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Disorientation If someone has been drinking a lot they will be feeling slightly sedated and their senses are numbed, they may also be having problems remembering things so it is no wonder that drinking heavily can cause disorientation and confusion. The dampening of senses and other brain senses such as risk perception, logical thinking and reasoning will also affect the persons ability to make sense of the places or situations they are in which could be a potential risk to their safety. In the longer term there are certain disorders brought about by alcohol related brain damage and malnutrition where disorientation is commonly seen. (See Wernickes encephalopathy and Korsakoffs psychosis in Memory)
Disinhibition Most people will recognise that feeling of being a bit more relaxed, not quite so anxious and a bit braver or a bit more confident after they have an alcoholic drink or two and for many reason this increased confidence and reduced anxiety may be the reason they continue to drink in the future. Alcohol has a sedative effect on the brain and works by slowing down and stopping "normal" brain activity and functioning this process starts in the higher brain and slowly works back through to the deeper more primitive brain as blood alcohol levels rise. The disinhibition is caused by the effects of alcohol on the brain area associated with our anxious responses (see Anxiety) and the result can be more serious than just increased confidence. Even at the drink drive limit an individual will take more risks and feel more confident, infact someone is twice as likely to have an accident at this point.
Poor Judgment As mentioned above the sedative effect on the Central Nervous System leads to the reduced capability to make reasoned and logical thoughts or arguments, this may result in environmental cues being misinterpreted and may also lead to individuals making poor or risky decisions when they have had too much to drink such as going home with a complete stranger or getting into the car to drive.
Poor Impulse Control Another side effect of drinking and its action on the higher brain processes such as logical thought and reasoning means as well as making poor and risky decisions we are also more likely to follow our whims, such as spending £50 on that bottle of Champagne although you are already overdrawn at the bank. Alcohol takes away that self control through the reduction in our ability to rationalise, to build an argue or to get anxious over (or even consider) the consequences of our actions.
Poor Concentration & Co-ordination The higher brain that is the first target of alcohol's sedative effect is also responsible for intellectual tasks such as concentration and co-ordination and therefore it is no surprise that these skills can be effected after relatively few drinks. Our ability to judge distances or to process sensory information coming into our brain is disrupted and slowed, therefore our responses become less well adapted to the stimulus. The results of this maybe the inability to concentrate enough to follow or contribute to a conversation, it may also lead to an accident if driving and not concentrating fully on the road ahead. Similarly with co-ordination problems we may not be able to judge speed or distance which along with the disinhibition may lead to driving or walking out in front of another moving vehicle because the altered perception made us think we had enough time.
Reduced Mental Ability & Agility Alcohol affects the ability of the neurones in the brain to communicate with each other as effectively as they would in a sober state reducing our mental agility. This means that important messages take longer to get relayed, they may get misinterpreted and our usual subconscious ability to make connections by accessing other areas of the brain, i.e. memory, or making associations are compromised. Thought processes are sedated and therefore slower so resulting actions and responses come slower also, the inability to think clearly and concentrate severely reduces our mental ability.
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