Alcohol is the number one drug, and it has immediate effects on your mind and body.

When one is intoxicated, alcohol interferes with the ability to analyze sensory information, resulting in the symptoms of being drunk, including:

• Slurred speech
• Sweating
• Loss of judgment
• Loss of balance and coordination such as or loss of fine motor skills, staggering, swaying, or inability to walk
• Loss of the ability to judge distance and heights
• Dizziness
• Diminished Senses
  • dulled sensation of pain
  • speaking louder than usual
  • hearing difficulties
  • blurred vision
  • glassy eyes/dilated pupils
  • inability to focus
  • sleepy look, bobbing head
• Slowed mental processing
  • can only do one task at a time
  • forgetting things
  • losing their train of thought
  • Difficulties with: listening, following conversations, and/or understand what others are saying
• Sudden or unexplained mood changes
• Intensified emotions

Alcohol is also a diuretic, making one urinate excessively, which speeds up the loss of fluid from the body, causing dehydration. Most of the nasty symptoms of a hangover, including headache, dizziness, thirst, paleness, and tremors—are caused by dehydration. Alternating drinks containing alcohol with a bottle of water can help you avoid the effects of dehydration.

Physical impacts of alcohol

• Even though someone who has been drinking might look as if they’re in a deep sleep, they will not be getting restorative sleep.
• Consuming five or more alcoholic beverages in one night can affect brain and body activities for up to three days.
• Two consecutive nights of drinking five or more alcoholic beverages can affect brain and body activities for up to five days.
• Attention span is shorter for up to 48 hours after drinking.
• Even the effects of small amounts of alcohol (BAC of .03) can persist for a substantial period of time after the acute effects of alcohol impairment disappear.