# Is it possible to sobber-up fast? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 10, 2003, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219 "2003-03-10T03:56:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/41 "2003-03-11T05:10:15Z")
Now I see Tonbo beat me to it… Also, there metabolism, should be **their** metabolism. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/42 "2003-03-11T05:54:39Z")
A couple of lines of good methamphetamine will do the trick…or so I hear \. and HOW drunk are you talking about anyway? Blood alcohol level isn’t a reliable indicator of a person’s drunkeness. It is simply an objective and testable method for determining (on average) whether a person SHOULD be drunk or not. Tolerance levels vary in people. Myself, I know I’ve had enough when I start on another half-gallon of Cuervo Gold in the same day. “Fairly drunk”…meaning you could walk without staggering? or perhaps you were slurring your speech? or like an old buddy of mine when he says “he was fairly drunk” but, “he didn’t take off all of his clothes when he was dancing on the table…and who was that girl anyway” There’s not really any way to actually sober up, but there are ways to help you to appear more sober than your blood alcohol level would suggest. Adrenaline works pretty good though, nothing like fear to arouse the senses, right **mozart**? BUT if you are truly loaded…forget it, just go to sleep! or better yet, don’t drink at all, yeah that’s the ticket…stay sober.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tony\_Montana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@Tony\_Montana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tony_Montana)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/43 "2003-03-11T06:13:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by St. Urho \* > \*\* Probably, because alcohol intoxication is from the byproducts of alcohol metabolism in the blood stream, . \*\* Got that reversed dont you? Intoxication is the rusult of \*alcohol its-self \* in the bloodstream(before the liver can “catch-up” and metabolize), hangovers are the result of alcohol byproducts(ie congeners) left behind in the blood stream. At least thats WIR ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/44 "2003-03-11T06:30:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MixieArmadillo \* > **I don’t know how long ago this happened to you, but it’s not really new news. At least, I’ve heard it from more than one professor and lots of my friends.** Ditto. Not only did I learn it as a freshman in college nearly 8 years ago, I taught it when I taught intro psych classes. It’s printed in textbooks. I’ve never heard of controversy attached to state-dependent learning. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/45 "2003-03-11T07:00:01Z")
**1. Is there an ‘acting drunk’ effect that a person knowingly or unknowingly adopts even though they are not drunk or not that drunk?** Yes. The abovementioned psych experiments where college age students were given a placebo drink and yet acted drunk is well documented. So… If you’re acting way more drunk then what you actually should due to blood alcohol content, then you can seemingly sober up immediately. **2. Can someone who is sloppy drunk and not caring how they are performing be motivated to start caring about how they’re acting and start focusing as best they can, and thus seem to slightly sober up?** Sure, sounds plausible. However, if given response reaction tests, they will still perform sluggishly and not as well as if they were sober. And if very drunk, their “trying to act sober” routine is hilarious in how they think they’re fooling others as they literally stumble over themselves. **3. Can home remedies sober someone up faster then just letting it run its course?** Depends on the home remedy. You need to remember what causes the drunkenness: oxygen deprivation from red blood cells sticking together. So, increasing blood flow and oxygen levels will help… to a point. **Oxygen** Yes, that will help, but only as long as one is breathing the oxygen (or maybe, just breathing heavy?). Take away the O[sub]2[/sub] mask, and the oxygen levels will start dropping again until the liver metabolizes the alcohol away. **Stimulants** Alcohol is a depressant because of the oxygen deprivation to the nervous system. Stimulants help somewhat in forcing the nervous system to work faster, but it’s doubtful you’ll get fully sober since the nerve cells are still oxygen deprived no matter how much you try to crack the whip to make them go faster. This is probably the reason why drunks say that cold water, or a cop, or their wife at the door will ‘sober them up’ – the adrenaline, man. It’s a stimulant, all right. But again, for someone very drunk, no amount of stimulant is going to make up for lack of oxygen. All you get is a louder and more belligerent drunk. **Eating** Only if done _ **before** _ drinking! Food will absorb alcohol – to a point – and keep it in your digestive track longer, but not forever. Eating after you’re drunk has no effect except for providing a larger oblation to the porcelain god. **Drinking water** While it _might_ increase blood flow, drinking water has no short term effects for sobering up – I think. I believe that alcohol is not urinated out of the body (I’m willing to be told I’m wrong), it needs to be metabolized by the liver first. However, since alchohol dehydrates cells, then drinking plenty of liquids is essential to replace lost water. You also need water for the liver to do its work and for the body to eliminate the metabolized alcohol byproducts from the body in urine. The hangover is directly related to the dehydration. ## **Aspirin** Aspirin (and ibuprofen, but not tylenol) is a blood thinner. Thus, it helps to de-clog the blood and get oxygen through capillaries. Though, be careful, you can damage the stomach lining with too much of the stuff, and even OD on it. So don’t swallow a whole bottle thinking that this will sober you up immediately. Peace. “I’ll drunk to that!” ---
**Author:** ![Rhum\_Runner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rhum\_Runner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhum_Runner)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/46 "2003-03-11T14:11:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by St. Urho \* > **Naloxone (Narcan) is a competitive opiate antagonist. Basically, it reverses the effects of an opiate high. Is that what you’re thinking of?..** That was what I was thinking of, I knew there was something outthere that did that, but didn’t know what it was called. It seems that alcohol works on the brain in a different way than opiates, so such drugs wouldn’t be available. Bummer. ---
**Author:** ![beajerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@beajerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beajerry)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/47 "2003-03-12T00:53:05Z")
I think the general answer to the OP is No. As far as serious drunks (who can maintain a BAL above 400 and still walk straight and speak clearly), there is a general pattern to their detox when in a hospital (this is from my observation as an RN taking care of them). Usually they are placed on a ‘banana bag’ IV drip (running fairly fast–125 to 150 cc/hr) which includes potassium, magnesium, thiamine, dextrose. They are encouraged to drink juice. They are given daily doses of thiamine, B12, or multivitamin. They have as-needed orders for Librium or Ativan or Valium for tremors and agitation and sometimes Haldol for severe agitation. (One patient I had was ordered 20 times the recommended daily limit of Librium to ‘saturate his midbrain’ to keep him from getting violent. It worked wonderfully.) The pattern, though, is that (even with all the above) the patients usually have some tremors and hallucinations after the second or third day of not drinking and this lasts 3-5 days for most. This is almost invariable. Again, these are the serious alcoholics. And it would all be so much easier if they could just be given a couple beers a day. ---
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/48 "2003-03-12T01:12:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AudreyK \* > \*\*Ditto. Not only did I learn it as a freshman in college nearly 8 years ago…I’ve never heard of controversy attached to state-dependent learning. \*\* Ah to be so young. I was a freshman 30 years ago when the ideas were still new, at least with respect to humans. ---
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/49 "2003-03-12T01:22:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by beajerry \* > **I think the general answer to the OP is No.** As an RN, do you have any experience or observation of the effect of oxygen, which a few posters have mentioned? ---
**Author:** ![beajerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@beajerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beajerry)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/50 "2003-03-12T01:43:30Z")
\ In the hospital setting, oxygen is applied when the patient’s saturation drops below 89 or 90% (sometimes it’s used for different reasons, though), so it depends on how healthy the drunk’s lungs are. Generally, the chronic alcoholics I see are homeless and smokers which equals not-so-good lungs. So, it’s difficult for me to tell if the oxygen is helping because of the alcohol or because of emphysema or something. But certainly, healthy blood is comprimised by alcohol content and also oxygen carrying capacity is decreased by the sedated breathing pattern of the drunk. So oxygen couldn’t but help. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219/51 "2003-03-12T05:58:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by moriah \* > **While it _might_ increase blood flow, drinking water has no short term effects for sobering up – I think. I believe that alcohol is not urinated out of the body (I’m willing to be told I’m wrong), it needs to be metabolized by the liver first.** I’ve heard the opposite - that most alcohol you drink comes right back out, hence the expression “You don’t buy beer, you only rent it.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sobber-up-fast/160219.md?page=2)