I have a friend who weighs about 140 pounds and gets drunk off of one beer. She legitimately believes that she is drunk and often does some really stupid stuff after finishing one off. Now, is it possible that she could actually BE that drunk from just one twelve ounce beer?
She’s what is technically called a “lightweight”. :D:D
She probably doesn’t drink that often, so she’s not used to alcohol’s effect on her brain. It shuts down one’s reasoning and judgement, leaving emotion as the driving force of her consciousness.
She’ll have the same BAC as another 140 lb. woman who has had only one drink. But if the other woman drinks more often, the other woman will have more control over her heightened emotions.
It’s easy to make people think they’re drunk. It gives you an excuse to act stupidly. I heard once (might be a UL, but sounds very plausible) of a study in which someone through a party at a college with kegs of non-alcoholic beer (that stuff tastes like mule piss, btw) and then went around and asked people how “drunk” they were.
Lots of people were either pretending or actually believes they were drunk.
Back in high school a friend of mine threw a patry. We didn’t have enough booze to go around so we told people the punch was spiked. A few of us had access to the snapps and were spiking our own punch. the others smelled booze on us and too our word that there was booze in the punch and some of them were convinced they were getting drunk and acted accordingly. It’s called the power of suggestion.
That would be took our word. Next time I’ll preview my reply.
…and schnapps…and party…
::giggling::
There is such a thing as an allergy to alchoholic beverages.
If you are allergic, one beer can get you drunk.
Edgar Allen Poe had a severe version of this. One sherry could lead him into a week long drinking spree.
Another thing to point out is that women have, on average, a lower tolerance to alcohol than men.
As to the allergies, I have some sort of alcohol intolerance, but it doesn’t cause me to get drunk after one drink. Instead, it causes me to be sick after one. Since I understand that getting sick isn’t the most pleasent part of drunkenness, I just abstain.
Here is me (155 pounds):
One beer - somewhat tipsy.
Two beers or one glass of wine - definitely tipsy - too drunk to drive.
Three beers or two glasses of wine - weaving and stumbling.
Four beers or 2.5 to 3 glasses of wine - time to sleep.
The thing is - aside from loss of physical coordination, I never “act” drunk. That is, alcohol does not seem to change my mood, relax me, make me say stupid things, or change my thought patterns, etc. This is one reason I don’t get drunk anymore - it just didn’t help the pain.
I agree totally with the power of suggestion theory. I’ve seen a “hypnotist” (really just a theatrical performer good at mental manipulation) convincing people that water was really vodka. One person was actually physically ill–after several glasses of water.
But there’s also a question of building up tolerance here. My wife and sister are about the same size. My sister, who goes out drinking at least twice a week, can put down enormous quantities without ill effects (I’ve seen her drink twenty shots in five hours–she’s only 115 pounds, mind!) Meanwhile, my wife, who only drinks once in a blue moon, is usually out of it after half a glass of wine. My sister was about on the same tolerance level–before she started her twice-weekly blitzes.
I’ll throw in another “power of suggestion” story here. MANY years ago I went to a really lame party. I had some very fine hash with me, but didn’t want to share this good stuff. For some reason, I had rubbed basil in my purse. I rolled several fat ones and passed them around. For the next hour or so I had trouble keeping a straight face while the neophytes whooped it up, thinking they were getting stoned. ha.
And yes, huge variability on the effects of alcohol on an individual. Another explanation for a really quick drunk on one beer would be some sort of liver malfunction. But I’m sure that’s not likely…