A question out of curiosity, to those who have been there, because I am not going to try it myself:
As someone who only ever has drunk alcohol to the warm glow/mellowing/“did I just say that?” stage, with only a mild hangover at worst, I can well understand the seductive appeal (that’s why I only drink alcohol at dinner with friends and never, ever drink alone).
So I can understand why more frequent drinkers would seek that state.
What I cannot understand is the appeal of drinking until passing out. What makes people seek out a pre-comatose mental state rather than a mildly drunk one? (particularly as almost everyone who first drinks him/herself into a stupor has observed before, in others, how pathetic it looks from the outside - which not conductive to an expectation of a good experience when seen from the inside).
IOW, why does that stereotypical sailor choose to spend precious shore leave time passed out rather than tipsy?
I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of people don’t *intend * to drink until they pass out. They just fail to slow down when they reach that happy tipsy state.
I’m pretty good at staying in my happy place, because once I get there I start alternating one alcoholic drink to one glass of water. But I’ve been at this for twentysomething years, and I still occasionally misjudge. I think it largely depends on what’s going on around you. I’m not going to wind up falling-down drunk when I’m out with one or two people making conversation. But in a crowded bar, when we’re all dancing, and rounds of drinks are being bought at lightning speed, I’ve been known to lose track of how much I’m drinking. And when I *stop * dancing… whoa.
I think that humans, in general, have a hard time with the concept that more isn’t always better.
Ditto DianaG. While I have heard people say they intend to knock themselves out, it’s rare - people typically get there through many incremental decisions to take another glass, another sip. The further they go, the less reasonable each incremental decision would seem to a sober person.
Unfortunately, that’s the stage at which the drinks start to taste good and I feel like I can do anything I want to. In reality, I’ve probably already bought the hangover by then.
It’s pretty simple. The more you drink, the more invincible you feel. Especially if you’re having fun and don’t want it to end…what’s another drink or three?
Agree with the above. It’s easier to find the “happy place” and stay there the slower you drink. The worst times for me have always been when we’re doing shots in a generally crazy atmosphere (ESPECIALLY while playing drinking games!). Those things tend to hit you with a vengeance later on.
BINGO! I suspect that this is a big part of it, combined with people who drink too fast.
If you’re been drinking beer steadily all night, it’s not that hard (for me anyway) to gauge how drunk I am, and to what extent the beer in my stomach will affect me. Plus, since it’s 95% water or thereabouts, there’s a physical limit to how much my stomach will hold. (same thing applies to wine, only less so)
If I’ve had 3-4 beers, and then somebody starts giving me mixed drinks or shots, it suddenly becomes VERY hard to estimate how much alcohol I’ve had, between the uncertainty of how strong/large the mixed drink/shot is, and how quick it will hit me.
Combine that with the usual impaired judgement that comes from drinking, and it becomes all too easy to say “Sure!” to the question “How about another whiskey?”, when the first two haven’t fully taken effect yet, while you just physically can’t drink 3 beers that fast.
I always found when I did it it was because someone started buying real alcohol late at night, not just beer. Next thing I know, I’m waking up, and I don’t remember getting home.
FWIW, I don’t do it anymore, but I used to black out regularly in college. I just couldn’t/didn’t want to contain it. It’s neither something that I’m proud of, nor regret at an older age, though.
Hmm. Maybe it’s that I’m not too far removed from my college years, but I can report that many young people do deliberately drink enough to pass out. In fact I’d say that’s more common IME than intending to just get buzzed and accidentally going too far. Personally I don’t see the appeal either, but there you go. For some people I think it’s a “Look how extreme/invincible I am” thing.
I think Will Repair nailed it, at least for the person who sets out to achieve oblivion. The few people I have known to do this had some “other issues” at the time.
I agree that most unconscious drunks get there inadvertently.
I used to not drink very much or very often, but every once in a while I’d just decide that I was going to get completely hammered. Not with the goal of “I’m going to drink to unconsciousness” but just that I was going to drink deliberately to excess. I drink more regularly and moderately now but still every so often decide to binge, just because I feel like it.
Adolescent = Has little to no experience with alcohol, and is curious to see what it’s like. May sneak some here and there, but usually only ever achieves a good buzz.
Senior / College = Now alcohol is easy to come by and all around. That buzz was good, let’s see what more alcohol can do. WHOOOO! The subtleties of going from warm glow to barfing and passed out are completely lost on their bombastic attempts at getting a good high, impressing their friends, or shedding their inhibitions. To drink a LOT is considered admirable.
20s = Hey, some of this crap I only drank to get drunk on, actually tastes good. And you know what, I’m actually enjoying the buzz more than getting drunk off my ass. But shit… this wine is REALLY good. 4 hours later Face down in the toilet.
30s and onward = By now, you’re probably heavier than you were in your 20s, and you know how beer, wine and spirits will effect you and in what proportions, and you know what drinks go well with what food. You still like that buzz, but are more self-conscious about your actions in public. Getting drunk has zero appeal, but a nice buzz is still a great side-effect to those times at a party or with friends. You’ve learned to know when is too much, but sometime, an extra drink may sneak up on you.
Anything beyond this sort of behavior is Alcoholic altitude IMHO.
It didn’t matter what I intended or what worked. Once I started drinking, I couldn’t stop. I also couldn’t predict the results with any accuracy. Sometimes I broke out in spots- like Las Vegas, Tijuana… Other times, I broke out in handcuffs.
I never meant to pass out. Luckily, I did.
Yes, I am an alcoholic, so this post shouldn’t be taken the same way as a recreational drinker’s experience…
Yeah, you kinda have to train yourself to stop or slow down when you haver a good buzz going. It took me a while to start alternating water & drinks at that point if I wanted to enjoy the rest of the night and the next day.
Some people react to alcohol differently. Every commercial, TV show, and movie we’ve seen has taught us that drinking alcohol will enhance our lives immensely by making us extremely happy, so we drink, and wait for that happy feeling to hit us. The happy feeling doesn’t come, so we keep drinking, and the happy feeling still doesn’t come, and the next thing you know, we’re way too drunk.
I drank off and on for a few years before I finally realized that it just wasn’t going to happen for me and gave it up. Drinking alcohol only ever made me cranky at best or despondently sad and ready to kill myself at worst.
Or as my alcohol-loving cousin would say, “You weren’t doing it right!”
Sounds like you misinterpreted the ads… what alcohol tends to do for many people is amplify whatever they’re feeling at the moment and lower inhibitions.
If they’re at a fun party, they’ll tend to be more happy and talkative.
If they’re pissed off, they’ll be even more pissed, and less inhibited about it (‘angry drunk’)
Seems almost like you had the drinking equivalent of not being able to fall asleep because you’re too busy thinking about being unable to fall asleep.
For me there can be a competitiveness angle to it. Sometimes I’ll get to around my 8th round, (10 being Danger Will Robinson! Blackout Imminent!) and I’ll keep on going to ‘push my limits.’ Yes it’s freakin’ stupid as fuck. I don’t do it very often anymore, and if I do it’s because I had a really shitty day and I’m abusing alcohol (again a stupid decision).
I may have misinterpreted the ads, since there never has been one that showed an angry or unhappy person drinking and getting angrier and unhappier, but I definitely didn’t misinterpret the myriad of TV shows where someone says, “What a miserable day I had! What I need now is a drink!”
And believe it or not, most of the time when I was drinking I was at a fun party, and drinking didn’t make me happier or more talkative.
I say it’s body chemistry. My cousin says I was doing it wrong. We’ll probably never know, but I’m confident there are a lot of people like me out there, drinking and waiting for the fun to hit them.