Of Bourbon and Bedrotting

We wondered if something had changed.

A recent Stanford study has confirmed a new reality for many of us, that drinking just doesn't feel right anymore. The study found higher sensitivity and lower tolerance for alcohol in Long Covid patients, including one woman who was a regular drinker before the pandemic but "feels terrible for several days" after a single drink since her infection. All of the patients said they feel like they have a hangover after consuming small amounts of alcohol. As the Stanford authors say, these patients "share a new onset sensitivity to alcohol post-Covid-19 infection, triggering unprecedented symptoms at similar or lower alcohol consumption."

The authors offer a couple of reasons why it's happening. They suspect Covid weakens the blood-brain barrier. So, you feel the impact of alcohol sooner. It's also worth pointing out that Covid damages every organ in your body, including your liver. Your body regards alcohol as a poison. So it makes sense for a virus that damages all of you from head to foot to also make it harder for you to eject poisons and toxins. Now alcohol truly feels more like the poison it always was.

You see this discussed all over the internet now, people wondering on Facebook or Reddit why a couple of drinks suddenly make them feel like garbage, or even renders them immobile for days.

It's not a coincidence that a new "self-care" trend has emerged this year. It's called "bed-rotting," when you stay in bed and just... stay. The experts say it's because everyone's exhausted from everything, and that would include having to wade through this toxic normal that's forced on us, not to mention our undiagnosed viral damage. So, it's safe to say that a lot of people across every age category don't really feel like going out for drinks anymore, especially if every time they do that, or every time they go to a movie or a concert, they're going to spend months recovering from an infection, and then never quite feel like themselves again.

Meanwhile, the corporate media talks about "sober curious" culture, throwing their hands up and declaring nobody wants to drink anymore because...reasons.

Maybe it's all of the above?