Your Brain on Alcohol vs. Meditation

Your Brain on Alcohol vs. Meditation

When I first got sober, I felt like my brain had two settings: chaos or numb. For years, alcohol was the off-switch I used to calm my overactive mind. And for a while, it worked—until it didn’t. The peace it gave me was temporary, and the chaos it left behind was long-lasting.

Then I discovered meditation.

At first, I hated it. Sitting still with my thoughts felt like punishment. But the more I learned about what alcohol and meditation actually do to the brain, the more I realized why I needed to trade one for the other.

Let’s talk about your brain on alcohol.

Alcohol acts as a central nervous system depressant. It boosts GABA—the brain’s primary inhibitory neurotransmitter—and suppresses glutamate, which ramps up neural activity. That’s why a drink makes you feel relaxed or drowsy. Your neurons literally fire more slowly. It also floods your brain with dopamine, giving you that short-lived sense of euphoria.

But over time, your brain adapts to this chemical storm. It lowers its natural GABA production, reduces dopamine sensitivity, and increases glutamate to compensate. This creates a rebound effect when you stop drinking—anxiety, insomnia, irritability, and racing thoughts.

Now let’s look at your brain on meditation.

Meditation also increases GABA—but naturally and sustainably. It doesn’t flood your system, it gently raises levels over time. Meditation also increases alpha brainwaves, which are linked to relaxed alertness and mental clarity. These waves calm your nervous system without the crash that alcohol delivers.

And here’s what’s wild: meditation can increase gray matter in areas like the prefrontal cortex (decision-making), hippocampus (memory), and insula (emotional awareness). At the same time, it reduces the size and reactivity of the amygdala, your brain’s fear center.

Basically, everything alcohol pretends to do—calm you down, help you cope, make you feel good—meditation actually delivers. But instead of robbing your future, it invests in it.

Here’s what shifted for me:

• After drinking, I felt calm for an hour, then anxious for days.

• After meditating, I felt uncomfortable for ten minutes, then grounded for hours.

The more I practiced, the more my brain trusted that peace didn’t have to come from a bottle. It could come from my breath. From silence. From presence.

I’m not saying meditation is easy. But neither is drinking—not really. The hangovers, the guilt, the fractured relationships—those aren’t easy either.

What meditation offers is a long game. A way to rewire your stress response, regulate your emotions, and build resilience from the inside out.

You don’t have to be a monk. You don’t have to sit for hours. Start with five minutes. One breath. One moment of stillness. Let your brain begin to remember what it’s like to feel peace without chemicals.

Because your brain is always listening. And the more you feed it stillness instead of sedation, the more it will choose calm over chaos—because it knows the way now.

And that is true sobriety—not just staying away from alcohol, but building a brain that doesn’t need it.

Whether you’re new to meditation, or you’ve been doing it for a while, check out my SOBER Meditations that are made just for you! https://insig.ht/YcN6KEd4JTb You will need to download the FREE app Insight Timer to listen.

As always, you are free to email me and inquiries or questions at [email protected]