I was always under the impression that all alcohol is essentially equal. However, why is it that some people will drink three gin and tonics, be fine with that, but then mention casually, “Oh man, I turn into a monster drinking vodka. I don’t touch the stuff.” This doesn’t make sense to me. Is there any truth that some people have a different reaction to a certain type of booze?
Isn’t booze just booze?
Seriously anecdotal, but I know many folks who claim tequila gives a very different drunk than other alcoholic drinks.
Yeah, but isn’t all booze originally distilled ethyl alcohol? Wouldn’t that make it all “equal”? (Not sure if that’s the right term or not)
It is all equal in terms of its affect on you. I mean, tequilla does not impact you differently than another drink of equal alcohol.
However, I think people’s weight impacts how much alcohol they can drink. Also, if you drink often, you can build up a tolerance to it that would make you need more than a new drinker.
I should point out that Asian people frequently do have an actual reaction to alcohol that causes mild burning and blushing in the face. Having lived in Asia, most men just drink anyway and ignore it.
Clearly, the flavoring and other ingredients in any type of liquor could have some impact on the subjective sensation, because of idiosyncratic effects on individuals, but personal beliefs about different drinks most likely have a much larger impact. Remember that “believing is seeing,” and our beliefs have enormous impact on our perceptions.
Show me a guy who believes that vodka makes him turn into a monster, and I’ll show you a guy who turns into a monster when he (knowingly) drinks vodka.
Even the Family Circus has touched on this issue before
The boards are slow today, He Who We Owe Our Existence To covered this.
Thank you for remembering and posting that; I was about to do it when I saw this thread. I spent ages in University libraries looking up tech papers to send to Cecil on that one…
And anything that increases the effects of GABA can make you more suggestible.
Furthermore, note that it’s possible to get people drunk (at least tipsy) off of fake beer.
I suspect that the biggest difference is going to be in how quickly you ingest it. Three beers contains about the same amount of alcohol as three shots of hard liquor, but those three beers might last you an hour or two, while you can (but probably shouldn’t) toss back three shots in a minute.
Thank Og for google. Now you don’t have to spend ages in University libraries anymore, but in more productive pursuits. Like video games.
Someone drinking their usual will have a better idea of how much they’ve had and the effect. If they switch to another drink, they may consume more than usual, and then realize its too late.
Another factor is the percentage of alcohol in the different types of liquor. If you usually drink beer or wine, you can easily overindulge with an 80 proof liquor.
Being a vodka-rocks drinker, I think the lack of flavoring may change the rate at which I absorb alcohol in the stomach. Also, compared to someone drinking beer, I’m consuming much less water along with the alcohol, which might change the rate I metabolize the alcohol some. If there’s anything at all to those concepts, it might be too small of change to make any difference anyway.
The article from The Master pointed out that there was a placebo effect observed in a study. My observation has been that people don’t change drinks on an average night. It’s a sign of celebration, or emotional upheaval, or something else more likely to be responsible for a difference in behavior than the type of beverage.
I know that when I drink tequila and red wine I get really bad headaches, then I get crabby. It’s not the alcohol, but the flavoring (impurities) that does it. I’ve known people who say they get really violent on tequila, but it’s probably a reaction similar to mine and they’re A)drunk B)already have short fuse.
I suspect a lot of these things have to do with 1) placebo effect (tequila in particular has a bad reputation - but this is something people probably assume is more damaging simply because it’s more puke-inducing and not because it’s actually more intoxicating) 2) drinks with more water are harder to drink quicker and 3) I’ve read that carbonation / aeration (including using a straw) actually does have some sort of effect.
The latter of which… maybe I can attest to. Even with a bit of alcohol tolerance, I find that beer affects me a bit more easily than vodka shots.
A friend of mine told me that if I “drank” alcohol through my arse that I would get drunk really quickly and on far less alcohol.
— D.B., Ireland
Ha!! He had to be from Ireland! :smack:
Sure you do - while some technical papers are available for free online, and some if you e-mail one of the authors and ask nicely, there are a large number of them which you either have to pay $10 to $50 per article for, or else go to the University and read.
Vodka is not as bad as whiskey for me. With whiskey I go bezerk.
Can you expand on this? Is tequila really going to make you sicker? It certainly does for me, but I thought that this was something part of (but certainly not unique to) me.
