The time it takes for the sedative (alcohol) to leave your system happens faster than the brain- produced stimulants. This is why drinkers often wake up only after a few hours of sleep and experience the phenomenon known as “hangxiety” (hangover-induced anxiety). No matter the type of drinker you are, alcohol is causing you to experience some level of anxiety and nervousness. The level of anxiety you will experience corresponds to the quantity of alcohol you consume. If you only have one or two drinks, you will experience low anxiety; if you get wasted, you will have high anxiety. Over time, as you continue to accumulate drinking experiences, your brain will realize that when you take a drink of alcohol sometime the next day, your anxiety goes away and you feel great. Since this will happen every time you drink, you are training your brain to associate the relief and relaxation to the alcohol. If I am anxious (X) and I have some alcohol (Y), I feel better (Z). It’s even worse because your brain will have you craving a drink anytime you feel anxious about anything: it’s the way your brain has learned to feel better. The amount of time for this to be learned by your subconscious will vary depending on so many different factors. Everyone is different, but it will happen eventually. Your subconscious will learn this lesson. This subconscious reaction process is so important for us as humans as it frees up the conscious part of our brain to be able to actively think about things that require active thought. As I was consciously thinking about the subconscious, I was coming up with other examples in my everyday life that I have subconscious reactions to, other than our reactions when driving. For instance, when we go to catch things that are falling (on their own or because we have dropped them). The air braking in the car does not make a difference either way because there are no pedals.
No harm, no foul. But trying to catch something is a very precise example of when the subconscious really saves us or can turn on us and be dangerous. Have you ever dropped a knife while cooking? I bet you have, and I bet you reached out to grab it. If you were lucky, it was a dull knife or you grabbed the handle. If you were unlucky, you got cut and bled. Then I’m sure someone said: “Don’t you know, you should NEVER try to catch a knife.” Yeah, thanks. But in that split second, you had no time to consciously analyze if the thing you were reaching for could harm you. So, what do you do? The answer came this morning while I was scrolling through Facebook. An article title caught my eye: it was something to the effect of top tips from professional chefs. One chef advises: “Never attempt to catch anything that’s falling. Not just knives: if you drop a napkin, your instinctive response should be to take a step back and put your hands up and out of the way. This trains your brain so you never attempt to catch something dangerous.” (As a side note, this isn’t instinct, as the chef said: your instinct is not the same as the subconscious, which is a learned behavior. People often use the terms interchangeably, but they aren’t the same). This is very clear and simple advice. Instead of trying to constantly go against your subconscious, analyze the situation every time something is falling; if it’s safe to catch and on and on… catch nothing. Retrain your brain. Your brain will have a much easier time learning that lesson. If something falls (X) I jump away (Y) I am safe (Z). The result, the Z, will always be the same, so it is a simple lesson for your subconscious to learn. Compare this to if we tried to only catch safe things. As in the example with the car, you will fail to do this: it is a split-second decision. The Y is going to vary and so will the Z. If something falls (X) I will sometimes try to catch it depending on what it is (Y) I will maybe be safe depending on … a
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