Alwyshope12

Hi All,

I have been watching a lot of videos on YouTube about healing of the brain from addiction. The contrast of a vibrant healthy non addicted brain compared to a brain of someone who is using alcohol / drugs is nothing short of amazing.

But just as incredible is the brain's ability to heal itself. Even in 14 days of abstinence, the brain starts to remake connections. Of course it takes years for the brain to get back to its full potential.

I would like to see if anyone knows how the healing of the brain is affected by a short relapse (say 2 days of moderate drinking)? Has anyone looked into this, or am I just way out there with this question.

jazzfish

I have thought about this too. I think with moderate drinking, the damage is not too bad. However, in the early part of recovery you are really interfering with the generation of new cells and the way they differentiate themselves. Complete abstinence shows the best results and 18 months is the majority of improvement. It does continue to get better through year 6 or so.

Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration and Regeneration in Alcoholism | Alcohol and Alcoholism

silentrun

I know in order for the brain to undo the damage one has to be totally abstinent. I drank 3 drinks 3 months in and it threw me off for awhile. I seemed to progress in healing much on track with my original quit date. If in fact there is a normal progression which there really isn't. I saw people coming to the same realizations as I did at about the same time frame so that is what I am basing it on.
If you are talking about multiple moderate drinking sessions it probably would keep someone from healing. Everything I have ever read on it said complete abstinence.

Wholesome

Ohhhhhhh God..... what have I done to my body?! My liver is what I worry about the most, but now I'm creeped out about what I've done to my brain. I can feel the damage... sometimes words escape me and my memory isn't all there, I forget things. At least it appears that with time they will slowly repair themselves.

That was an interesting article thanks Jazzfish.

jazzfish

I looked back into this and did not find too much on moderate drinking and brain healing. The only thing I found was this:

"Neuropsychological results show the expected deficits in the executive functions of alcoholic patients as well as their amelioration with abstinence or reduction of alcohol consumption, respectively." (Click the quote for the article)

The other things I found on relapse are:

• Brain tissue volume gains are lost with alcoholism relapse.
• Humans who relapse do not show recovery of brain volume or cognitive abilities consistent with recovery of brain function and anatomy contributing to successful recovery from dependence.
• In the relapsers, lifetime consumption of alcohol predicted later vulnerability to white matter volume decline and third ventricular enlargement with resumption of drinking.
• Resumption of drinking after a short period of abstinence arrests third ventricular volume improvement and produces white matter volume loss.

The third point sticks out to me. While I might still heal with moderate drinking, I am also more vulnerable to future damage from drinking (not to mention being vulnerable to a return to alcoholic levels of drinking). Most the studies I have looked at consider only continuous abstinence. So, I suppose in the context of healing my brain, if I was to consider drinking I would have to ask myself...

jazzfish

And another one:

"In their analysis of the 13-month data, they separated those alcoholics who had maintained abstinence during the 13 months from those who had resumed drinking (albeit at a reduced level). They found that the abstainers had improved in learning, memory, abstracting and problem-solving, and verbal abilities, whereas the intermittent resumers had improved only in verbal abilities. … These results show that alcoholics who resume drinking, even at a reduced level, do not achieve the same gains in cognitive function as their abstinent peers and that even abstinent alcoholics do not fully recover their cognitive abilities after 13 months." (Fein, 1990)

Alwyshope12

Awesome information Jazzfish! This is really helpful. I can feel my brain getting healthier by the week.

Often the brain health is overlooked. And while it is true that alcohol does affect so many different parts of our body, the brian health is so vital to recovery, and it is tough to find good information out there.

Nothing is more important than abstinence to recovery, it is clear to me that the best and only path to recovery is to keep off the booze!

red3215

I haven't looked much into brain repair but it seems like there are things a recovering person could do to speed up the process such as eating certain health foods and working certain parts of the brain more...Despite my worsened alcohol addiction in the last two years, I've developed stronger concentration ability because I've worked on fighting my ADD and contentration trouble like never before and I notice the improvement...just one example.

But I agree total abstinence sounds like the best way to go

jazzfish

reladyslipper, there are two components to brain recovery: structural and functional. Structural is going to require time and abstinence. The functional attributes can be improved due to the brain's plasticity. To a degree, functional attributes can be improved whether you are sober or not (emphasis: to a degree). The alcohol damaged brain can compensate, somewhat, but the functions are far less efficient than in a sober brain.

LBrain

well it's good to know that drinking again is not good for me.
I did experience a noticeable change in my thought processes and cognitive abilities after around the eight or nine month mark. Coming up on thirteen months. Still experience some indecision about the direction I want to go. Still 'finding' myself I suppose.
Hopefully by the spring I have a clear direction in life. But I always have been kinda goofy anyway I think having been a drunk for all of those (35) years stifled my development.
Still stuck in my early twenties kinda... But with forty years of life left, I still have time to become a real person again.

Soberpotamus

You're a real person now, LBrain But I know what you mean.

LBrain

I mean, still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up

bigsombrero

Good topic. LB, getting sober for me was like unclogging a dam in a river. Once my brain started healing, a flood of information in the form of activated neurons poured into my consciousness. Was overwhelming at first. Felt like I was picking up where my arrested development left off at age 18 and I was progressing mentally through my 20's at a very rapid pace. Things started to slow down at about 1.5 years for me. I regained a little mental control and start steering the ship. At 2.5 years sober, I still feel that my development is going a little too fast for comfort, but I've learned to manage. I'm getting used to keeping up with my brain.

MIRecovery

While this discussion is academically interesting it boils down to one thing. The longer we quit the healthier we get. I suppose at some point the healing levels off but that is years down the road

jazzfish

There are two common determinants to brain recovery: age and time since last drink. In other words, stay sober and quit now.