Booze and the brain..

And we're back with some writing on the wall. Was rather busy and hence
resorted to photo blogging from the phone. Useful thing it is.

It's been awhile since I had a drink. Two weeks to be precise. Altogether too long in
bangalore. Where one's left with frustratingly few options of easy access entertainment. coffee? or grab a drink?

Anyway, here I am spending my day between coffee cups in the campus shop from the pleasant Mr Nagaraj and wondering how I'm possible gonna get over my guilt about not
finishing my reading, to go get drunk. hence the blog.

Ever wondered why you wanna drink? And some more? and get zozzled? Apart from sheer boredom, there's something about alchol and other drugs including coffee, which set off some parts of your brain (extended amygdala system) and confuse it with pleasure signals which normally should have come from food-sex-comfort. And sets off chemical
reactions 4 or 5 times as much, from say food. Why would your poor brain want to stop
drinking? Well because of some other brain areas which can plan, control and think
ahead & determine mood tend to moderate the same system. With time, brain also tries to compensate for the frequent highs by re-setting itself to a lower level. And in people who get hooked on junk/alcohol, due to certain genetic vulnerabilities, with one or more parts malfunctioning, one's enslaved to the need to have 'pleasure-signal'(dopamine) release with alcohol/drugs alone as food-sex-comfort is unable to
provide it.

And if one wonders why, the brain in its infinite artfulness has not had a control mechanism built in(to prvent addiciton, not drinking), like in many other parts of the body; one's on the slippery slopes of evolutionary biology. Theories are many, but simply put; drug addiction and the brain dysfunction that precedes it, increases chances of reproductive success though it decreases survival. That means that even if those genes are bad, they have a higher chance of getting passed on to the next generation coz the owners of those genes are more likely to be impulsively or intoxicatedly have sex. Thus fooling natural selection. And compared to early humans who jus had fermnted fruits, we have highly distilled spirits, thus diverting the external control over drinking.

BTW, IT SEEMS THE PUBS IN BANGALORE HAVE NO QUALMS IN SERVING LIQUOR TO KIDS UNDER 16 AND IF YOU SEE KIDS IN UNIFORM/FAR FROM LEAGL AGE, PLEASE COMPLAIN OR INFORM POLICE. Its largely cruel to allow impulsive insufficiently-myelinated brains to be exposed to alcohol.


Incidentally I refused to take a health insurance because the bastard who was selling it to me on the phone said that mental illnesses were social evils and hence ICICI did not wanna cover it. Sucky money grubbing bastards. Er.. it also came into consideration that they failed to cover cosmetic surgery.

have a great weekend, and i'll see how I can indulge in some moderate drinking.


Osho