Thinking About Taking a Break from Drinking? Here’s What You Need To Know.
Let’s be real: we’ve had a rough year. We’re heading towards more normalcy in terms of the pandemic and vaccination rates, but we’ve really endured the worst since last March. For many, that meant turning to alcohol to help cope with the uncertainty. Heavy drinking rose 41% among women during the pandemic, which doesn’t mix well with the fact that 37% of college students already engaged in binge drinking before the pandemic even began.
Now we’re not here to shame anyone who needed a drink or two to get them through the pandemic, but we are here to encourage those who are considering taking a cleanse from alcohol. Obviously, there are a lot of long term benefits of not drinking, like reduced risk for cancer and a healthier heart and liver, but there are also some short term ones as well.
Better Skin
All of us suffering from maskne are psyched about this one. Alcohol dehydrates and inflames your skin, which can leave your skin feeling dull and puffy (what a winning combo). Dehydration can make your skin looser over time, so by taking a break from alcohol you allow your skin to regain some of that elasticity that will make your face look tighter and younger.
Your Immune System Will Be More Effective
If you needed another reason to quit drinking during the pandemic, this is it. While stopping drinking won’t make you immune to covid (wear your mask!), it will make your immune system stronger making it easier to ward off colds and other illnesses. You know, the ones that make you question if it’s allergies or coronavirus… bye bye unnecessary stress!
Better Memory and Focus
Zoom fatigue has got as down, but as we gear up for exams we could all benefit from our minds feeling a little clearer. Alcohol affects two parts of the brain, the hippocampus and the frontal lobe. The hippocampus is the part of your brain that is responsible for learning and memory, and when you binge drink, it can actually cause the hippocampus to to shrink. The frontal lobe is the part of your brain that makes your decisions for you, and alcohol affects the frontal lobe’s ability to do that well. There are obvious short-term benefits, because when there is no alcohol in your system, you’ll likely make smarter decisions, but there are long term benefits as well. The longer you go without drinking, the longer the frontal lobe has time to repair which will make it easier to make better decisions over time.
Improved Sleep
Alcohol interferes with your natural sleep cycles, making it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. The lack of alcohol in your system makes it easier for your body to regulate its sleep patterns, and you’ll see more improvements the longer you are sober.
Help With Weight Loss
Binge drinking is very popular on most college campuses, including Elon’s, and it’s one of the easiest ways to consume a lot of calories that don’t do anything good for your body except get you drunk. While quitting drinking alone probably won’t do much for weight loss by itself, it will make your other health and fitness goals more realistic.
Gain More Control of Your Life and Mental Health
We saved the most important one for last. Alcohol and mental health are seriously intertwined. Alcohol is a super easy and normalized way to self medicate for things like depression and anxiety, but that can quickly turn into a cycle. Maybe you drank to feel less anxious only to wake up the next morning with severe hangxiety (hangover-anxiety). Hangxiety can be debilitating and you can ruin full days after a night of drinking. If you’re tired of feeling like that, taking a break from drinking can help you regain a sense of control over your life: no more worrying about what you did and said.
These are just a few small benefits of taking a cleanse from alcohol, but if you’re worried about your own alcohol use, we recommend reaching out to your doctor or calling SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.