Do you tend to feel sad after drinking? Discover the effects of alcohol on your mood and personality.
Alcohol affects several parts of the brain. The frontal cortex—the region that regulates, among other things, self-control, social conduct and reasoning—is significantly impacted. When someone drinks past their limit, they can lose control of their emotions, their inhibitions and their ability to reason.
Alcohol intensifies our emotional response. For example, if you're going through difficult times in your marriage, it may cause you to cry your heart out just thinking about it—despite the fact that you're otherwise very rational and usually in control of your emotions.
Just as it does for emotions, alcohol affects certain characteristics of our personality. A person who occasionally exhibits aggressive behaviour can become downright vicious under the influence of alcohol. If you're a sensitive or emotional person to begin with, you may become even more so after having one drink too many.
We become highly suggestible under the influence of alcohol. If you're surrounded by your good friends (and everyone has little secrets to confide), there’s a very good chance you’ll start to reveal your innermost feelings and fears. Even if you're normally quite cool and reserved.
It's well known that alcohol decreases our inhibitions. That is to say, the filter that usually prevents us from saying or doing certain things (that are not socially acceptable) doesn’t function normally. We may reveal parts of our ego what we would usually keep hidden, such as pride or arrogance.
Our judgment and ability to reason is altered after drinking alcohol. We no longer consider the consequences of our actions, or the consequences seem minor. This is exactly what pushes us to engage in dangerous and destructive behaviour, such as drinking and driving.
Alcohol also impacts the way we regulate our emotions by suppressing our self-control and increasing our impulsivity. You may be set off into a burst of tears without any real emotional trigger. Then it becomes practically impossible to contain the emotion.
These are some of the factors explaining the erratic and unusual behaviour we experience when we drink too much. This includes the amplification of emotions which may feel overwhelming.
It's not that the emotions we feel under the influence of alcohol are wrong, but the outbursts are intensified, over-exaggerated, and tend to be expressed in a spontaneous and sometimes flamboyant way.
