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Alcohol + Brain: The Teeter-Totter Effect Explained

11 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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Amber Hollingsworth explains how heavy drinking forces the brain to adapt. Alcohol depresses the nervous system, so the brain compensates by ramping up excitatory signals like glutamate to rebalance itself. Over time, the brain rewires around this new baseline, creating dependence.

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When alcohol shows up regularly, your brain starts adjusting around it. Think about your nervous system like a teeter-totter, right? Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, meaning it slows down the activity in your brain. Picture it adding weight to one side. Your brain wants to keep things balanced. So if you're drinking heavily and regularly, it starts adding a counterweight to the other side, turning up the signals that get you keyed up and adjusting the signals that calm you down. One of these stimulating chemical messengers is called glutamate. Don't worry, you don't need to remember the name. This is the part of the brain's get-up-and-go system. Over time, your brain gets used to balancing things with alcohol on the other end.