While the pandemic unfolded, many restaurants and bars took a nosedive, as the masses turned to their computers for virtual happy hours. But it wasn’t just the tech companies like Zoom that thrived. Alcohol sales from liquor stores and delivery services soared in 2020. Many states even loosened laws so that delivery drivers could haul hooch to their customers. Essentially, the extreme circumstances of 2020 didn’t inhibit our ability or tendency to reach for a drink.
All of that — combined with the “dry January” trend — makes it a good time to consider what defines an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). And more specifically, can you have an AUD if you don’t drink every day?
The answer is yes, absolutely, according to the experts and plenty of research. In fact, the diagnostic criteria for AUDs doesn’t explicitly refer to frequency or quantity of drinking at all. Rather, the disorder is defined by how drinking impacts your life.
Research shows that heavy drinking seems to have vast impacts on the brain, even in people who don’t partake daily. Over time, it causes changes in the way neurons all over the brain talk to each other using chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters. “There probably isn't a single neurotransmitter system that isn't affected in one way or another by alcohol,” says Jeffrey Weiner, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
