Re Project Management

The long-term consequences of alcohol abuse can be a variety of health problems, including mental health disorders. While the above tips can help, the most effective way to ensure that you’re not getting aggressive when under the influence of alcohol is to cut back on your drinking or take steps to give it up completely. Not only will this mean that you’re more able to keep your anger under control, but it will also result in numerous other health benefits. Decreased cognitive function due to alcohol also means that a person can’t think straight.

“I have yet to see a case of domestic violence where drugs of abuse were not involved,” Dr. Forman says. We might intend to meet a friend for one drink, and that might lead to a second or third, and then another bar. Then, three hours later, we are inebriated, disoriented, and drunk-dialing or stumbling home and starting a fight with our partner, which we either don’t remember—or don’t want to remember.

Alcohol is not anxiety treatment

It’s little surprise that lying or being dishonest about your drinking can drive a wedge between you and your partner. Years later, when McCormick decided to quit drinking altogether because it was hindering her work and day-to-day life, her husband had a hard time understanding why. He’d seen her drinking decline and didn’t think sobriety was necessary.

• When you drink alcohol, your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) rises.
• You may also feel sad when you are drinking alcohol or recovering from a hangover.
• It might also cause you to misread situations, resulting in you getting angry when you would normally be calm and rational.
• The aggression measure used in this study was developed in 1967 to test aggressiveness through the use of harmless but somewhat painful electric shocks.

There are a number of cognitive, neurobiological, and social factors that can influence how alcohol affects aggression. While psychotherapy is the primary approach for co-treatment of alcohol use and anger management, medications like mood stabilizers and those used to treat substance withdrawal may also be part of your treatment plan. Most of these treatments come from the framework of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

How Heavy Alcohol Use Can Damage Memory Function

This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care. The best decision you can make is often the most difficult because it may involve putting your life, your family and your career on hold. 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.

Peter Giancola, a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, co-authored the paper with Bushman and led the experiments used in the OSU study which support Bushman’s argument. Often, when children, spouses and other loved ones spend time close to someone who becomes abusive when they drink, their lives change for the worse. They were also required to respond to the Consideration of Future Consequence Scale (CFC). It was found that those scoring alcoholic rage syndrome lower became significantly more aggressive than those who had higher ratings on the CFC. The findings were explained by emphasizing that concern for the future involves greater prefrontal cortex resources that help inhibit the excessive impact of alcohol. Simply said, the researchers believe that the dampening effects on the prefrontal cortex contribute to why intoxicated players become more biased toward hostile cues and care less about social etiquette.

Why Does Drinking Release the Rage? Understand Alcohol-Related Anger and Aggression

As you continue to drink and your BAC goes up, you may start to experience more severe effects. When they aren’t under the influence, you can try speaking openly with them about how their actions make you feel, how they’re affecting your family and why something needs to change. Many people with “angry drunk” tendencies also end up on the wrong side of law. The lack of inhibitions that causes them to lose their temper can lead to bar fights, road rage, impulsive violence (even against friends and loved ones) and other events that may cost them a night in jail or worse. This has an effect on the life of the person exhibiting this consistent anger. It makes people — even their closest friends — less willing to spend time with them.

• Alcohol-related aggression has manifold social and neurobiological causes.
• Attending one-on-one therapy with a licensed therapist can help you work through anger issues in a more private setting.
• Because alcohol changes the chemistry of the brain, it disrupts your thinking, judgement, and emotional response.
• This can not only worsen pre-existing problems but also lead to dependency and addiction.

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 impairs cognitive function, which means it is more difficult to problem-solve, control anger, and make good decisions when drinking. Decreased cognitive function also means it’s more likely for you to misread a situation and overreact. For example, if you’re intoxicated, you might perceive someone bumping into you by accident as a provocation and respond aggressively. Anger expression may also be confused with aggression or hostility, two consequences of drinking commonly cited in research.

Life can be good again and we’d like to show you how.

While not all individuals acting up at a bar have that particular gene mutation, this biological response could explain their impulsive behavior as well. Finally, heavy drinkers or those who reported alcohol dependence were six time more likely than casual drinkers to say that any alcoholic beverage made them feel more aggressive. Cognitive training that focuses on improving the ability to delay gratification could help in this regard (20) and thus positively affect abstinence outcomes (21).