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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
Change your relationship with alcohol in just 30 days Informative, relatable and thought-provoking, Last Drinks is a deep dive for the sober curious that invites you to enjoy a more balanced and fulfilling lifestyle. Maz Compton, celebrated TV personality, radio host, and podcaster -- and sober since 2015-- delivers honest, science-backed information about how cutting back your alcohol intake can improve your everyday life. Maz and her interviewees reveal candid, deeply personal stories about how and why they decided to stop drinking. Working with a range of health experts, Maz also shares practical strategies for reframing your relationship with alcohol. Her unique Sober 30 Plan will help you kick-start your sobriety in just 30 days. Last Drinks unpacks how alcohol affects the mind and body, questions the cultures and norms around drinking and identifies the common signs that habitual drinking might be negatively impacting you. * Find motivation and encouragement through inspirational stories shared by those who have been there and gotten sober, including from well-known Australians like Osher Günsberg, Yumi Stynes, Alexa Towersey (aka Action Alexa), David Campbell, and Matt Agnew. * Identify and articulate your relationship with alcohol using practical activities and a straightforward self-assessment. * Curate a personal Sobriety Toolkit of strategies and tips that will set you up for sober success. * Get a comprehensive Sober 30 Plan (approved by addiction experts!) that will guide and help you through your first thirty days of sobriety. If you are seeking a way to be more present, less dependent, and more proactive in managing your wellbeing, Last Drinks is the guide that will help you unleash your sober superpowers.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
My last drink
Introduction
Thriving without alcohol
Part I: The truth about alcohol
1 Alcohol is the problem
Alcohol is everywhere
Some facts about alcohol
2 The impacts of alcohol
Alcohol and you
Alcohol and your brain
Alcohol and your body
Alcohol and sleep
Alcohol and cancer
Notes
3 Assessing alcohol
Problematic drinking
Warning signs
Sobriety superpower: journalling
First drinks to last drinks
If alcohol was a person
The impact of alcohol
The catalyst (spoiler alert: someone dies)
Part II: Sober curiosity
4 Sobriety is the solution
Memories of alcohol
The write decision
Our habits … and rabbits
5 Sobriety is a superpower
Sobriety is self-care
Sobriety is self-worth
Sobriety is letting go
So, what are your rice and beans?
Sobriety is dealing
All the feels
I guess I'm not going to drink again
6 Your Sober Toolkit
Sober synopsis
Your Sober Toolkit
Part III: Your last drink
7 Setting up for the Sober 30
8 30 benefits in 30 days
Day 1
Note
Day 2
Note
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28
Day 29
Day 30
Final words
Additional resources
Further resources
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1: the cognitive triangle
Figure 2.2: how neurons communicate
Figure 2.3: the reward pathway in our brain is activated by glutamate and do...
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
Introduction
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Final words
Additional resources
Index
End User License Agreement
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First published in 2023 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd Level 4, 600 Bourke St, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
© Super Rad Productions Pty Ltd 2023
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
ISBN: 978-1-394-18423-1
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.
Cover design by Alissa DinaloFigure 2.2: Image: © ttsz/Getty ImagesFigure 2.3: Image: © Blamb/Shutterstock
DisclaimerThe material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.
Preface
The term ‘sober curious’ — choosing to avoid alcohol for personal or wellness reasons — didn't exist in 2015 when I started my sobriety journey. The brilliant and articulate — *cough* — way people reacted when I told them I was ‘just not drinking right now’ included …
‘You're what?’
‘Get f**ked Compton?’
‘When did you become so boring?’
‘Call me when you get back on that wagon.’
None of this was helpful.
I wasn't chaotic. Nothing terrible happened. I didn't do anything outrageously ridiculous. I just wanted to dance until the break of dawn and sometimes I'd overshare on Twitter. From the outside looking in, I was functioning. I was fine. My unravelling was slow and steady. In fact, I thought my story was quite unique. I wanted to stop drinking and I had no idea how to, so I kept drinking, always hoping the next day would be different. But it wasn't.
As it turns out, my story isn't unique; it's everywhere. Each day was a murkier version of the previous one. I was caught in a battle between two voices in my head: the voice that begged me to stop drinking, and the voice that shouted louder, frustrated at the thought of needing to stop, because if I needed to stop and couldn't, then maybe I did have a drinking problem after all. Sound familiar?
In her book The Lies About Truth, Courtney C Stevens wisely writes, ‘If nothing changes, nothing changes. If you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to keep getting what you're getting. You want change, make some.’ I kept carrying out the same behaviour and expecting a different result. I kept drinking and hoping to feel better, to find peace, to be able to relax, for the anxiety to dissipate. But the blame-shame cycle ended up driving me slightly batty. I was doing my own head in. For things to change, guess what? Something needed to change. So, I made the brave, bold decision to change my drinking behaviour, just for a month, to see what was on the other side of my last drink. And it turns out, that was an excellent decision. By redefining my relationship with alcohol, I redesigned my life.
My last drink
My last drink was on New Year's Eve, 2014. It was at the end of a very long New Year's Eve lunch that peaked with my polishing off a bottle of champers with my boyfriend. Perfectly positioned under the Sydney Harbour Bridge at a VIP party. Baby, you're a firework. From what I remember, we had a good time. Getting home from the city with tens of thousands of other enthused and boozed party people was, from what I remember, frustrating. We eventually caught a taxi and crashed at a hotel in the early hours of a new year. Oh, what a night. We woke up at lunch time and ate pizza.
Triple cheese. Thanks for asking.
My first day of sobriety was relatively easy. Holed up in a fancy hotel with the air-conditioning on 21 degrees Celsius, ordering room service, afternoon catnapping and binge-watching Netflix. We had nowhere to be and nothing to do. Happy New Year. The next day was similar, but it started with a morning ocean swim. I'd just relocated to Sydney from Melbourne to start a new job and along with the move for an amazing career opportunity came the evolution of my relationship status from long-distance to the post-honeymoon phase of our courtship.
Those first two days of sobriety were a cinch, and then it was really really hard.
But I did it.
And I haven't had a drink since.
Introduction
For the most part, my adult life was one big manifestation of greatness, but my world spun on an axis where everything involved alcohol. I remember thinking to myself in 2014, ‘How can anyone exist in a world obsessed with alcohol, without alcohol?’ That was my year of sober curiosity and the final year I drank alcohol. At the time though, not drinking seemed like a terrifying thought, an outrageous, rebellious act, an impossible quest.
In 2014 I drank … a lot. What's a lot, you ask? Most days, a bottle of wine, sometimes more. You know, all the stereotypical incidents depicted in the movies about ‘raging alcoholics’. People who are out of control, who have major drinking problems. They act out, end up in prison, ruin their families and for some reason they don't seem to have shoes. Well, none of that happened to me. I had my life in check. I had plenty of shoes. My drinking habits didn't find a rock-bottom moment. I didn't hurt anyone or do anything crazy.
You see, I was working in my dream job in media, living in a dream town in Melbourne and I had met my dreamy future husband that same year. It was all good — at least on paper. And so, yes, I drank a lot. So what? I drank after work, but never in the morning. I always got myself home safely after a night out, and even though I sometimes didn't remember the taxi ride home, I was okay, so it was okay. Right? I had these invisible boundaries to help prove to myself, and anyone who asked, that I didn't have ‘a drinking problem’. No-one wants to admit they have ‘a problem’ with anything, especially alcohol and especially me.
Is this story starting to feel familiar?
In 2014, towards the winter, I started going out less, and staying in more, but I kept up my daily quota of empty calories by drinking. After work I'd go to a hip-hop yoga class or maybe the gym, drive home via the drive-thru bottle shop, and buy a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a Pinot, just in case. I'd walk through my front door — brown paper bags under one arm, handbag in the other — kick off my fabulous shoes, undo my bra strap, sigh loudly and pour a glass of wine. I would finish the bottle while I did normal stuff like shower, cook or order dinner, and decompress from the day. At some point I'd get myself into bed and fall asleep. My apartment was my sanctuary, a place where I could hide away and relax, and the wine helped. Sometimes I'd leave the heater on. Sometimes I'd sleep in my clothes. Usually I'd wake in the middle of the night, have some water, change into my pyjamas and go back to sleep only to wake up minutes later needing to pee. This was my routine. This was my normal. The next day I would get up, shake it off, start again, try again, say I wasn't going to drink again, go to work and begin the cycle again.
I had a busy radio job, one that I love love loved! I hosted the National Drive Show in 2014. I had an excellent executive producer, and an extraordinarily demanding work schedule. You see, I had to keep it together. I couldn't have a problem. I didn't have time for that. If people found out, it would be my undoing: the shame, the judgement, the headlines. The fear of my drinking secret being exposed crippled me into hiding it — my secret shame. To feel like I had control in my over-planned and structured-to-the-micro-second schedule, I drank. At least I could control that … until I couldn't anymore.
You see, I didn't have a problem with alcohol.
Alcohol was the problem.
My relationship with alcohol had become problematic.
In 2015, I embarked on a month-long self-experiment, a very casual stroll into sobriety. I had been questioning my drinking behaviour for years. It was clear I had developed a dependence. I didn't hit rock-bottom; I arrived at a crossroads.
If you have picked up this book, or it has been carefully placed in an obvious location in your house by a loved one, you too might be questioning your relationship with alcohol. That's okay. I've been there: it's called ‘sober curiosity’ and no, there isn't anything wrong with you. Somehow your relationship with alcohol is out of balance. It's having a negative effect despite your best efforts to keep a handle on it. You can function, right? You get by okay. But there is a voice in your very busy head questioning if maybe you need to stop. And you have no idea how to.
And aren't you exhausted?
I was.
I was so exhausted.
On paper my life looked like a dream, but in the privacy of my tiny apartment in Melbourne, I was living in a nightmare. You might be able to relate to that — you might be disliking your situation as much as I did.
Thriving without alcohol
This book is designed as a guide to help you discover a new approach to life, one where you are free from alcohol. It showcases how you can live a sober life and love it. I wrote this book to help you solve the internal conflict that you are tired of hearing on repeat and to equip you with practical tools for thriving without alcohol, so you can create a life that loves you back and showers you with inner peace. A life without alcohol will lead to your happiest and healthiest days. Now, can you please do me a favour? Can you please take everything you think you know about alcohol, your relationship with it and what it does for you, and in your mind place a big fat question mark there so we can explore the other side of what you think you know? Keep an open mind.
Can you do that? Yes, yes you can.
This book has been curated with the clear intention of helping you rediscover your strength. It's time for you to rewrite your own rulebook about alcohol and take flight into a new season of life. Included are inspiring stories of overcoming alcohol, embracing sobriety, hearts being healed and purpose being birthed, as well as alcohol facts and stats presented by several experts in their field.
In the pages of this book, you'll find sobriety stories, which are excerpts from some of the conversations I have engaged with on my podcast, ‘Last Drinks’. Full episodes are referenced in ‘Your Sober Toolkit’ at the back of the book should you wish to listen to them. The stories presented about alcohol and sobriety are reinforced with these candid, honest, real stories.
In addition you'll have an opportunity to curate your personal Sober Toolkit, which will equip you with tools to set you up for successfully achieving sobriety. Along with this I've included activities that will help you discover a clear intention for your sobriety.
Congratulations on your bold choice to begin a process of self-learning, awareness and change for your own betterment. There is a saying, mostly attributed to Buddha, that states, ‘When the student is ready, the teacher will appear’. I believe this to be most appropriate when tapping into sobriety, and a key concept to keep in mind when assessing change management. As a student of sobriety, you will find lots of learning, exploration, uncovering and growing. So many wonderful and challenging things lie ahead. Welcome to the adventure.
Disclaimer: The doctors consulted for this book are medical professionals. However, it is advisable to seek an appointment with a medical professional for your personal circumstances. The advice offered in this book is general.
Part IThe truth about alcohol
In part I we'll get a clear understanding of alcohol by defining terms associated with alcohol, exploring scientific facts about the role alcohol plays in our morbidity — as well as its impact on people and society — and identifying some key behaviours associated with drinking.
1Alcohol is the problem
In this chapter I will put together the case for why alcohol is the problem. There is a stigma attached to narratives about alcohol in our lives: denial, downplaying and deflection. And there is a major oversight when assessing the true and very real effects alcohol has on individuals, families and society at large.
Our cultural relationship with alcohol is completely dysfunctional and the amount of trauma, pain, violence and death this drug causes in our community is horrifying. I'm not saying everyone should stop drinking. I would just like us to have a decent conversation about its impacts.
Osher Gűnsberg — TV and podcast host, sober since 2010
Our culture has been founded on and built around the consumption of drinks: every emotion on the spectrum, every event on the calendar. There is always an excuse for ‘drinks, tipples and drinky-poos’. In our modern-day Western society, drinking is normal. You can smash beer at a BBQ, champers at a celebration, gin after golf, daiquiris after dark. We have pre-mixers, cases, cans and nightcaps. The alcohol industry is worth billions of dollars.
Australia's culture obsession with alcohol can be traced back to the First Fleet. A quick history lesson: when the First Fleet set off from England on 13 May 1787, Arthur Phillip — the first governor of New South Wales — insisted on bringing two years' worth of carefully rationed food for the new settlement, and four years' worth of rum. Our society has long been saturated in booze. In fact, alcohol has been a type of currency in Australia since its earliest documented times so it's no wonder there are groups of people and individuals in our society who are struggling with their relationship with alcohol.
And by 2014, I was one of them.
Alcohol is everywhere
The portrayal of alcohol as necessary for fun times has overshadowed the truth about alcohol. This has created a narrative that overlooks the dangers of alcohol and its many impacts on individuals and families, and across communities. Drinking too much alcohol can lead to any number of short- and long-term effects, be they physical, emotional, social or mental. In the media industry I saw firsthand how alcohol was the glue for social engagements, launches, press tours, gigs, concerts, events and the wrap party, where everyone could let their hair down after a job well done. It is considered normal to drink to mark the joy of a good day, the middle of a long day, the end of a bad day, a Monday-to-Friday or a Saturday-and-Sunday. Our social interactions go hand in hand with an expectation of alcohol at every gathering, despite the depth and range of adverse impacts alcohol causes.
Sometimes when I drank, I would only have a few drinks; other times I would drink the bar dry. My hangovers would range anywhere from bearable to barely able to open my eyes. In my 20s a beer would give me a buzz, but when I was closer to midlife, I needed a bottle of wine to get the same feeling. As my tolerance for alcohol increased, my bounce-back bottomed out. Over time my relationship with alcohol shifted from tolerable to total train-wreck. Drinking became how I engaged in my entire life. It's how I was able to exist in the world I created, and it felt totally normal.
We live in a more understanding society. There is a level of acceptance now about sobriety and things are changing with the sober curious movement. People are more understanding of why people are not drinking alcohol.
Victoria Vanstone, alcohol-free living advocate
At first glance, drinking behaviours in society are categorised in a very black-and-white way: either normal and inconsequential or abnormal and consequential. Someone's drinking is either carefree with zero negative effects or uncontrollable and dangerous. Not for me though. I was very much in the grey area of the spectrum of drinking behaviour: it wasn't working for me, but it wasn't ruining my life.
Some facts about alcohol
Consider these facts about how alcohol affects our health and life that you might not be aware of:
Alcohol kills one person every 10 seconds worldwide.
Alcohol is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Alcohol is linked to 5.3 per cent of deaths worldwide, or approximately 3 million people a year.
Alcohol is a causal factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions.
Let's take a closer look at what alcohol is and how it can impact us.
What is alcohol?
Put simply, alcohol is a poison. Alcohol refers to a variety of drinks, including but not limited to beer, wine or spirits, that contain a chemical known as ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. Yes — that's the same stuff that you put in your car. In its simplest explanation, alcohol is a mood-changing substance that can be categorised in the ‘depressant’ category of drugs. Yes — it is a drug. A depressant doesn't directly cause depression; however, it slows down and inhibits the central nervous system. According to healthdirect, for some people depression can be a mood side-effect linked to alcohol consumption.
What does alcohol do?
Alcohol has myriad negative impacts. It has been proven to have significant negative impacts on society and the economy. Once consumed, alcohol can cause havoc on a person, impacting mental and physical health, as well as on relationships and cognitive function. Alcohol is a psychoactive substance with dependence-producing properties, and it can cause many different diseases.
How does alcohol affect the body?
Did you know that alcohol isn't digested in the body? When you have a drink, the alcohol passes quickly into your bloodstream and travels to every part of your body. Alcohol affects your brain first, then your kidneys, lungs and liver. Its effect on your body depends on your age, gender, weight and the type and amount of alcohol consumed. It will generally take your body an hour to break down the alcohol content of one standard drink. And, in case you were wondering, vomiting, taking a cold shower or having a coffee doesn't remove alcohol from your system.
It will generally take your body an hour to break down the alcohol content of one standard drink.
What is grey area drinking?
A grey area drinker is someone who drinks too much, too often. They are usually acutely aware that their drinking behaviour is having some form of negative impact on their life in a physical or mental health capacity, in their relationships or otherwise, but they aren't physically dependent on alcohol. They drink by choice, not to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Grey area drinkers can usually stop drinking if they want to — for a while — but fall back into the cycle of drinking after some time. Accompanying grey area drinking behaviour is an internal dialogue around drinking and whether it's problematic enough that you need to stop. Grey area drinkers are also known as social drinkers, and over time their alcohol tolerance will increase.
What is binge drinking?
Binge drinking is a style of drinking, usually done in social groups, where a lot of drinks are consumed in a short period of time. Most people who binge drink don't have a severe alcohol use disorder (which I will describe shortly). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines binge drinking as the consumption of five or more standard drinks on any one occasion for men, or four or more standard drinks on any one occasion for women. Binge drinkers find themselves drinking to excess with the effects including vomiting, risky behaviour, passing out, decreased cognitive functionality and memory loss.
The term ‘binge drinking’ means different things to different people. Most people agree that a binge would be a session where you deliberately drink to get drunk. For some it's when usually responsible ‘light’ drinkers overindulge — even just a little. But when we look at the guidelines, it's simply when you consume more than four drinks in any one day.
Dr Sam Hay, GP
What is alcohol use disorder (AUD)?
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a medical condition characterised by an inability to stop drinking or control alcohol consumption despite its negative impacts on an individual — be these social, physical, mental or otherwise. This definition encompasses the drinking behaviours referred to as alcohol abuse, alcohol misuse, alcohol dependence, alcohol addiction and the colloquial (and outdated) term, alcoholism. AUD is considered by health professionals to be a brain disorder ranging from mild to moderate or severe. The lasting changes alcohol misuse can cause in the brain can make an individual susceptible to relapsing. However, there is some good news according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA): no matter how severe the alcohol use problem, evidence-based treatment with behavioural therapies, mutual-support groups and/or medications can assist people in overcoming AUD to achieve and maintain sobriety.
What is ‘hangxiety’?
Hangxiety isn't a formal term or diagnosis, but there are plenty of people who identify with the feeling. It's waking up — usually around 3 am — after a big night of drinking and experiencing a hangover with heightened feelings of shame and anxiety.
If it were discovered tomorrow, there's no way we would allow alcohol to be legal. It is a drug … you can walk into a bottle shop today and buy enough gin to kill you, and it's completely legal. I'm not okay with that. This drug is incredibly destructive. Not everyone reacts to alcohol the way I do, but there are enough people in our community that react badly to alcohol that we should have a good look at it.
Osher Gűnsberg — TV and podcast host, sober since 2010
Summing up …
Alcohol is the problem.
Alcohol is a poison. It is highly addictive and perfectly legal, and it can have many negative impacts and downsides for both individuals and society at large.
Our society is set up to have alcohol at every engagement and this can be traced back to colonial times.
There are many terms associated with drinking behaviour including grey area drinking, binge drinking, alcohol use disorder and ‘hangxiety’.
By exploring what alcohol is, how it impacts us and why our society is alcohol obsessed, we can gain a new perspective about alcohol and understand our relationship with it better.
Perhaps for you, alcohol is like what it was for me: a daily habit that started out innocently as a social norm and became a part of who you are. It is your way of coping with social engagements, work demands and family pressures, and it is considered normal by your peers.
Now that you have a better understanding of alcohol and how it is impacting your life and relationships, let's dig a little deeper and drill down on what alcohol can do to our brains, our bodies and our behaviours.
2The impacts of alcohol
Let's take a closer look at the impacts alcohol can have across a variety of measures. This information is factual, grounded in science and presented by a team of experts in their given fields. It is important to understand this information to help you identify and resolve your relationship with alcohol. The World Health Foundation has reported that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. Just to be clear, the brainiest researchers in the world on health have concluded, with no mincing of words, that alcohol is not safe for human consumption.
I have many patients who constantly gauge their consumption on what is ‘sociably acceptable’, often drinking at that level many days a week, unaware of the significant harm they are enduring as they drink at a level significantly above the guidelines.
Dr Sam Hay, GP
Alcohol and you
Alcohol causes a wide range of problems for a wide range of people and is among the leading preventable risk factors for both physical and social harms globally. An international study at the University of Washington led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the results of which were published in The Lancet, suggests people under 40 should not drink alcohol, stating there were no health benefits from drinking alcohol, only risks for adults aged 15 to 39.
Figure 2.1 illustrates how our thoughts can trigger feelings, which can impact our behaviours, and the order of triggers and impacts are interchangeable, whether they be positive or negative.
Figure 2.1: the cognitive triangle
Alcohol and your brain
There is no safe amount of alcohol consumption for the brain. Alcohol is a toxin to brain cells and at any level can increase the risk of dementia and the risk of alcohol-related brain damage.
Dr Buddhi Lokuge, addiction expert, PhD, MD
Alcohol consumption can change your brain chemistry, resulting in decreased memory and impaired judgement. According to a 2021 study published in the journal Scientific Reports, people with AUD have less brain matter than people without AUD.
What does this mean?
Well, the affected brain areas control a range of important skills including attention, language, memory and reasoning. A 2021 study of more than 25 000 people in the UK found that a moderate consumption of alcohol can adversely affect almost every part of your brain. The study, which is still to be peer-reviewed, suggests that the more alcohol consumed, the lower the brain volume. In effect, the more you drink, the worse off your brain is. Other studies, such as one discussed in the journal Neurology in 2014, validate this suggestion by agreeing that alcohol can impact memory and heavy drinkers are at risk of memory loss, experiencing cognitive decline up to six year earlier than non-drinkers.
An expert in the field
Dr Ineka Whiteman
As a doctor of neuroscience, Dr Ineka Whiteman is passionate about helping people understand the science of the brain, mind and body; the inextricable relationship between them; and the practical ways we can nourish, enrich and harness their potential.
Here's what I discovered during my podcast interview with Dr Ineka.
The brain relies on a balance of chemicals and processes to function. Alcohol consumption affects different parts of the brain.
Our thinking and our behaviour are intrinsically linked, and this sentiment is grounded in science. When we look at the brain, it's good to look at a microscopic level: it's a fleshy lump of tissue that sits inside our skull made up of more than 100 billion neurons (brain cells). The neurons are incredibly small, but these tiny cells are little powerhouses that enables all the different functions of our brain, including our thoughts, emotions, learning, memory and formation of habits (both good and bad!).
Figure 2.2: how neurons communicate
How do thoughts occur?
Let's have a look at figure 2.2 and how neurons enable us to have and process thoughts. We can think of neurons like billions of tiny chia seeds making up the fleshy substance of our brain (although they are in fact much smaller than chia seeds, you can fit about 50 neurons across the width of a human hair). Each of these tiny seeds grows ‘arms’, called dendrites and a long axon which acts like an insulated electrical cord, carrying signals from one end of the cell to the other. Each individual neuron can connect and receive signals from up to 7000 other neurons, making highly complex ‘neural networks’ throughout our brain.
Neurons communicate through sending ‘electrochemical’ signals to each other. When we have a thought, for example, a neuron generates an electrical charge which travels down the axon at about 100m/sec until it reaches the end of the axon. There we see a gap between neurons known as the ‘synapse’. To transmit the signal across this synapse, the electrical signal stimulates the release of ‘vesicles’ or tiny sacs of chemicals called neurotransmitters, which float across the synapse and are taken up by specialised receptors on the dendrites of the ‘receiving neuron’ on the other side. This chemical signal is then converted into an electrical signal which travels along the neuron, hits the synapse triggering a chemical signal, and so on and so on. This creates a process of ‘electro-chemical signalling’, which is how a thought travels through our brain.
