I am trying to understand how drinking alcohol through stressful times trains the brain to repeat this process again & again. I have read various internet articles, but I am unable to find a definitive answer. I have put together the following for an article that I am writing but I am not sure if I am correct in my thinking. Could someone please have a read & confirm whether I am on the right lines?

“As we all know alcohol appears to numb emotional pain. It is well accepted that the brain undergoes a “rewiring” process that is not complete until approximately 25 years of age. If at a young age, we have drunk alcohol when we experienced emotional pain & the alcohol numbed this pain, this process will be mapped out & recorded within our brains circuitry to be used later. However, this can happen at any age as the brain has the ability to change.

When we are mapping in the limbic system, we are mapping in the reactionary part of the brain. This is because the brain was designed to pay close attention to anything that repeatedly happens there as critical to survival. This includes facing strong uncomfortable negative emotional pain which can feel just as uncomfortable as physical pain.

Mapping in the limbic system keeps us from accessing the thinking part of the brain called the cerebral cortex, where we can pause and take a moment to decide whether the event is really an emergency. In Primitive time this split second of thinking could result in our death so the amygdala would take over within a split second. Therefore, we appear to have lost all mental defence & reasoning against the first drink.

So, basically when we are confronted by anything that triggers those uncomfortable negative emotions, such as anxiety, fear, resentments, guilt, shame, remorse and anger, our embedded maps of coping skills and behaviours kick in. The brain maps we wired to protect ourselves take over within a matter of seconds. We instinctively begin to desire a drink to try & ease the emotional pain.”