Drinking And Driving Essay

774 Words4 Pages

When thinking of everyday things that occur in our lives that help or hinder our brain, I usually think of college students and drinking. Many harmful things can happen when these two are combined, but, many people expect this to be done because of the “college” stereotype. Alcohol is a depressant and affects the brain in an impairing way. A few things that occur mainly are drinking while driving, alcohol poisoning, and blacking out due to over intoxication. With drinking and driving, the brain is impaired starting from top to bottom. Judgement, concentration, comprehension, coordination, vision, and reaction time are all affected. (https://www.dwiminneapolislawyer.com/7-ways-alcohol-can-affect-your-driving-skills/) Most of these attributes …show more content…

This can lead to alcohol poisoning, in which the body cannot dispose of the high alcohol contents and begins to become poisoned by the toxicity in the body. A victim of this can have an array of symptoms that include unconsciousness, vomiting, seizures, and loss of coordination. (https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/effects-on-the-body/alcohol-poisoning/) Alcohol poisoning affects the entire brain, but can have major complications in big reasons. The hippocampus will be damaged, which is the central area for creating short term memories, and allowing recollection of previous memories. Once this is damaged, someone could not be able to remember a few sentences that someone had previously said to them just a couple of minutes ago. This can be noticed while the person is drunk, and after the individual had recovered. If the alcohol reaches the medulla oblongata, the person may not be able to breathe automatically, and the heart may not be able to beat as it should. This complication will result in immediate hospitalization being needed so that machines can do these functions for them since the body is too impaired to do it on their own. Once again, the cerebellum is affected and the body is “loose” as stated before. Walking and speech will be inhibited, and will result with the person walking irregular and speech being