Question:
Hi, I’m wondering about the consumption and an individuals personality. Is it possible that a person becomes someone else, after drinking alcohol? That someone who normally, is mild, can verbally strike out against people who have ‘wronged’ them? How about against individuals who are involved with the ‘wronging individual’? Would someone drinking verbally strike out against them? Wouldn’t they remember, since it would be so against their norm?
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- Dr. Schwartz responds to questions about psychotherapy and mental health problems, from the perspective of his training in clinical psychology.
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Answer:
You are asking important questions about drinking alcohol because people continue to underestimate the danger that this drug presents when abused. The average person who drinks absorbs alcohol through such things as wine, beer, vodka, gin as well as many other achohol type beverages. Once imbibed, the alcohol is absorbed quickly into the blood stream and directly affects the nervous system including the neurons in the brain.
Once alcohol reaches the brain, which happens almost immediately, it causes the neurons to increase the production of dopamine. Dopamine is a brain neuro chemical that causes feelings of pleasure, particularly in the pleasure centers of the brain near the brain stem. This increase in dopamine is what causes the “high” feeling that all drinkers want to experience. All the recent research indicates that moderate drinking has beneficial health effects for adult men and women. Moderate is defined as no more than one or two glasses of wine or the equivalent in other drinks. Anything beyond one or two drinks results in the more dangerous side effects of alcohol consumption.
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One important side effect of drinking more than one or two drinks is that alcohol reduces inhibitions. What this means is that people begin to feel increasingly angry and outspoken as they continue to drink. Discussions quickly turn into arguments and arguments quickly become violent when people go beyond moderate drinking.
The drop in inhibitions also means that, when driving under the influence of even moderate amounts of alcohol, people become more aggressive, take more chances with how they drive and run increased risks of having a serious accident ending in serious injury or death of other people or the driver himself.
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What all of this means is that the answer to your question is yes, under the influence of alcohol, even the most mild mannered person can verbally and physically strike out against others whether those people have wronged them or not.
Too many people drink heavily under the mistaken belief that it is harmless and that what happens to others who drink cannot happen to them.
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