Alcohol IS a drug that changes how you feel and act. It is considered a "depressant," or a "downer," because it slows down your system. As the alcohol makes it's way through you, there are several things that it does to each organ in your body. Let's follow the alcohol and see what happens.

We start off with the mouth, where the alcohol enters your body. In some cases, the alcohol is so strong or used frequently enough to cause a decrease in the ability to smell or taste.

Moving on to the stomach, the alcohol can severely irritate the lining of the stomach, leading to vomiting. Through extended use of the alcohol, these irritations can lead to ulcers and sometimes cancer of the esophagus.

Before the intestines, the alcohol passes by the pancreas, and the alcohol can even affect that. It can cause the lining of the pancreas to swell, which blocks the passage through which digestive chemicals pass. Because the chemicals can't get out of the pancreas, and they need something to digest, they start to digest the pancreas itself, causing severe discomfort, sharp pains, vomiting, and possibly death.

The alcohol passes through the intestines and is absorbed into the bloodstream. It passes through the entire body, slowing muscle reactions, decreasing nerve capabilities and affecting the function of the brain in a very negative way.

The alcohol in the blood is filtered out by the liver, which can only remove one-half ounce of alcohol per hour. The rest of the alcohol stays in the blood system and affects every part of the body until it is completely removed. An overused liver eventually becomes swollen and tender, and loses most of it's capability to function well. Not only that, but an overused liver might not be able to produce the agents that are secreted into the blood stream that help promote clotting of the blood.

Each time the alcohol contained in the blood passes through certain vital organs, there is almost always a negative effect on the organ. Each time the alcohol passes through the brain, the flow of oxygen is reduced, causing fuzzy thinking, staggering, and in cases where the amount of alcohol is increased, brain damage, unconciousness or death can result.