What's the reaction in your brain that makes you sick from just smelling alcohol?

Question

Hey everyone. Sorry, I'm not sure if this is in the right place, but I remember learning about this in anatomy class in high school, but I forgot what it was called. What's the reaction in your brain that makes you sick from just smelling or thinking about alcohol?

Like for example, one night I got so wasted off of absinth that I puked the night away. This was back in April. Ever since, the mention of licorice and especially the thought of eating it makes me sick to my stomach. Also, I got a nauseated feeling just thinking about how strong alcohol feels/tastes like when you're drinking it.

It doesn't have to be just alcohol. Like if you got sick off contaminated grapes as a kid, the next time you might try to eat them, you might puke as a reaction.

Thanks for the help- just wondering!

Answer 1

its the reaction your brain takes when it remembers the last time you drank you couldn't stop and you through up everywhere! or maybe it knows its in danger and it knows it will lose soldiers as soon as you gulp that alcohol!

Answer 2

It is just instinct.

It is the reason that pregnant women get queezy when they smell cooking meat or eggs... They have a higher chance of having bad germs or toxins in them so it is the body telling them not to eat them and endanger their baby...

I got the flu the same night I ate an artichoke and for YEARS afterwords, I couldn't eat artichokes because my brain connected Artichokes with being HORRIBLY ILL!

It is your instinctual self telling your higher-functions that evolution and experience shows that a substance or act is BAD for you and wants to FORCE you to avoid it for the survival of the body.

Answer 3

thats called memory. im not sure about the technical name but your memory of being sick from alcohol is telling you not to drink it again.

Answer 4

I once ate cold american cheese on roast beef when I was a child and I became violently ill- to this day the very thought of these two ingredients makes me gag.

Answer 5

I have no clue what it's called but once I killed a fifth of 151 to myself, and for like a month anytime I got near anything that smelled like it I almost died. But now it's all good, I drinked that part of my brain out.

Answer 6

It's just a conditioned response. You got wasted and it made you feel really sick, so when you think of it, smell it, see it, etc, you're body's response it to make you feel sick, sense that's what happened to you when you got wasted from it.

Answer 7

If there is a part of the brain that puts me of my drink I wont it removed right now.

Answer 8

It is a learned response, and since smell is the best sense to trigger memories it is what would most put you off of something.

This has happened to me twice.

Once I ate a one pound bag of Peanut Butter and Crackers Combo's, and couldn't smell peanut butter for about ten years.

And also with whiskey, god what a horrible two years that was. I got sick from watching others drink whiskey, but i could drink everything else.

Normally you can retrain your brain, or maybe the memory just fades, but you can go back to drinking if you put your mind to it.