Author: Gary Jackson

How Does Alcohol Use Interact With Anger?

For that reason, abstaining from alcohol altogether may be the best way to prevent undesirable effects, such as relationship issues or legal trouble. Alternative solutions may involve setting drink limits, avoiding alcohol when you’re already having intense emotions, or opting to have emotional conversations when you’re sober. With some insight into factors that can cause rage or aggression while drinking, you can take steps to avoid certain behaviors. Additionally, more than three-quarters of study participants with the gene had mood disorders, personality disorders, and mood swings (10). Using a personality questionnaire, an aggression scale, and alcohol use and history assessments, researchers compared 156 people without the gene with 14 people who have it.

Rather than face the feelings, they are using the substance to “regulate” themselves. 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).

Links between Anger, Aggression, and Alcohol Addiction

Anger management and alcohol treatment programs must recognize and educate participants about the relationships between alcohol and anger. It’s equally important that psychotherapists highlight this interaction both with clients who consume alcohol and those in relationships with them. Additionally, this information should also be taught in schools to expand their understanding and hopefully reduce the prevalence of alcohol-related aggression. Identifying those factors that might contribute to heightened anger when consuming alcohol is important for individuals who have anger issues and those who treat them. The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy.

When you live with or care for someone who becomes abusive when they’re intoxicated, the consequences may well be more than just hurt feelings. Intermittent explosive disorder can begin in childhood — after the age of 6 years — or during the teenage years. It may be caused by the living environment and learned behaviors, genetics, or differences in the brain. These explosive outbursts, which occur off and on, cause major distress.

Low Regard for Consequences

This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care. The ultimate goal is to help them get into a treatment program that addresses their substance abuse and the way it causes them to behave. But this is often easier said than done, and mean drunks can turn violent when provoked — meaning that if you share a living space with one, your safety should be your main priority. One study published in a journal called Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience sought to explore factors that make some people more aggressive when they drink. The existence of an angry “crazy drunk person” is often featured in TV shows and movies because of the rising drama and action they bring to an entertaining storyline.

• Alcohol use disorder includes a level of drinking that’s sometimes called alcoholism.
• They found that people with HTR2B Q20 tended to be more impulsive and aggressive under the influence of alcohol.
• Rather than face the feelings, they are using the substance to “regulate” themselves.
• Those expectations can also arise from what we’ve learned about alcohol from family members and peers.
• If the addict chooses to seek recovery, knowing that they still have people who care about them and want to see them recover is crucial for their journey into sobriety.
• For example, if a person goes into a drinking experience with the expectation of alcohol helping them pick a fight with a partner later, that’s then likely to happen.

Alcohol is a depressant substance, meaning that it helps to suppress some of the “fight-or-flight” stress reactions that anger can induce. Repeated alcohol abuse as a coping mechanism increases the odds for developing problems related to alcohol, however. It also raises the risk for negative consequences of outbursts related to explosive and uncontrolled anger. Drinking cocktails that include energy drinks should be considered a possible factor for aggressive behavior as well. Researchers surveyed 175 young adults who mixed alcohol with caffeinated energy drinks about their verbal and physical aggression in bar conflicts.

Medical Professionals

When people have difficulty controlling impulses, trouble regulating their emotions, or may present a danger to themselves and/or others, medical detox is required. Medical detox programs are often the first stage in a comprehensive addiction treatment program. These programs usually last 5-7 days on average and commonly use medications to manage difficult physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms. Meditation can help clients to relax physical tension, become more self-aware, and work toward creating a healthy mind-body balance.

• Too much alcohol affects your speech, muscle coordination and vital centers of your brain.
• The easier route is to make other people responsible for their moods and overall emotional well-being.
• Intimate partner violence is of great concern when it comes to alcohol and anger.
• They will often blame innocent bystanders for provoking them to anger and meltdown into fits of rage over the smallest things because they demand that everything be their way.
• Theories suggest that for certain people drinking has a different and stronger impact that can lead to alcohol use disorder.

They feel as if they can do no wrong, and it is everybody else who is at fault. After you start treatment, follow the plan and practice the skills you learn. “Later on in the night, you may find someone crying or becoming overly emotional, and this is because, as the alcohol wears off, there is a big drop in serotonin below baseline,” Tietz explains. Alcohol’s ability to temporarily reduce anxiety can also intensify the urge to act on impulse.

If you feel that you sometimes drink too much alcohol, or your drinking is causing problems, or if your family is concerned about your drinking, talk with your health care provider. Other ways to get help include talking with a mental health professional or seeking help from a support group such as Alcoholics Anonymous or a similar type of self-help group. Over time Ryan came to better understand factors that contributed to his drinking, including his anger and increased aggression when drinking. Therapy assisted him in recognizing how past wounds contributed to his vulnerability to both anger and alcohol use.