Does a person's true nature come out when he is drunk?

[coloradodem2005]

As opposed to sober? Discuss. Yes or no. Why?

[enigmatic]

1. For some.....

The dark side comes out when they are drunk; I'm not a mean drunk at all, just very mellow. But when I used to drink MD 20/20, friends used to say that when I was in the middle of the buzz I'd get these "satanic eyes" that freaked them out. So I stopped that..

[alittlelark]

2. I hope not. 99% of the time I am a respected member of our community

The 1% of the time I am sloshed shows a somewhat paranoid and sad personna. I hope it is just my 'dark side'.

[Jamastiene]

11. Off topic but important

I noticed Nov 2004 as the date democracy died. Wasn't that really back in Dec 2000?

[alittlelark]

12. Yes, it was, but I could not recognize it.

[KitchenWitch]

3. Not sure about that

but it lessens the resistance to acting upon all impulses.

[LynzM]

26. I'll 100% second that post

BTDT, and regretted it, a LOT.

[tuvor]

4. No. Just their drunken nature.

Does that clear things up?

[Seabiscuit]

Perfectly.

[Jamastiene]

5. Yes

I know mine does and I am one OPPRESSED person or at least I suppress my feelings normally because I know I'll meet the same rejection and humiliation no matter what I try to say to people. So rejects like me become crying drooling idiots that can't make friends for shit if they ever drink or do other mind numbing things around people. Hence, the drinker who decides never to go to parties or drink with other people. At least that is my experience.

[Jamastiene]

6. self deleted

Am I double posting somehow? I only posted once but it came up twice. It's happened twice tonight.

[Solon]

7. When I drank I was a silly drunk...

which really got me in trouble, believe it or not. If I started laughing, I couldn't stop, I do silly things, to the great amusement of my friends, etc. etc. Considering my sober personality, the only major difference is I became extrovert when drunk, introvert when sober.

[barb162]

32. I think what you describe is a good sign. Mean drunks are scary

people. Silly drunks probably are nice people.

[Not_Giving_Up]

8. It depends

My mother in law is (I have decided) a functioning alcoholic. Sometimes she is mean as hell after drinking, tearing into my husband for everything he's ever done. Sometimes, she can't quit telling us how much she loves us. It may have something to do with WHAT she's drinking, but I really don't know.

[Borgnine]

9. It depends on the person.

Personally, I'm the fun drunk guy. The kind who, more often that not, will wind up without their pants. Being inverted most of the time and liking it that way, I have to say that for me, no. A fictional person is created whenever I drink.

[loro mi dicevano]

14. I really do think you meant "introverted"!

:P

[Borgnine]

15. Sorry, I'm drunk right now.

[parasim]

10. It sure does tend to bring out the darker side of people...

generally speaking, from my experience. Just like reefer tends to bring out the goofier side of people. Both "true nature", just different parts of the personality. Of course, it's different with everybody.

[d_b]

13. I'd say it gives people balls

I know I'm more likely to say or admit things that I wouldn't otherwise

[Mabus]

16. Heavens no. That's what graduate school is for

Or at least that's what graduate school seemed to do for some of my classmates. It's amazing what personality types emerge under stressful situations. When I was in law school a lot of so-called well-adjusted people began manifesting neurotic behaviors and some people had some of their less flattering neurotic behaviors develop into almost psychotic behavior at stressful times. Only after we were totally stressed out did we turned to drink.

Actually, I think it depends on the person, why they are drinking and their mindset. I had an alcoholic roommate. If things were going well then he was generally a happy drunk. Everything was funny and he would drink until he quietly passed out. If something went wrong, like a phone call from his mom at a bad time (actually anything about his mom would depress him and put him in a foul mood in zero point six) or one of his projects went badly (he was a trust fund baby who made things), he could be a mean/mad drunk. Fortunately the latter was rare but usually when he was upset and then started drinking he would say the meanest/nastiest things to anyone within earshot. When he was mean/mad drunk he sounded just like his mom. It was usually about what losers they were (transference) and how they couldn't get anything right.

[Lisa]

20. I noticed a very strange thing at a northern station ...

Your mention of grad school brought back memories. This was a location with a lot of month-long stays, except for a small core of about a dozen people who were there for the entire summer. We were isolated from the nearby settlement, so we were pretty much on our own for certain times. One August, people were starting to get fed up with being away from families and home (and several of us were under considerable stress because we were under time deadlines for our work). Everything ground to a halt for more than a week, because a large forest fire nearby had either shut down air traffic or re-routed it (so we couldn't get supplies). During one 24-hour period, when the air was thick with smoke and the temperature was approaching 90 F, tempers became frayed.

There were a number of personality inversions -- not to say that we traded personalities, but the end result was almost like that. People began to act in ways which were quite unlike their normal selves. Tough macho guys got all weepy. The quiet efficient ones got into fistfights. The happy, lively ones who remembered everyone's birthdays retreated to their quarters and refused to come out. The heavy drinking happened the day after, when people had (somewhat embarrassed) returned to "normal". Almost a decade later, several of us happened to be together at a conference, and somebody mentioned "that day" -- everybody knew what he was talking about, and most people said they couldn't explain what had happened (and quickly changed the subject).

[Mabus]

21. That's weird

Isolation does strange things to people. It is one of the reasons I like watching "Survivor."

I did an intensive ten-week program of classes at a major university in 1994. It was a program that had been set up specifically for us and was pretty regimented since it was equivilant to one year of graduate studies. We were in classes for six to eight hours a day. During our "off hours" we were either in the library or studying in the dorm. Our rooms were all on the same top floor and the dorm had no air conditioning or accessible phones (the only working ones were behind the front desk and you had to be in mortal danger to use it). There were very few chances for any type of break except for the ones they had set up for us which were really lame. In otherwords, there was no such thing as "spare time" or contact with the outside world.

In the beginning I fared pretty well compared to the rest of group, having come from a large family I grew up with little privacy, personal space and a testosterone laden atmosphere (I was one of four women out of thirty-six participants). After the first few weeks people started getting weird. Insomnia became rampant and tempers flared as the temperatures went up and stayed up overnight. As the weeks wore on everyone's attitudes became more and more raw. By the end of the program people weren't talking to each other and the farewell party got cancelled. On our last day people packed up, there were no good-byes, just the attitude that we wanted to get the hell out of there and forget each other.

My nerves were so frayed. I held out until after the program, drove straight home (about 12 drive) and then I broke down and cried for several days.

Isolation is a bitch.

[tammywammy]

17. I don't think it's their true nature, as opposed to enhancing their

current state.
For instance, I'm usually a pretty happy person, thus if I'm a little tipsy I'm happier. But if I'm drinking while depressed, the depression only gets worse.

[huellewig]

18. Bingo!

If I have any reason to be mad before drinking. I just sit and think about it until I break. Usually I don't care about anything and get drunk and tell everyone how much I love them (I really don't but the booze turns my "you are tolerable" into "I love you".

My vote is for amplifies current state.

[tammywammy]

19. I have a co-worker that I really cannot stand

While somewhat tipsy, I told her how much I liked her, blah blah blah. But I was just in a good mood. Once I was sober, I realized I still couldn't stand her.

[Crankie Avalon]

22. I don't know...

...but maybe ol' G. Dubya might. :P

[skygazer]

23. What is a person's "true nature?"

How would you recognize whether it was their drunk self or their sober self? Or some other self? Perhaps we all have several true natures, or several complex parts to our nature.

I don't think there really is such a thing. I think we all have various dynamics of character that enable us to handle different situations differently. So that the person who comes out when placed in a combat situation, for example, is different than that of the loving husband and father. But not necessarily the "true" one, any more than the loving H and F is.

Humans are too complex for simplistic definitions. IMO

[samplegirl]

24. For some I think you just lose your inhibitions

in my case... it was my clothes.

[YankeyMCC]

25. You loose your inhibitions

So a person might reveal something about themselves when they are drunk. And what they reveal is true, meaning that if they get drunk and confess they have a crush on someone that's probably true no matter how much they try to blame the alcohol.

But it isn't their "true nature" it's their nature minus inibitions. A person's inhibitions are about of their nature.

[ImpeachBush]

27. Not me ...

My drunken behavior was typically very self-destructive and irrational. When drinking, I was often rude and boisterous and was too inclined to look for a little lovin'. Normally I'm on the shy side, pretty much reserved and quiet and polite.

[coloradodem2005]

28. I had been happy, rude and boisturous a couple of times.

I think I tried looking for loving once. Which is why I don't drink much anymore.

[GalleryGod]

29. I Call it " Truth Serum Time"

:shrug: IMHO

[ConcernedCanuk]

30. I had a girlfriend once that would NOT date a guy that couldn't drink .

.
.
.

so

that makes me a drinker then

her theory

was that if she could trust a man that was OK when drinking

he was definitely the person she knew as sober . .

not a bad theory I suppose ?

[bobthedrummer]

31. No, alcohol inhibits one's inhibition control.

The end results can be dramatic, but not an indication of anything. Some alcoholics are functioning in a blackout state for large portions of their lives.
That's my opinion.