Alcohol and Memory. Impact of Alcohol on our Memory

ALCOHOL AND MEMORY
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Alcohol and Memory
The use of alcohol has been a subject for debate for a long time. Some people are quoting its advantages while others pointing out the impacts that it has. Some of the benefits cited are mental and social. Mental include that alcohol helps relax the mind and helps someone refocus. When drunk, a person can numb pain they may be feeling. Hence they can think straight. Some people even go ahead to recommend it as a cure for stress and anxiety (Dry, 2008). Research supports such arguments to some extent but still points out the negative impacts. Common arguments in favor of alcohol abuse include where it is quoted as a ‘social drink.’ Alcohol is seen as right way for friends and family to get together and talk. It helps relieve the tension that maybe there, and people focus on speaking, catching up and even having some fun. The social aspect of alcohol can be seen as one of its most significant positive impacts (Field, 2008). However, despite the various benefits, alcohol has a lot of adverse effects. In this paper I quoted several negative effects of alcohol. What is alcohol?
Alcohol is a drink that contains ethanol, which, when taken causes tipsiness and drunkenness depending on the quantities consumed. Alcohol exists in various beverages that differ with the amount of alcohol in them (Saults et al. 2007). Wine has the lowest amounts of alcohol followed by beer, which has an average percentage (Kirchner, 2003). Whiskey, scotch, spirits, and brandy have high amounts of alcohol. The more the amount of alcohol in a drink the more effective it is. Ethanol is made from fermentation of various products, e.g. barley, grape, etc.
Impact of Alcohol on our Memory
Memory is the brain's ability to understand information, store it and recall it later on. It has three stages. The first stage is the encoding which is the process of data ready for storage. The storage stage keeps the information in the brain and the retrieval stage which involves retrieving the information at a later time when needed (Weafer et al. 2016). It can be divided into two major types, which are retrospective and perspective. The retrospective is long-term memory, while perspective is short-term memory. Alcohol affects the two types across the three stages in different measures. Impact of alcohol on: -
1 Retrospective Memory
Retrospective memory also long-term memory involves remembering things that have happened throughout our lifetime. It has a large capacity to keep significant information across many events. It can be divided into explicit memory, which involves conscious awareness and implicit memory, which includes unconscious knowledge. In explicit memory, intentional effort is used to recall such memories while implicit doesn’t require deliberate recall, but things seem to come through naturally. Alcohol has different effects on these two long-term memories.
* Explicit memory
Alcohol has significant effects on the encoding stage in the explicit memory. For example, excessive consumption of alcohol causes blackouts, which makes difficult sometimes eve impossible to encode information into the brain. Alcohol causes an increase in blood alcohol concentration, which results...