Understanding Alcohol and Anger’s Connection

Alcohol reduces your ability to process multiple sources ofenvironmental information; therefore it compromises your ability to evaluate the intentions behind the actions of people around you. Ria Health offers several FDA-approved medications for alcohol use disorder. When combined with counseling, this approach is proven highly effective. Excessive drinking has numerous impacts on your body and mind, ranging from mild to severe. Learn which signs to look out for, and how to care for your well-being.

Who is at Risk of Becoming an “Angry Drunk?”

Alcohol dependence can be closely tied to aggressive behaviors. Researchers have studied the connection between anger and aggression for years. There’s a reason the angry drunk is such a familiar stereotype. However, it’s about more than getting easily upset or having a short fuse when you drink alcohol. The outcomes of alcohol and anger can be hazardous, causing traumatizing situations for the inebriated person and the people around them.

Move Your Body

Anger management therapy is one of the best options available for helping you understand your emotions and find effective ways to cope with them. People who are the closest to the alcoholic who struggled with anger often get the most abuse. You may find yourself walking on eggshells to avoid an alcohol-induced anger outburst. BetterHelp offers affordable mental health care via phone, video, or live-chat. Alcohol severely decreases cognitive function, which makes it harder to problem-solve, make safe decisions, and control aggression. Lack of impulse control can make someone fly into a fit of rage or become aggressive rapidly.

Addiction Treatment Programs

Maltreatment during childhood—emotional, sexual, or physical abuse or neglect—can have long-lasting effects, resulting in a significant percentage of all adult psychopathology. This link is even evident in historical records of ancient Greece in the 4th and 5th centuries. However, it is also well-documented that alcohol does not always cause aggression. Alcohol may lead the same person to feel happy one day and enraged the next. The reason for these different effects is now better understood and may be the key to preventing alcohol from causing aggression. Support groups and 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous can also provide much-needed help.

Health Challenges

As a whole, alcohol use naturally heightens emotions, and for people who are predisposed to aggressive tendencies, it can quickly make bad scenarios worse. Research has shown that thought suppression may contribute to alcohol-related aggression. One study supporting this finding enlisted 245 men with a history of heavy episodic alcohol use (Berke et al., 2020). They completed surveys assessing their endorsement of traditional masculine norms, use of thought suppression, and both trait and alcohol-related aggression. It was found that thought suppression mediated the association between the toughness masculine norm and alcohol-related aggression.

• Mindfulness practices like meditation, breathwork, and stretching allow us to reduce the stress caused by distressing emotions and increase our capacity to process them rather than run, numb, and escape.
• Everyone breaks down booze differently due to variations in enzymes called ADH and ALDH2.
• The influence of alcohol on emotional regulation is complex and varies greatly among individuals but now we’ve got some insights into why folks react so differently under its sway.

Can drinking alcohol cause long-term personality changes?

She adds that not everyone who misuses alcohol develops these changes and that genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors can also play a role. On the other hand, a 2020 Swiss cohort study found aggression and hostility to be common personality shifts related to alcohol use. Your personality is typically defined by who you are in a usual state, not who you are when you’re under the influence of mind-altering substances like alcohol. General consensus suggests that your personality is a combination of persistent behaviors and dominant characteristics — such as your interests, emotional patterns, and inherent value system. Typically, anger will lead to aggression unless something happens to resolve the situation.

• Repeated alcohol abuse as a coping mechanism increases the odds for developing problems related to alcohol, however.
• Lastly, mindfulness techniques such as meditation or yoga could help manage stress levels which often trigger aggressive drinking episodes.
• “It can be difficult to be aware of the impact of your emotions due to alcohol’s effect on the brain,” Metcalf explains.
• In other words, for some anger that they would normally control when sober manifests itself once alcohol disrupts the brain chemistry.
• While drinking alcohol isn’t the sole reason for assault, it plays a substantial role in whether someone commits a violent crime.

The Connection Between Alcohol and Anger

Maybe your friend is under a great deal of stress and their insulting you is out of character. Perhaps you think about the many potential negative consequences of getting into a verbal or, even worse, a physical fight. This information, which could actually help you to hold back from being aggressive, is typically less salient than the overt, verbal insult. Everyone breaks down booze differently due to variations in enzymes called ADH and ALDH2. These genetic differences can influence how much someone is affected by alcohol – including whether they’re more likely to become aggressive after drinking.

Attention Seeking Behavior: Decoding the Signs and Understanding its Roots

Receive encouragement from people worldwide who know exactly what you’re going through! You’ll also have the opportunity to connect with our licensed Reframe coaches for more personalized guidance. Consider cutting back or abstaining from alcohol, identifying triggers that make you angry, and practicing stress management techniques like meditation. Seeking professional help from a therapist can also be beneficial. If you have been the victim of violent or aggressive behaviour, report it to the police. Call 999 if anyone is in immediate danger, 101 it it’s not an emergency, or you can report crime to the police online.

Additionally, researchers have linked cortisol to the development of metabolic disorders and to the development of psychiatric disorders such does alcohol cause anger as depression. The body’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis system works hard to maintain a delicate physiological balance, but when alcohol is added to the mixture, it puts the body at even greater risk for harm. Physiologically, stress is defined as anything that challenges the body to function in its usual fashion.