Why Some Alcoholics Become Angry, Mean and Aggressive?

Groups like Al-Anon or Al-Teen are available to help support people who have been affected by a loved one’s alcoholism. People who are the closest to the https://ecosoberhouse.com/ 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. Lack of impulse control can make someone fly into a fit of rage or become aggressive rapidly. That’s because it reduces an individual’s self-control and internal inhibition.

Effects of alcohol-related aggressiveness

In addition to aggression, alcohol alone modulates dopaminergic neurotransmission, where even the cues of alcohol could increase the dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (Melendez et al., 2002). Dysregulation of dopaminergic neurotransmission in AUD has been demonstrated in several brain imaging studies (Leurquin-Sterk et al., 2018; Chukwueke et al., 2021). Factors such as personality traits and comorbidities with other psychiatric disorders along with environmental stressors influence how one could engage in violent behaviors.

Societal Implications of Angry Drunken Behavior

This includes everything from public health campaigns to legal policies surrounding alcohol-related offenses. Support groups and 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous can also provide much-needed help. These communities offer peer support, allowing individuals to share experiences and gain insights from others who’ve battled similar issues.

4 Theoretical, Clinical and Future Research Implications

A slightly different finding to the previous study was seen in an investigation conducted by Hoaken and Pihl (2000). The researchers assigned the participants (54 males and 60 females) to compete in a competitive aggression paradigm in an intoxicated or sober state. This suggested that both the women and men can be equally aggressive and alcohol does not seem to play a prominent role in the gender biases in aggression. In Finland alone, 491 persons were killed within 4 years period and ~82% of the perpetrators were intoxicated with alcohol, where 39% of them were alcoholics and 45% of the reported murders were committed with knives (Liem et al., 2013). In Singapore, out of 253 homicide offenders, 141 Drug rehabilitation individuals (56%) were suffering from AUD and 121 offenders (48%) drank alcohol within 24 h preceding their criminal offense (Yeo et al., 2019).

Impact of Alcohol-Related Aggression

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• While internal factors play a significant role, the environment in which drinking occurs can be equally influential in determining whether someone becomes an angry drunk.
• Expressive therapies provide healthy, and often nonverbal, outlets for the expression of negative and difficult emotions.
• Since your judgment becomes clouded when you’re intoxicated, a simple misunderstanding can quickly turn into a bar fight.
• An interesting fact is that alcohol amplifies our underlying emotions at the moment of consumption.
• No one expects you to recover from an alcohol use disorder alone—nor should you.

Recognizing the risk factors and potential effects of alcohol-related aggression is a crucial step toward addressing this issue. Alcohol may make the individual appear to be calm and relaxed and nothing more. It may be years before a consistent escalation in consumption might begin triggering negative effects in their life. These signs are overt and obvious, as the personality changes are usually negative.

While under the influence of alcohol, some people feel that aggression is an acceptable way to either assert dominance or defend themselves. Now that we touched on how exactly alcohol can impact a person’s behavior, it’s important to understand why exactly that all happens, including the neurological and psychological mechanisms at play. If you or a loved one experiences aggression or anger when drinking, it could be a sign of a larger issue.

• Neither gender had any significant impact on the results (Gan et al., 2015).
• If you’ve ever wondered why a refreshing drink sometimes leads you down Anger Avenue, you’re not alone.
• By taking the proactive steps mentioned above, you can pave the way towards lasting recovery and a healthier lifestyle.

But entering treatment is the best way to show the people you’ve harmed with your anger that you’ve made a commitment to change. People known to have anger outbursts on alcohol can end up destroying relationships. Even the people who care about them the most can be unable or unwilling to continue to tolerate the abuse.

These traits can make it harder for people to control their emotions and impulses when their inhibitions are lowered by alcohol. Additionally, the influence of alcohol on the central nervous system can dampen inhibitory functions in the brain, impairing judgment and self-control. Often, when children, spouses and other loved ones spend time close to someone who becomes abusive when they drink, alcohol induced rage their lives change for the worse. The challenges faced in this arena have provided her with a strong base of practice in assessment, treatment, and case management. Recent studies have shown a connection between alcohol-induced rage syndrome and factors like neuroinflammation and the serotonin 2b receptor gene.