4 Hidden Costs of Drinking Beyond the Hangover
Welcome to Journey to the Sunnyside, the podcast where we have thoughtful conversations to explore the science of habits, uncover the secrets to mindful living, and of course, your own mindful drinking journey. This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the number one alcohol moderation platform. And if you could benefit from drinking a bit less, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free fifteen day trial. I'm your host, Hartenbrook, published author, neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome back to another one of these ten minute Mondays. And today I want to talk through something that I thought through in my journey quite often and experienced myself. And let's start with this. Most of us think about alcohol in terms of what happens while we're drinking. You know, did I say something dumb?
Speaker 2:Did I get on my phone and overspend on something? Was I too loud, too quiet, too emotional? And the next day, many of us are familiar with, of course, that anxiety, that regret, that self criticism. And yes, that is important. And we've talked a lot about that on this show, but that's not what I'm talking about today.
Speaker 2:I want to go one layer deeper into the hidden costs of drinking that shows up between the drinking sessions. So not the obvious hangover, not the morning after anxiety, but the way alcohol lingers and shapes who we are in the hours and the days when we think we're getting back to normal. And this is where I believe the real price gets paid in our moods, in our relationships, in the way our minds work, and even how connected or disconnected we feel from ourselves. So let's start with mood. We give a lot of weight to the embarrassing things maybe that we said while we were drinking.
Speaker 2:But what about the day after? Not the regret, as I mentioned, but the way alcohol changes your baseline. And there's good science on this. Alcohol interferes with your neurotransmitters, things like serotonin and dopamine. Those are the same chemicals that regulate mood.
Speaker 2:So there's a study by alcohol and alcoholism that showed that even moderate drinking leads to measurable mood disturbances the next day, and I'd argue even longer. That means it's very likely that you're shorter with people, you're less patient, you're more prone to being frustrated, and maybe that person cutting you off in traffic on a regular day would be no big deal, and all of a sudden you're really like fuming over that. Or maybe your kids are taking too long to get ready for school and you snap instead of guiding them. But here's where the subtle trap is, that you probably don't connect that reaction directly back to last night's drink. And I want to express that I'm not just talking about the next day.
Speaker 2:This can carry over for days, and we don't connect the dots. You might just think that maybe you're in a bad mood or even worse because it's so regular that it's just your normal. But alcohol is quietly shifting your emotional baseline. So you think that you're being yourself, but you're actually in recovery mode. And this is where I really, in retrospect, see how this affected my life.
Speaker 2:Yes, of course, like I worried a little bit about what I'd say or do when I was drinking, but it was really the day after drinking where I noticed that I was much different. And so sometimes it takes a zoom out to see that, but to me, that's really a hidden cost that rarely gets talked about. But that's only one of them, and I'm gonna cover all the ones that experience, in my journey, which is only one point of data, of course, that I have now realized where I was missing things. So the next one is the mental bandwidth. Alcohol takes up space in your head, even when you're not drinking.
Speaker 2:And neuroscience backs this up: alcohol dampens activity in the prefrontal cortex. Of course, that's the part of your brain that handles decision making, creativity, and problem solving. So even modest amounts reduce what's called cognitive flexibility. And in practice, that means that when your brain is recovering from alcohol, it's not connecting the dots. It isn't giving you those out of nowhere insights and solutions.
Speaker 2:And for me, this was really eye opening. And it wasn't until like the veil was lifted that I saw it because I thought I was being productive. Even if I was drinking in the evenings almost on an everyday basis, I still worked hard and I got everything done. But what I didn't see was what I was missing. The best ideas I ever had didn't come from hustling hard.
Speaker 2:They came from my mind when it was clear, when I was going for walks or listening to music or just sitting in silence. And that state of flow simply just wasn't available to me when alcohol was in the picture at the frequency and the amounts that I was drinking. And research backs this up. Studies on sleep and creativity, like one in nature, shows that REM sleep is critical for insights and problem solving. And as we know, alcohol suppresses REM sleep.
Speaker 2:So it's not just the hangover, it's the missed breakthroughs, which unfortunately we don't even know are missed because they never come and go. And that idea never surfaced because your brain didn't have that space. All right. The next hidden cost is mindset. Alcohol is a way of pulling us into scarcity.
Speaker 2:So think about it. When you're drinking regularly, so much mental energy gets locked into that one thing. You know, could I have done it different last night? Should I do it different tonight? How much should I?
Speaker 2:Shouldn't I? And how do I feel right now? And that scarcity, unfortunately, it narrows your focus down to drinking itself. And when I stopped drinking daily, the opposite happened. Suddenly, opportunities flow, not because I was hustling harder, but because I was open to receive.
Speaker 2:I got new projects, new ventures, even higher paying opportunities, and they just seemed to show up. Whether you believe in abundance and scarcity, I don't know. But it's certainly proof in the pudding in my life when that happened. And psychologists talk about cognitive load. So basically, how much mental bandwidth you have.
Speaker 2:And alcohol adds to that load. Your brain spends energy managing mood swings, cravings, sleep disruption, and recovery. And that leaves less capacity for noticing opportunities, solving problems, or reaching out to people. You know, that was one thing that I noticed I started doing. Like, I had this abundance mindset and that included abundance of my relationships.
Speaker 2:And I just started reaching out to people that when I was in that other state, I was so closed off. I was so in my head about that one thing. And all of a sudden, it just opened up. So the hidden costs here isn't just time, it's potential. And I believe alcohol steals the ideas that you could have had and the conversations you might have started and the chances you didn't notice because your headspace was consumed by this one thing.
Speaker 2:And the last cost I'll cover that I experienced myself and I think that others do is spirituality. So for me, alcohol completely shuts this down. And I'm not talking religion here, but I am talking about the connection to spirit. And so for my mornings, I would feel connected when I'm clear through journaling, through meditation, through breath work, or just sitting quietly. And if we want to go to the science on this and the neuroscience, alcohol disrupts the brain's default mode network.
Speaker 2:That's the system that's involved for self reflection and awareness. So without that clarity, it's a lot harder to access deeper thought, to access different parts of our mind and our connection. So when I drank too much, my mornings, they were pretty much gone. You know, they were off to the races. There was no journaling, no reflection, and just a lack of clarity.
Speaker 2:And without that clarity, there was no connection. But when I was clear, my mornings felt like an entirely different life, a different person. And I could sit with my thoughts. I could connect with myself. And it was like a switch.
Speaker 2:If I over drink the night before, it was off. If I was in my nightly wine routine, it was off. If the alcohol was off from that routine, it was on. And that ripple effect, it's huge. When you're grounded, when you're showing up differently, your family, your work, your relationships, they all change.
Speaker 2:And patience and generosity flow more naturally. And that's another cost that I found in my journey that alcohol hides. It cut me off from my own deeper depths and connections. Now, of course, I want to mention here, there's a happy medium in this. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
Speaker 2:It's when I was doing it way too frequently in too large of amounts, these were the costs that I saw on a regular basis. Now, when I changed all that, this opened me up to see all of what was going on. So let's take a step back. Yes, alcohol has costs while you're drinking. You say things that you regret, you might make poor choices, but the bigger costs are often hidden.
Speaker 2:So shorter temper and impatience, you know, that could affect your relationships. The blocked creativity and problem solving, that could have led to the next breakthrough. The scarcity mindset that closes the door before they open and the lost connection to yourself in your mornings. So if you only look at how you feel the morning after, I believe you miss the full picture. The real question isn't just how will I feel tomorrow morning about myself and more around how will this affect my entire day, my relationships, my creativity, and my connection to life.
Speaker 2:And for me, realizing those hidden costs changed the game. So this week, I'd invite you to pay attention, not just to how you're feeling while you're drinking and not just to the regret and anxiety the next day. Pay attention to the in between. Notice your patience, notice your energy, notice how your ideas flow or don't flow, and how your mornings or how connected you feel. And you might be surprised at how much alcohol might be costing you in other ways you haven't seen.
Speaker 2:Alright. That's it for this ten minute Monday. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a beautiful week, and cheers to your mindful drinking journey.
Speaker 1:This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the number one alcohol moderation platform. And if you could benefit from drinking a bit less, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free fifteen day trial.
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