Over the weekend I had the opportunity to observe some of my friends in various states of drunken stupor.
I’ve noticed that some guys turn into belligerent jerks when they are drunk, while other guys get all blubbery, saying things like “I love you, man” to everyone.
Does the personality you take once you are sufficiently inebriated reflect your true disposition, unmasked because the alcohol makes it impossible to keep up the façade? Or does alcohol just do weird things to your brain, with varied but not meaningful results??
I think that generally, the person that comes out with the application of alcohol is that person’s “real” personality. I think that alcohol does little else than lower a person’s inhibitions, so whatever facets of their personality they would normally bottle up because they’re not socially acceptable (or at least the person feels that they’re unacceptable, for whatever reason) come shining through. Unfortunately, it’s usually the ugly opinions that people keep bottled up that tend to pop out when alcohol is consumed…in my experience, the “I love you, man” type of reaction is rare.
cognitively it makes you into a slug, on the same mental path as squirrel young and fly larva.
But no on a serious note, alcohol tends to make your inhibitions go away. Makes a normally quiet person feel quite gitty and talkative. Makes a decently normal person sometimes angry and assholish. Inhibitions are part genes, part personality, and part learned behaviour.
I forinstance get very serious and philosophical when intoxicated. Then I usually degrade into an endless morass of one-line jokes. And sometimes, very rarely i turn into the great pumpkin and fall asleep at 9:30.
I hope it isn’t the “real” me!! I am kind of the “I loe you” type. Definitley not argumentive but I am loud and most likely to incite the entire party to form a conga line or dancing on the table or initiate body shots…I’ve been known to kiss people that I normally wouldn’t kiss and make out in public. So oh yeah lower inhibitions. Is that the real me? If it is, I am a total party animal.
It just seems like people are more likely to do stuff they wouldn’t normally do. I can be a really happy drunk, and other times I just get REALLY mad, and angry when I drink. This is why I’ve been curbing my alcohol intake lately.
BUT, I dont’ think that raging bitch is the “real” me. I just think that the drinking makes me dwell on things (in my head) that I would normally just let roll off.
I agree with Breezy. I get WAY more pissed off when a guy bumps me in a bar if I’m drunk, mostly because I just dwell on it so much.
My friend likes to say that animal brain takes over when you’re drunk. Animal brain really just wants food, sex and sleep. The anger many men feel and the flirtatiousness many women feel when intoxicated could be simply a result of animal brain taking over.
BTW, most of the men I’ve observed who get “I love you man” are not regular drinkers and are overcome with emotion as soon as their inhibitions are lowered. I did similar things when I first started drinking, but eventually, I learned to just ignore drunk emotions.
Also, not to hijack, but does anyone else get a significantly different kind of drunk depending on if they drink beer, wine or hard liquor? When I drink beer, usually I’m real happy and loud and glad to be alive. When i drink wine, I get really tired. But when I drink hard liquor, I usually have the urge to break things and get in fights. Hard liquor makes me crazy. I used to think it was just that sometimes I drink mixed drinks like rum and coke, which have caffeine in them, and I usually don’t drink any caffeine. But it also happens when I drink whiskey or scotch on the rocks.
I really hope not. I’m not a terribly talkative person normally, but when I drink, I don’t talk. At all. I really hope that the “real” me isn’t someone who becomes somewhat annoyed when someone else expects her to talk rather than quietly try to figure out what song is playing. People are incredibly boring when I drink, which might be why I drink so infrequently.
When I drink, people say things like, “Hey!, you’re pretty cool when you’re drunk!”, which is a positive and a negative all in one. I get very talkative and funny compaired to my quiet sober self. But I must say, that I feel more confident when I drink, and that’s who I’d rather be, except without the whole drunk part of it.
I think it is not really the “real” you because the real you is what and who decides how you act on a daily basis. That would seem to be more of the person you really are, to me. Because it is your real morals and values and expectations for yourself that keep you from acting in a way that is less than desirable, TO YOU. That person is still in there (somewhere) after drinking but is seriously compromised by the varying effects that the alcohol may have on someone. However, I do believe that you lose a lot of control and at times THAT results in something that is really a hidden aspect of you sneaking out. But never do I think could you assume that a drunk person’s behavior is who they really are. Logically that would not make sense because we all know alcohol IMPAIRS us as opposed to enhancing anything. When I am really drunk, I pretty much just do whatever comes to mind without thinking of consequences. That is not really me because I am normally obsessed with going over consequences before doing or saying things. That thinking is a big part of who I am, but one thing that IS really me when I am drunk, is I am a big flirt. I just supress it when I am sober So I guess it really varies. I believe that drunk people who always seem to get angry are actually having a physical reaction to the alcohol. I heard or read that somewhere… just my opinion
I’m stumbling around Westport a couple weeks ago, kissing every man I see, continually taking my shirt off, turning it inside-out and then right-side out because I’m not sure where the cranberry juice stain is, eventually getting lost in a bad part of town because I can’t tell east from west.
In short, I’m a stupid slut when I’m drunk. I hope to god that’s not the real me.
For some reason I like to be a stupid slut around two times a year.
well, it’s like how the real you would be if it was intoxicated.
but seriously folks,
the real you is also made up of your real inhibitions. Those are learned parts of the real you.
Maybe the loss of inhibitions reveals preferable aspects of one’s personality capacity, but that’s not the same as saying that those aspects are more “real” than the self that they present otherwise.
greck beat me to it. The parts of our psyches that keep us from saying or acting on every impulse that passes through our minds are just as integral to us as the impulses themselves. A mask is still a real mask.
Personally, I don’t buy the notion of one central, “real,” integrated identity in a person. I think the reality is a lot more complex and fractured than that idea would make it seem. But I base this on introspection and observation rather than on much actual study, so take that for what it cost you.
i dont know. I had a bad experience years ago and i go in & out of rages all the time thinking about it but when i’m drunk i am not mad at them anymore. I don’t know why i would not be angry when drunk but angry when sober. I am another one of those ‘i like everyone’ drunks.
So I guess it really varies. I believe that drunk people who always seem to get angry are actually having a physical reaction to the alcohol. I heard or read that somewhere… just my opinion