On another thread Taz and Legend were embroiled in a debate that took a side avenue about the nature of how people react all liquored up.
We all know several different versions of people when intoxicated. Some are happy drunks. You give them liquor and they're just as happy as can be, cheerful and endearing.
We then have the people who become sullen and withdrawn. Their otherwise sober self, who is usually upbeat, becomes a brooding soul who looks as if the weight of the world is atop their shoulders.
We then have the conflict-addicted drunks. These are the people who feel it necessary to poke of others and become spiteful. They pick fights intentionally and start problems.
The most shocking are the violent drunks who, once liquored up, feel compelled to literally fight the world. Sober they are often pleasant people, but as soon as they are intoxicated it is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. These people share similar characteristics with the previous kind of drunk, but these people take it to another level.
quote:
You know, speaking as an LEO, it's funny how people who realize they do and say hurtful things when intoxicated continue to get intoxicated. Especially in domestic cases, it's always the booze, and it's always "I really love my wife" after beating the snot out of her. But that's another story.
—Taz writes
Taz makes a good point, and obviously this description meets the 2nd and last criteria for drunken behavior.
But I wanted to look at this from a psychological viewpoint. Some say that alcohol lowers inhibitions. They say that it doesn't make you say things you don't mean, but that it makes you say things you otherwise wouldn't have said sober. So if you are an asshole drunk, then you're an asshole and the true colors are coming out.
Others say that the alcohol makes people say things they don't mean, as evidenced by their often contrite and embarrassed demeanor the next day (if they remember the event at all).
But what do you think? Is alcohol a good way to determine someone's true behavior since their inhibitions are lowered, or does it make you say things that you don't mean? Or is it a little bit of both?
Edited by Hyroglyphx, : No reason given.
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." --John Adams
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