Excessive eating is one way to temporarily boost those dopamine levels and make you feel better, but it can easily become a transfer addiction. Also, some people experience post-acute-withdrawal syndrome, or PAWS, which is emotional numbness resulting from low dopamine levels. Eating too much sugary food is an easy way to gain weight. This persists even after you quit drinking, which means people recovering from alcohol use disorders often crave sweets. Alcohol triggers an insulin response just like sugar, and the increased insulin levels keep your blood sugar low. First, the vast majority of people with alcohol use disorders have chronically low blood sugar. You might gain weight.Īlthough most people lose weight after they quit drinking, some people gain weight. It could be that alcohol stimulates the hypothalamus, increasing your appetite. There are also studies that suggest you eat less when you quit drinking. Often, they don’t even have to try to lose weight it’s just a natural consequence of cutting a huge source of empty calories and letting their bodies rebalance their hormones. Most people find they lose weight pretty easily once they stop drinking. And it’s not only the calories that make you gain weight excessive drinking also changes your balance of hormones, making fat more stubborn. That’s not so much if you only have one drink, but if you’re drinking even three drinks a night, that’s more than 2000 extra calories a week. One glass of wine, for example, has more than 100 calories, a vodka martini has about 130 calories, and your average can of beer has about 150 calories. You lose weight.Īlcohol has loads of empty calories. However, even conditions like alcoholic hepatitis will start to improve when you quit drinking. The only exception is if you’ve already developed cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver, in which case you need a transplant. The good news is that your liver is a resilient organ and it can recover quickly once you stop drinking. While most people don’t develop liver disease until they reach their 40s or 50s, fatty liver can start developing pretty quickly, impairing liver function.

Your liver takes a beating when you drink. Here are some good things–and some not so good things to prepare yourself for–that happen when you quit drinking. It’s hard to commit to quitting when you think of it as giving something up, but it’s a little easier when you think of what you get in return. It might help you relax, cope with emotional pain, or maybe you just really enjoy it. The costs of drinking might be apparent to you, but no one drinks without getting something out of it. Whether you have an alcohol use disorder or you just feel like it might be a good idea to cut back, you may feel conflicted about quitting alcohol. Omega West – Tech Addiction and Mental Health.Intensive Outpatient Addiction Treatment Program (IOP).Partial Hospitalization Addition Treatment Program (PHP).Mental Health & Substance Use Disorder Treatment

I quit alcohol four years ago