Question: How does alcohol affect the brain and why do people get hangovers?

Nadine Mirza answered on 16 Nov 2018:

Hey Ekraj! That’s a pretty interesting question and I’ll try to do it justice!
So alcohol is “technically” a type of drug that comes under the category of depressants. Depressants are typically used to slow the body and brain down essentially (despite the cliche scene of people going crazy when they get drunk!). But as a depressant alcohol will slur your speech, lower your inhibitions, make your thinking process a whole lot slower, reduce your reaction speed and make your body move slower and quite unsteady. In moderation alcohol would not do any permanent damage- there’d be some bad decision making and your brain may not be able to store the memories you make while drunk or retrieve old memories which would explain people who can’t remember anything the next morning. When alcohol is misused (consumed beyond a normal amount that’s dangerous) it can result, among other things, in more permanent memory loss, reduced or no attention span and diminished gray matter in the brain.
As for hangovers- a hangover is basically all the symptoms you get when you’re severely dehydrated. That’s because alcohol contains ethanol, which is a toxic chemical that basically makes you pee a lot more than usual! So you end up dehydrating yourself and suffering the consequences the next day! Alcohol also causes acid build up in the stomach which explains the nausea and contains other toxic chemicals that contribute to the hangover in little ways.
Hope this answers your question!