What I mean by that is I’ve heard countless stories of people who say that when they are drunk, and something happens to, let’s say, a friend, and they can’t take care of themselves, they can “sober up” and handle the situation, even though they’re also just as drunk most of the time. Obviously, that’s not how alcohol works in the body, so what is really happening when someone can go from being in a drunken state to a sober, alert state almost like a flipping a switch?
In: Biology
Adrenaline plays a small part, but there’s a massive release of dopamine and norepinepherine (particularly in the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for decision making and impulse control) when you realize shit just got real. Those chemicals are excitatory and are more important than the adrenaline for “sobering up” mentally. This is why when you drink alcohol while taking ADHD stimulants Adderall or Ritalin, you feel a lot less drunk than you are, as they increase the amounts of those two chemicals specifically in the prefrontal cortex.
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