation from alcoholics.
On the other hand, you can always limit your alcohol intake. This helps avoid the consequences.
Did you find the blog informative? We would love to hear your thoughts down in the comments section.