Alcohol and Anger Management: Why Does Alcohol Make People Angry?
Alcohol and Anger Management: A Vicious Cycle
Our brains and bodies are delicate ecosystems impacted significantly by long-term substance abuse. The millions of interactions between neurotransmitters can get disrupted when they rely on the harmful chemicals in drugs and alcohol. Alcohol abuse leads to:
- Enhance anxiety and depression
- Increased risky, impulsive, and reckless behavior
- Self-harm and suicidal tendencies
- Alcohol dependence or alcoholism
- Psychosis, sometimes
When someone struggling with alcohol abuse feels these above symptoms, they often drink more to alleviate feelings of anxiety or depression, leading to even more harmful symptoms and drinking. The vicious cycle of “angry drunks” continues.
Why Alcohol Makes People Angry
Alcohol inundation lessens the brain’s ability to make rational decisions. Under the effects of alcohol, negative feelings such as anger are amplified and often expressed in harmful or violent ways. Often, issues of trauma or mental health disorders have overlapping co-effects with substance abuse and addiction, and anger is a part of unhealed emotional trauma. When people turn to drugs or binge drinking to deal with these issues, nothing is healed, and the hurt and anger usually kept under wraps are more easily released in unhealthy ways. Alcohol lessens the ability to understand the repercussions of our actions. We are more likely to be confrontational and misinterpret things, leading to angry drunks doing this they regret.
Learn about easily available poison at home here:
Abusing Alcohol to Cope With Stress
Self-medicating is using drug and alcohol consumption in an attempt to manage pain, deal with emotional issues, or cope with a mental health disorder. It’s easy to swallow a pill, start binge drinking, or use another substance to find temporary relief. The relaxing effects of alcohol seemingly offer solace for stress and anxiety, and someone dealing with these issues constantly may constantly turn to binge drinking as a way to avoid facing troubling emotions, thoughts, or behaviors.
Self-medicating with drugs or alcohol often comes from someone feeling they have nowhere to turn to address their disturbing thoughts and feelings. A history of binge drinking and unaddressed trauma can coexist with aggressive behaviors of anger or rage, which can often lead to violence when someone becomes angry.
Alcohol and Domestic Violence
Associations between alcohol and domestic violence share a complex link based on many factors and can be present in an otherwise healthy-seeming relationship. People who batter their significant others are also often angry drunks. Sometimes the victim of physical abuse has a substance abuse or alcohol use disorder, causing friction in the relationship or at home. When alcohol-related aggressive behaviors or drug abuse are present, people on both sides of the relationship need support and help from medical and mental health professionals.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) statistics reveal a significant link between substance abuse or alcohol consumption and domestic violence. Some of the data collected reports that alcohol-related aggressive behaviors are involved in men who try to kill their partners.
Domestic violence victims admitted to a hospital to treat their injuries often have alcohol or drugs in their system. Approximately 75% of domestic violence victims and their significant others are shown to misuse alcohol and drugs. Women who misuse drugs and alcohol are often victims of domestic violence in their current relationships.
Learning Anger Management in Addiction Treatment
Therapeutic intervention and rehabilitation treatment programs for alcohol use disorders or drug addictions and their strong links to becoming angry are central to the recovery journey. Psychotherapy at an accredited addictions treatment facility through inpatient programs, outpatient programs, or partial hospitalization programs can help an addict access recovery resources and heal connections to healthy feelings and expressions of anger.
When addressing the relationship between alcohol and anger and violence in a sober life, addicts can see themselves in a new light—someone who can move forward and heal. Contact WhiteSands Alcohol and Drug Rehab today to focus on your well-being as a serious goal. We’ll help you through to the end and end your days as one of the angry drunks.
If you or a loved one needs help with abuse and/or treatment, please call the WhiteSands Treatment at (877) 855-3470. Our addiction specialists can assess your recovery needs and help you get the addiction treatment that provides the best chance for your long-term recovery.
About the Author
Jackie has been involved in the substance abuse and addiction treatment sector for over five years and this is something that she is truly eager about. She has a passion for writing and continuously works to create informative pieces that not only educate and inform the public about the disease of addiction but also provide solutions for those who struggle with drug and alcohol abuse.