How the Weekend can Effect your Brain

When applying to colleges there is so much that goes into the thought of what school will be your perfect match. Will it be the school that provides all you need and beyond in academics? Will it be the school that isn’t too far away from home? Will it be the division one school with the amazing sports team? Or will it be the school known for its top party atmosphere? And although this might not be why you chose your school, thousands of students have admitted to the fact that a school was a top party school aided in their decision-making. But what they did not come to truly think about would be the long-term affects when they accepted their offers of admission?

Whether it be your best friend, your sibling, a stranger, or even you it is easy to see the short terms of drinking. Slurred speech, drowsiness, vomiting, and blackouts are common among the ones I see at Penn State. The weekend ends and we get over what happened at the weekend and go to our classes and most likely repeat last weekend the next weekend. But what happens when the four years are over and we receive our diplomas and throw our caps up? What happens when we enter the real world? Thursday to Saturday are we really thinking about how much we are damaging our bodies long-term?

alcohol & the brain

Binge Drinking and continued alcohol use in large amounts are associated with many health problems. These include alcohol poisoning, high blood pressure, stroke, other heart related diseases, liver damage, nerve damage, sexual problems, permanent damage to the brain, ulcers, inflammation of stomach walls, malnutrition, and cancer of the mouth and throat. When someone drinks heavily it alters the chemistry in his or her brain. The chemical messengers that transmit the signals throughout the body control thoughts processes, behavior, and emotion. Another negative effect to the brain is memory loss. Memory loss is one of the most common symptoms associated with brain impairment due to alcohol. Some people struggle to remember things from yesterday, while some have trouble remembering skills, knowledge, or information they have learnt in the past. People with alcohol related brain impairment have trouble learning new information, focusing on conversation, retrieving information from the past, remembering recent events, and making errors when telling stories from memory. All of these negative effects would make it hard to manage a job.

alcohol-brain

So would having these symptoms make all that happened in college not worth it? If we are paying thousands to go to get a degree and then half a decade later we are not able to perform certain tasks due to the inability to understand new information and recall past skills? Maybe this weekend it is time to think of what we are truly doing to our bodies.

 

Sources:

http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/alcohol/short-term-long-term-effects.html

Click to access 174.pdf

http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/moderate-binge-drinking

4 thoughts on “How the Weekend can Effect your Brain

  1. cmh5996

    I found your post very eye opening! It is sad to say but unfortunately our time in college will eventually be over. I find that college students have the tendency to believe they are invincible and that even when we harm our bodies weekend after weekend that once we graduate one day we will just bounce back to our young healthy selves. Unfortunately that is not the case at all and your blog post does a phenomenal job of warning students of the not so pretty future ahead if they don’t start taking care of their bodies. So how many of us exactly are at risk to suffer later in life from our binge drinking habits? Check out this article to better understand the statistics that are behind college students drinking.
    http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/CollegeFactSheet/CollegeFactSheet.pdf

  2. ayd5332

    The picture showing the alcoholic 43 year old and the normal 43 year old is a very accurate picture that sums up your post very well. However, I am curious about those who have the desire to drink and party their college years but also know when the fun needs to end. Is it possible to have a great, crazy four years and be completely fine after? While your post suggests it is not, I know personally that my parents both went to Penn State and both hold wonderful careers now and only drink once every few weeks. So, I did some research on the differences between what is an average college drinker and true alcoholism. I found this link which I will post below so everyone else can check it out too.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/unwritten/the-fine-line-between-a-c_b_5636216.html

  3. nao5072

    I think that this post was very well written and interesting. Most people do not think about the types of long term damage that alcohol and drugs can have on the a developing brain. I hope that after some read this post they may be a little more careful with what they put in their bodies. Also, I wonder if similar effects can be shown for marijuana. They probably would not be very dramatic, but I do not think marijuana is good for a developing brain.

  4. Max Cohen

    Everyone knows we do stupid things when we’re drunk. But the stupidity doesn’t always stop when we sober up. Alcohol kills brain cells and and may cause serious brain damage. I like the picture of the alcoholic 43 year old vs. the normal 43 year old. It really helps to explain what can happen if you drink too much and/or too often. Very nice post.

Leave a Reply