I’m sure some of you, or someone you know (twenty-one or over), has experienced the effects of having one too many alcoholic beverages, and instead of being social with all of your friends, you end up bawling irrepressibly and revealing all of the problems in your life to a complete stranger a whether its your relationship failing, or your parents being so overbearing. Alcohol makes all of us more emotional, whether guys become more aggressive and angry or women become sad and extremely sensitive. I I’m sure many of you wonder why people become so emotional when they have had to much to drink, and I am able to explicate a scientific step-by-step analysis of what is occurring when a night out on the town with your friends becomes a public sobbing fest. Your stomach lining absorbs some of the alcohol that you initially consume, but the rest of it passes through your small intestine and flows directly into your bloodstream. The water in your bloodstream carries the alcohol across the blood-brain barrier and straight into your cerebral cortex, where it disturbs the flow of neurotransmitters across the cortex’s synaptic connections. First, the alcohol merging into your brain works to decline your inhibitions. After this, the alcohol then begins to soak into your limbic system, also referred to as the six structures that form the emotional center of your brain. Once your limbic system is affected, you are completely intoxicated. When you’re sober, your limbic system controls your behaviors and emotions. After consuming a few drinks however, your limbic system increases the intensity of your emotions. This means it is easy for you to go from extremely content to ferocious and angry to inconsolable in only a few short seconds. Since all of our emotional responses have been so tremendously disrupted, we end up exaggerating or misunderstanding our other peoples feelings and even our own. This undoubtedly clarifies the reason break ups and fights in bars.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/why-do-we-get-emotional-when-we-drink.html
http://www.lookatyourdrinking.com/you-and-alcohol/psychological-effects.aspx
It’s cool to know how the alcohol affects use and now I know why some people I see out get to be that way. I agree with Carlynne about using alcohol as an excuse to let their guard down. If something bad happens people tend to blame alcohol as their excuse, or that they weren’t in the wrong mind set. If you feel yourself get to that point when you are drinking, you should take yourself out of the situation and leave.
It’s interesting to know exactly what alcohol does to people who drink (who are twenty one and over of course). It effects the body in so many ways and seeing people become emotional while intoxicated is definitely something that can be quite apparent. However, I also think sometimes people want to be emotional or call up an ex and blame alcohol for it. “I didn’t mean to text you that, I was drunk.” Statements like that make you question whether it truly was the beverage or if people want to sometimes let their guards down and be emotional and they use alcohol as a coverup incase others do not react well to it.
This is really cool! There’s always that one person (at a 2- and-over event of course) who begins to cry or get really angry. I always thought these people just needed to go to sleep, but now I know they had way too much to drink! It’s kind of scary to know that a beverage can affect your limbic system and cause your mood to change.
You mentioned that the neurotransmitters are halted due to the alcohol traveling through the blood, and this causes the person to become more emotional. I do believe that this scientific explanation could explain the reason as to why so many drunken people get overly emotional. However, I also think that alcohol is an excuse for people to let their guard down. An emotional guard that is usually up while the person is sober. So when the person drinks too much alcohol, they find it is easier to let their true emotions out. Either explanation I think supports the idea that emotional people shouldn’t get drunk.
So many people get so emotional when they drink and they never understood why. I thought maybe it was just because they were thinking to much about a specific unfortunate event after consuming to much alcohol or something they saw in the moment triggered their episode of wild emotions. I didn’t know that when alcohol got into the limbic system that emotions increased.