Why Does Booze Make Us Happy?

The short answer:  Drinking alcohol triggers a feel-good response because it releases dopamine. 

What is Dopamine and why does it make us feel good?  Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that our bodies make so that our nervous system can use it to send messages between our nerve cells.  This is why dopamine has the nickname of chemical messenger.  Dopamine does a few things for the human body.  It plays a major role in how we feel pleasure and is a large part of the human ability to think and plan.  Helping us strive, focus and find things interesting. 

So what does alcohol have to do with it?  It is true that alcohol acts as a depressant but the varied and widespread effects to the brain means it is not so straight forward.  As the alcohol may depress activities in areas of the brain it indirectly increases activity in another area.  As the alcohol suppresses activity in the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes this makes us more incoherent, forgetful and less restrained while inebriated.  This suppression indirectly causes an increase of activity in the dopamine neurons which releases endorphins producing feelings of joy, pleasure, euphoria dependent on the activities that we are partaking in. 

Now in writing this article I am not telling everyone that they should go out and drink in excess.  Alcohol poisoning and being black out drunk is not fun or encouraged.  What I am telling everyone that reads these blogs is that you should enjoy a glass or two responsibly maybe even find that “Sweet Spot” where you are drunk but not too drunk and enjoy the endorphins our body needs to keep smiles on our faces.  I will end this post with a quotation that has always rung true with me.

“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink.  When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.”

– Dean Martin.

Sources:

https://www.livescience.com/36084-alcohol-releases-endorphins-brain.html#:~:text=Drinking%20alcohol%20triggers%20the%20release,to%20a%20small%20new%20study.

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-dopamine

https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2016/nov/29/drink-and-be-merry-why-alcohol-makes-us-feel-good-then-doesnt