What Does Your Drunk Personality Say About You?

If you experience a change in your behaviour when drinking, you’re not alone. But, have you ever wondered why alcohol can impact our personalities?

In this article,  we discuss the different ways that alcohol can affect someone’s personality. We’ll talk about what these changes in behaviour may indicate about a person, provide tips on how to maintain self-control whilst drinking alcohol and recommend support options for people struggling to overcome binge drinking or alcohol addiction.

What Does Your Drunk Personality Say About You?

The truth is, how alcohol affects your personality is an incredibly unique experience for everyone. So, although you may react to alcohol differently each time you drink, you’ve likely identified some common factors that occur when you drink alcohol, often referred to as your ‘drunk personality’.

Some people may experience very little or sometimes no change in their personality when consuming alcohol. However, in most cases, there are at least some noticeable changes.

Ria Health explains that your personality can change when you drink alcohol because of the way alcohol affects the brain. Alcohol becomes diffused into your bloodstream very quickly and can reach your brain in as little as 5 minutes. As this concentration of alcohol within your blood rises, the changes in your personality become more obvious.

Common Drunk Personality Types

Some of the most common reactions to alcohol are that it can make us more impulsive, lowers our inhibitions, and depresses the activity of our prefrontal cortex, which results in poor decision-making.

This is why we typically act and behave in different ways when we’re intoxicated, especially when compared to how we would conduct ourselves sober.

Ria Health suggests that the common drunk personality types can be separated into 5 distinct categories. We’ve provided more information on these common ‘drunk personality types’ below.

The Happy Drunk

Some people become more extroverted, sociable, and outgoing when they’re drunk.

They may feel more confident and comfortable in social situations. This is more common in people when they just drinking and are feeling tipsy, likely because of the initial alleviation of anxiety that most people feel when they drink; however, drinking isn’t a sustainable solution to relieving anxiety.

The Angry Drunk

For some individuals, alcohol can trigger aggressive behaviour or a tendency to become argumentative. This could be due to heightened emotions, decreased impulse control, or past experiences. They can become hostile under the influence and seek physical fights or provocation. Of course, this behaviour can be incredibly damaging, with the potential to put friends and family in danger.

The Affectionate Drunk

Alcohol lowers our inhibitions and can amplify emotions, leading some individuals to become more emotional, sentimental, or expressive of their feelings. This results in some people becoming more loving when they’re drunk but can also increase the likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behaviour.

The Reckless Drunk

Some people become less concerned about consequences or responsibilities when they’re drunk, leading to a more carefree or reckless attitude. Alcohol can make us act impulsively, and when taken to the extreme, impulse can be very dangerous when drunk, leading to situations like drunk driving or attempting an unsafe stunt.

The Sad Drunk

While alcohol is often seen as a social lubricant, for others, it can exacerbate feelings of sadness, depression, or loneliness, causing them to withdraw from social interactions.

It’s important to note that alcohol affects individuals differently, and a person’s “drunk personality” can change over time and across various situations. Moreover, excessive alcohol consumption can lead to negative consequences for both the individual and those around them, so it’s important to drink responsibly and be aware of how alcohol affects you personally.

What Your Drunk Personality Says About You

We often question if the way we behave or the things we say when we’re drunk are a subconscious part of ourselves that we’re able to repress when sober or if they’re simply random acts fuelled by alcohol.

Psychology Today explains that, despite many people believing that certain behaviours can be excused because you’re drunk, applied research on this topic has concluded that you still deserve to be held responsible for your drunk personality, no matter how much it differs from your sober personality.

What’s more, it’s also suggested that alcohol can change how you think, feel, and behave. It allows you to become freer in the way you communicate with others because your usual self-protective mechanisms aren’t as strong. Although many of us act differently when drunk, it doesn’t necessarily mean that drinking reveals your true personality.

We must remember that alcohol’s effects on our personality are temporary, and they may not accurately reflect our true personality.

Tips to Avoid Becoming Excessively Intoxicated

Maintaining control while drinking is essential for responsible and safe consumption of alcohol. Here are practical tips to help you achieve this:

• Avoid Peer Pressure: Don’t succumb to peer pressure to drink more than you’re comfortable with. Learn to say no and stick to your limits. If you’re constantly surrounded by people who are drinking excessively, it may be time to seek out new friends or different family members who don’t drink as much.
• Set Clear Limits in Advance: Decide on the number of drinks you will have before starting and stick to that limit. Decide on a plan for yourself and be firm about it.
• Assess your Current Alcohol Intake: Start a drinking diary to record how much you drink each day. This will help you to understand your drinking patterns, thus helping you to control them.
• Alternate with Water: For every alcoholic drink, have a glass of water. This helps pace yourself and stay hydrated, reducing the overall amount of alcohol you consume.
• Eat Before Drinking: Have a substantial meal before drinking. Food slows down the absorption of alcohol and helps keep your blood alcohol concentration in check.

Find Help Today

We hope this article has helped to explain the different ways in which alcohol can affect someone’s personality and what your drunk personality says about you.

If you’re engaging in binge drinking behaviour or think you may be struggling with alcohol addiction, don’t suffer in silence. Our fantastic team at Action Rehab can help you find the best and most suitable treatment, no matter your situation. Please reach out today to discuss how we can help in more detail.

Posted on Friday, September 15th, 2023 at 2:37 pm in Addiction, Alcoholism, Latest News.