# What is the deal with angry/violent drunks? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 14, 2012, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675 "2012-09-14T08:51:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/41 "2012-09-14T21:17:17Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > I know I’m simplistic and naive 😕 but it seems like for a long time I’ve been trying to find the line between compassion and enabling. I’m not talking from the point of having someone in my life, but in how I look at addictive behavior in general. If you’ve watched a lot of Intervention (as I have as well), then you’ve heard the line, “I will do anything that I can to help you stop [your addiction], but I won’t do anything to help you continue.” That’s the line between compassion and enabling. Compassion is the understanding and willingness to do anything to help the person get out of their addictive spiral. Enabling is helping them to stay in it. You can understand and even sympathize with the causes that lead to addictive behavior, but that doesn’t mean you have to sympathize with the behavior itself. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/42 "2012-09-14T21:18:41Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > _Beer Street_ and _Gin Lane_, of course - though I’ll bet a bottle of good Scotch I don’t need to tell _you_ that. Though I’m no Hogarth expert, yeah, I’ve seen those. It’s the most blatant propaganda ever made, but I do sympathize with Hogarth’s point of view there (apart from the English nationalist angle). ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/43 "2012-09-14T21:28:24Z")
I have a very occasional drink. For me, “drinking heavily” is having two drinks in one week. I usually have one or two drinks a month, though I can (and have) completely abstained for much longer periods. I LIKE alcohol, but it’s empty calories, which I prefer to avoid for the most part. I do notice that I’m somewhat affected by the one drink that I allow myself on occasion. I’ll drink beer, wine, straight hard liquor, or mixed drinks. But I’ll always have a glass of water as well. > [@](#): > > Why would you want to completely lose control of you body and your mind? Why would you want to be hungover? Why would you want to go through these episodes… and then do it all over again? See, the thing is, I DON’T completely lose control. I only lose a little bit of my inhibitions…usually the inhibition which keeps me from singing. I usually only drink when I go out to eat with my husband, and on the ride home, I will sing assorted show tunes or old Beatles songs. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/44 "2012-09-16T17:20:42Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > As a bartender of many years, I can attest, there are indeed people who are nothing but charming and lovely till you put booze in them. Then they turn into raging, angry idiots. Some people it’s a black and white change. Others have to hit a ‘zone’ before they get angry, 3rd drink, 5th drink, etc. And, of course, some people just had a shit day, and the alcohol, is just freeing them, to take it out on those around them. > > And certainly, as you’ve no doubt seen, just as many, if not more people, turn into maudlin, “I love you, man!” slobberers. Sometimes with tears. > > Alcohol is a drug, and it affects different people differently. In your experience, is there a consistent ratio of happy drunks to mean drunks? Do most people get slobbery, or do most get angry? I’ve always been curious about this. I don’t see that many drunks, but would I assume a bartender would notice trends. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/45 "2012-09-16T18:57:34Z")
Who knows - all I know is that I’ve seen almost as many different reactions to being drunk, as I have seen drunk people. I feel lucky to be a happy, energetic drunk who doesn’t experience significant changes in my behavior, much less personality when I’ve had a lot. I don’t drink very much, though. My boyfriend does, but it effects him the same way. > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by a35362 > Why would you want to completely lose control of you body and your mind? Why would you want to be hungover? Why would you want to go through these episodes… and then do it all over again? Hm, this isn’t what ‘being drunk’ is like for me or anyone I spend time with. Unless you count the one time when I was 19 where I blacked out (but nobody knew and I didn’t do anything untoward), I’ve never ‘lost control’ of myself. I’m a very cautious and controlled person, if that was what drinking did to me I’d NEVER do it. Alcohol doesn’t have a crazy effect on me, I know my limits, I have no urge to go beyond them even when intoxicated.. and I drink a lot of water before I go to sleep. Being drunk is fun! Even though I don’t get around to it often. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/46 "2012-09-16T19:42:59Z")
Anger and depression, while seemingly far apart, are very closely related to the “fight or flight” response to a bad situation in life. You can wallow in self-pity, or attack whoever or whatever is causing (or you think is causing) the bad situation. Usually we realize that whatever we are dealing with isn’t bad enough to isolate ourselves at home, or to punch the guy sitting next to you. However, alcohol loosens these inhibitions. In addition to the different effects of the drug on different people, the circumstances surrounding the drinking contribute to your reaction. Are you at home alone in a dark house? Start crying into your beer. Are you at a dive bar where some asshole is yelling and upsetting you? Get ready to punch him. I think that the differences in response from beer v. whiskey in this thread are the reasons behind drinking beer v. whiskey. Stop at the store and decide to buy a 12 pack along with the milk and bread=semi-normal day… semi-normal reaction to alcohol Drive out of the way to the liquor store=the world has gone to hell fuck it all…terrible reaction to the alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/47 "2012-09-16T20:19:42Z")
> [@Dr\_Doom](#): > > ``` > >Originally Posted by **August West** [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/images/buttons/viewpost.gif](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15490389#post15490389) > >If he had drink #5. he'd get naked. > > ``` > > There is something _wrong_ with that??? > > 😃 Well, I do know a guy who beertended at a clothing optional bar in Key West … 😛 ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/48 "2012-09-16T21:31:17Z")
It is a common perception that beer or wine is somehow better or safer than hard liquor. Alcohol is alcohol. You can get more alcohol in you faster I guess guzzling a bottle of whiskey but it is plenty easy to get drunk on beer. There are probably more beer swilling alcoholics than any other type. People don’t buy that crappy cheap beer for the taste. Whenever someone tells me they don’t drink hard liquor anymore, but that beer is okay I chuckle to myself. Ya I’ve heard it all before. I am not saying there is automatically a problem but swearing off hard liquor is a classic behavior of people in the earlier stages of alcoholism realizing they are having trouble controlling their use. Limiting oneself to beer is one of those things that sort of sound like controlling use without, you know, not using. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/49 "2012-09-17T01:47:52Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > I’m a violent drunk, and I’m not sure what you (the OP) are asking. Why do I feel violent when I get drunk? Why do some people giggle when they get drunk? Why do some speak louder? Why do some feel tired? > > Fact is, different people react to substances differently, that’s all. > > ETA: For the record, I’m not angry at all, just violent. I’m the kind of person who will get drunk, bitch slap someone, and then run off giggling because it seems funny. I’ve learned that doing push-ups or pull-ups is a more constructive way to release this pent up energy. So basically, with or with out alcohol, you’re a sociopath. Got it. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/50 "2012-09-17T02:35:53Z")
> [@FluffyBob](#): > > It is a common perception that beer or wine is somehow better or safer than hard liquor. Alcohol is alcohol. \*\* You can get more alcohol in you faster\*\* I guess guzzling a bottle of whiskey (my bold) Bingo. One can consume a good deal of liquor in a short time before the effects are even felt. With beer, you simply have to consume vastly greater quantities of liquid before the same intoxication levels can be felt; it’s sort of a built-in safeguard. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675/51 "2012-09-17T09:04:56Z")
In regards to the above post, you also have to pee a lot. You can use the amount of difficulty it takes to get to/back from the restroom as a yardstick toward how plastered you are. Just sayin’. I’ve heard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-angry-violent-drunks/634675.md?page=2)