Alcohol has been known to influence our minds and memory. Can we really forget something that has happened when we are under the influence of alcohol? How does it alter our brain? Alcohol can actually alter our memory in surprising ways.
Our memory works on three different layers: encoding, retrieval, and storage. Encoding is when we give our attention to something, take note of it, and recover it from storage after. So when we’re distracted or we don’t pay attention, we won’t possibly record it.
Drinking interferes with how our brains “encode.” Our motor function becomes slow and we feel more relaxed, social, impulsive, and emotional. Basically, our general brain functioning declines.
Alcohol affects how our brain encodes memories, which is why memory gaps happen and we then find it hard to retrieve and remember memories. You can’t also recover those memories once the alcohol has worn off.
But drinking doesn’t mean we forget everything that has happened since memory loss can be partial or complete. The right cues can help retrieve memories and if something important, traumatic, or interesting happens, you can still remember it because you were taking note of it since you paid attention.
Things are basically difficult to remember when you take in alcohol but when exciting and awful things happen, it can leave a lasting imprint regardless of the level of intoxication. Let us be responsible drinkers and hope that there would be more good and happy memories!
