So, I’ve never gotten drunk before. I’ve had a drink or two on occasion, but never enough to get more than buzzed. And realistically now that I’m on antidepressants I probably won’t any time in the near future.
Something I’ve wondered about is when it comes up in movies or real life news stories is: Exactly how responsible are you for things you do while drunk? Not legally, that’s more concrete, but practically. If alcohol inhibits your decision making capabilities, to what extent is anything done while drunk something you “decided” to do? You could still be held accountable for getting so drunk in the first place that this was able to happen, but that seems at least somewhat different from the actual act made during inebriation. Like say, drunk driving: Is the act of deciding to drive drunk merely the act of drinking a lot plus a roll of the dice to see if you end up making a decision you wouldn’t have made sober?
Like I said though, I have no personal experience with this, so maybe I’m way off base in understanding the nature of how in control a drunk person is of their behavior.
if i notice myself trying to convince myself that i’m fine to drive, i don’t drive
“If my mind is doing things to my mind on its own, I just use my mind to tell my mind not to do that to my mind.”
It’s such a hard question to answer because it varies by person, by dose, by context, etc.
It’s not like you are there at the time feeling “oh I’m only 80% in control of myself here” there’s no little sober pilot inside your flesh-mech running things, the person trying to determine how in control they are is impaired by alcohol.
I mean I am like that when I’m drunk, but that’s also who I am in general. When I was super drunk in college I would self-regulate and stop drinking and like go somewhere safe to sober up. I also never hooked up with people drunk and stuff like that.
But many folks aren’t like that, you’re right. They are not monitoring their sobriety and thinking about how impaired they are… they are just in the moment feeling what they feel and reacting accordingly.
You might have a pilot you trust, but he’s still drunk
and he knows it. the issue with a lot of drunk people who do stupid shit is they don’t know they are impaired or drunk. often, in fact, they vastly overestimate themselves and their abilities due to the alcohol impairment. hence why they do stupid shit.
the only mitigating factor is that you’re so relaxed physically from being drunk, you’re less likely to hurt yourself. hence why drunk drivers are injured less than their victims.
There’s still a little rational thread though. Like last week I was way too drunk to ride my bike home and I thought I was fine. After I fell twice I was like “ok, we have reviewed the data and it says perhaps we are too drunk.”
get drunk.
it’s different for everyone. some people lose total control, others don’t. everyone has different chemistry and body mass and alcohol affects them differently both physically and emotionally.
generally drunk people are not falling down or slurring words… for most people who aren’t alcoholics being that drunk is dangerous and is a sign of alcohol poisoning.
alcohol mostly makes you more of what you are. so if you are a shitty aggressive irresponsible person, alcohol will enhance that. if you are friendly and nice it will make you friendly and nicer.
for some people it ‘flips’ their personality… but that’s because they are hiding who they are on the inside often due to the fact they massively overcompensate.
That is an often repeated but false saying.
People are not who they truly are when drunk.
If someone is going through a tough time they might act out when drunk, and deeply regret it the next day because they acted exactly how they are not.
Or someone might be going through a great time and revel a bit too much and in ways they would normally not. And again feel great shame and regret the day after.
Anyone that’s been really drunk has done stupid shit. That stupid shit definitely doesn’t define who they are.
It’s such a nonsense. Imagine telling every alcoholic that has gotten sober that they are defined by all the fucked up shit they did when drunk and that’s who they really are.
what you do is who you are. whether you regret it or not or whether you intended it or not.
just because you feel bad about something doesn’t mean you didn’t do it.
yeah and I understand that is ‘harsh’ and lots of people don’t agree. But also I don’t identify as catholic, and yet other people ID me as catholic because my parents were, even though never believed in god or religion, funny how that works.
lots of alcoholics I knew admit they were shitty people, they just decided to change. The took accountability for their past and didn’t deny it. and plenty I have met never did that and whine about who it’s not their fault because of alcohol.
Which type do you think relapses and which one do you think stays sober?
“Emotionally” is most of it I think. Shitty drunks WANT to be shitty and they feel excused.
yeah, i mean that’s not exclusive to alcohol. it’s their general way of thinking. other people make them feel a certain way so what they did was totally justified, no matter how awful it was. they would not have hit you if you had been nicer to them!
some folks go through life operating on an entirely reactive level.
The best description I’ve come up with:
Alcohol makes you act without thinking, and cannabis makes you think without action.
Drunken actions can be understandable, but you’re still responsible for them. If you set a valuable antique on the edge of the roof, and a stiff breeze knocks it to the ground, it’s still your fault. Sure, you didn’t cause the wind that made it fall, but if you hadn’t put it in such a stupid place, it would still be in one piece.
Most drunk accidents are exactly that. You don’t really think things through like you normally would, so you can get up and sing karaoke without worrying about embarrassing yourself and talk to people that intimidate you, or things get misplaced or broken, or you agree to temptations that you would otherwise resist.
Alcohol makes you act without thinking, and cannabis makes you think without action
I like that one.
I’ve been drunk a lot and high a lot. I had never thought to articulate the difference between them in that way. When I’m drunk, I remember what I did but I don’t remember what the hell I was thinking. When I’m high, I have weird thoughts but don’t do much.
I’ve also been both at the same time and collapsed on a bus feeling like it was going 200km/h. NEVER do both at the same time
I’ve never really had an issue with doing both. I just end up feeling half drunk and half high.
But I know a few people who can’t do both, and others that have to do them in the correct order.
Of course all drugs affect different people differently but doing more than one drug at a time is something to be cautious about. Apparently alcohol increases THC absorption when you do both at the same time. After I collapsed on the bus, they gave me electrolytes intravenously to try and get the THC out of my system.
It’s important to note there were other factors involved, it was a hot day, I tend to get motion sick anyway, and I’m autistic which makes me prone to sensory overload
You ever stay up so late you get loopy, maybe even giggly? Can’t think straight because you’re tired? It’s about that level. It feels different and more fun, but it’s about comparable to the level of loss of control and mental capabilities.
You still have complete control you just start to believe that you might actually do the things that are possible. So for example you don’t jump out of a window thinking you can fly but you do tell Wendy her eyes are like a cool breeze on a hot day and whenever you reach out you want her to be there. Then you sleep and forget it all and wake up sober and have flashbacks all day about what you said to your ex teacher that you just happened to bump into last night. You have those flashbacks for the rest of your life.
I don’t handle alcohol well, so I don’t use it that much.
Almost always, I find myself heavy-headed, and if I insist, it takes me a bit of effort to stay upright, although it’s manageable, just it’s not “automatic” anymore.
Other than that, I tend to talk and rant a bit too much, and even in the moment I tend to realize that I shouldn’t be saying some things or shouldn’t be talking as much but I just “ignore” this instinct, like “do I need to really bother with stopping my mouth?”
I think the best way to describe is that you still have total control, but infinite courage. So you might do very stupid stuff that you kind of always wanted to do but never dared to.
I always like the quote: “Sober thoughts, drunk words”.
Usually explains how some people become drunk assholes.
I get chattier, friendlier and then really tired. Then I fall asleep.
It also loosens inhibitions but I’ve never done anything illegal/immoral whilst drunk
Being drunk doesn’t change who you are or make your body perform actions that you didn’t choose (other than digestive system side effects like puking). It’s always you in control of your body, making choices to do things or to not do things. It won’t make a good person turn bad. It can make you less inhibited and make it harder to think clearly, but that’s not going to make you forget how to be decent.
To expand on that if I may:
What alcohol does is impair your judgement and your motor control(reaction time)
So things you normally would not do for a variety of reasons(like, yell at a giant easily angered bouncer), now seem like a great idea.
It doesn’t make you do things, it allows you to do things your sober self might find reprehensible into outright vile.
This is also true of all drugs in my experience. People that don’t even consider doing things that harm themselves and others don’t start doing it when high/drunk/wasted.
How much control of yourself when depends on how drunk you get and how fast you drink.
I drink regularly but I rarely get drunk. With that said I have gotten drunk and it is just silly good fun, then was a time when I did a bunch of shots too fast and wound up on the floor of my bathroom shitting my pants.
Now on the question of are you responsible or not for your actions when drunk. You are completely responsible for your actions. Being drunk does not remove the consequences.
To answer both questions, it really depends how drunk you are. To the extreme of black out, what is the experience like? You wake up somewhere hungover or still a bit drunk not knowing how you got there and not able to remember anything past a certain moment. How much control did you have? Not much. In that state any flying by emotion or idea can really take charge regardless of how bad it is. Most don’t remember doing or saying any of the things they did or said.
The main effect for me is to lower inhibitions. Things that in a sober state I would merely think of doing or saying are things that in a drunk state I might actually do or say. It exaggerates personality traits which is probably why it makes some people more fun (eg. me) and others more aggressive…
There was a meme online of “drunk or a toddler”, which is a decent explanation of being drunk. You are still yourself, but your id is far more in control than typical. For some people who self medicate with alcohol (bad idea), they’ll likely describe their drunk selves as a more open and honest version of themselves; in the wine, truth.
First it makes me happy, then tired, then sick. Movements get a little slower. It depends on the person I guess but I always felt doing things you otherwise wouldn’t seems more like an act or an excuse.
