It’s common for alcohol and anger to be stereotypically lumped together, but many people labeled “angry” while drinking may actually be experiencing aggression or hostility. There is also a theory that the disinhibition that alcohol creates raises the risk of violent behavior. Heavy drinkers are more likely to engage in risky behavior, which includes being violent and acting out hostile emotions, often against a loved one. Alcohol is linked to anger and aggression more than any other psychotropic substance.7 While not all drinkers become angry, someone who is predisposed to anger can become more aggressive when they drink alcohol. If you or someone you love is battling aggression and alcohol misuse, help is available. Consult with a mental health professional and/or an addiction specialist who can provide resources and recommendations for treatment options.
Alcohol and your health: Risks, benefits, and controversies
If your partner shows intense feelings of anger and a lack of self-control when drinking, reach out for help. Drinking helps someone escape their negative emotion of anger, and feeling angry lets them avoid the fact that drinking has become a problem. The two feed off one another and can be dangerous to their health and does alcohol cause aggression well-being. The more alcohol a person drinks, the greater the risk of harmful health effects.
Drinking Erases Worries about the Possible Consequences of
Additionally, there is evidence that chemical and biological factors play a role. People with higher levels of testosterone are more likely to be aggressive. Instead of being a natural emotion, someone with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) will express anger to avoid dealing with unpleasant or adverse circumstances, including the addiction. That’s because it reduces an individual’s self-control and internal inhibition.
Why does alcohol make some people angry?
Inhibiting factors set the threshold beyond which aggressive urges would result in aggression. The integrity of these inhibitory capabilities may be compromised by various disinhibiting influences, which decrease the effectiveness of inhibitory Twelve-step program efforts and, therefore, decrease the likelihood that a person will be able to resist an aggressive urge. A variety of disinhibiting cognitive processes support the “moral disengagement” that accompanies destructive human behavior, including alcohol intoxication 12, •13, ••14. The difference between inhibiting and disinhibiting influences constitutes a person’s “urge-impedance,” or the overall ability of an individual to inhibit an aggressive inclination. Alcohol Myopia Theory also makes the counterintuitive prediction that alcohol intoxication can actually decrease aggression, even below that of sober individuals.
Alcohol Disrupts Executive Brain Functions
According to Alcohol Myopia Theory, a drunk person should focus predominantly on those inhibitory cues and, as a result, be less aggressive. Increasing the salience of inhibitory information leads us to the somewhat counterintuitive idea that alcohol can actually reduce aggressive behavior. Prevention efforts can also be directed at the potential impact of bystanders, who are oftentimes present in interpersonal violence situations 42.
- This disruption can make people more sensitive to stress, less patient, and quicker to anger.
- Physical discomfort from dehydration, headaches, and poor sleep quality can further contribute to irritable moods.
- The extreme complexity of this relation, however, has been the focus of extensive theory and research.
Anger expression may also be confused with aggression or hostility, two consequences of drinking commonly cited in research. The link between alcohol and aggression has been established since the 1990s, and a World Health Organization (WHO) committee in the 2000s noted aggression is more closely linked to alcohol use than any other psychoactive substance. If you live with underlying anger challenges, for example, it may not be as noticeable when you’re sober because your frontal lobe allows you to manage your emotions and your behaviors. When you drink alcohol, those inhibitions are lifted, and if you’re feeling angry, you’re more likely to express it and do so in an exaggerated way.
