Why do I sometimes get Violent when I've had too much to drink?

[Jayde Pulford]

I've had a social drink ever since I was about 14 (too young I know). Between the ages of 14 and 17 there was a hand full of times I had way too much and and got aggressive and violent with the people closest to me. People I love. I got into trouble with the police over it and I am still ashamed that I could even be like that and not even remember! Anyway I'm in my 20's now but for the past 2 years it's happened again a few times on a smaller scale. I've got intoxicated and started crying and babbling about things that don't make sense or didn't happen. I've flirted with people other than my husband and got into a fist fight with my friend when she tried to take me home (she got a black eye) I've acted like a psychopath wreck in front of my husband. If he wasn't the lovely bloke he is he would of had enough of me by now. I only know the things I have told you because people have told me! I don't drink every day, I am not dependent on alcohol and I don't act like that every time I drink. It seems I don't always know when to stop and at the point of black out I start freaking out. I just want to know why? I'm not violent, I'm not aggressive. I'm a pretty shy peaceful person and I don't like conflict. I like a social drink but now I'm scared things will go wrong and I'll be humiliated. Does anybody know why this happens to some people? I don't believe that alcohol just takes away my inhibitions and makes me say and do what I really feel because I don't feel that way! I'd love to have a few drinks and a good time without worrying about this. Any words of advice?
I do like to have a smoke and I've never had a problem on that, unless I've been drinking too much at the same time.

[Plamen]

Drink less, start smoking marijuana. Trust me, I've been there.

[Geo]

I will sometimes throw sandwich meats onto my neighbors roof so the raccoons wake him up at night by trying to figure out how to climb up!

[R0ttweiler]

Im an alcoholic but i dont lose it much anymore, the stuff can really bring you down, i counter it Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony No. 25 in G minor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lC1lRz5Z_s

[Paul G]

You have to be in CONTROL of the alcohol............Not the OTHER WAY AROUND....

Its ok to get a little tipsy sometimes and maybe get a little DRUNK.....just try NOT TO get DRUNK AND STUPID......AT THE SAME TIME................Paul G

[Shoes]

practically ALL arrests for violence are a direct result of people drinking too much.

drunk people are volatile, with a lower tolerance threshold. you lose your inhibitions and aren't able to be rational.
research says that alcohol effects your serotonin levels and that makes people aggressive and violent.


The relationship between alcohol and aggressive behavior is well known. The modulating effects of personality and anger on alcohol-related aggression, however, are less clear. A study of drinkers' facial expressions of anger, published in the June 2003 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, finds that drinking alcohol may place those individuals with a tendency toward anger at greater risk of becoming aggressive.
"When most people think of anger, they probably think of the emotional state," said Amos Zeichner, professor and director of the Psychology Clinic at the University of Georgia, and corresponding author for the study. "This is when we get mad in response to some form of provocation. The personality trait of anger refers to a person's general tendency to experience chronic anger over time. Such an individual tends to search in his or her environment for stimuli that may activate feelings of anger, which may explain why he or she is more often angry compared with a person who does not have this personality trait."

Alcohol and Aggression Link

The association between alcohol and aggression is huge, according to Robert O. Pihl, professor of psychology and psychiatry at McGill University. "Alcohol is involved in half of all murders, rapes and assaults," he said. "But the dynamics of this association are complicated, which is why any research that focuses on elucidating this relationship is important for society in general."
Researchers recruited 136 male social drinkers between the ages of 18 and 30 years from undergraduate psychology courses and via local media advertisements. During a 20-minute session (followed by a 10-minute waiting period): the alcohol group (n=63) consumed two beverages consisting of ethanol and orange juice, bringing them to a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08%; the control group (n=73) consumed two beverages consisting of just orange juice.

Intoxicated Expressions of Anger

Participants were told they were then going to compete against another individual on a "reaction time" task, during which they might receive electric shocks from their opponent. While engaged in this fictitious task, which included both high and low shock levels or "provocation," the participants' experience of anger was unobtrusively assessed using the Facial Action Coding System, which classifies all observable facial activity into 44 unique "action units."
Intoxicated participants displayed more facial expressions of anger than sober participants.

"Practically, facial expression is probably one of the best ways of knowing if someone is angry," said Pihl. "Even infants can detect that emotionality. And frankly, how else are you going to measure anger? Asking somebody doesn't work because people are not very good at discerning their emotions, and sometimes they just lie. That's why Paul Ekman's Facial Action Coding System has been proven so valuable in discerning lying, anger, and other kinds of things."

Alcohol Brings It Out

Intoxicated participants also demonstrated a positive relationship between facial expressions of anger and the tendency to express anger outwardly after high (but not low) provocation.
"Alcohol intoxication brings out people's natural tendencies in the expression of anger," said Dominic Parrott, the graduate student who conducted the study. "Our findings strengthen the notion that alcohol increases the likelihood that certain drinkers, particularly those with the tendency to be angry and to express their anger outwardly, become aggressive when provoked."

"If individuals tend to express their anger outwardly," said Zeichner, "alcohol will 'turn up the volume,' so that such a person will express anger more frequently and more intensely. A heightened response will most likely occur when the provocation against the drinker is a strong one, and will less likely occur when the individual is experiencing a low provocation and is sober."

Source: University of Georgia.

whoops sorry forgot the link! - http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/abuse/a/blacer030616.htm

[MyWitness]

because that's what alcohols do, removing your inhibitions and causing all that to happen.

well... if you want to avoid the trouble, then stop drinking my friend, it won't be easy, it never will. But it saves lives, your life, your love one's life.

Good luck o