Does drinking alcohol remove the overall integrity of a person?

The overwhelming consensus from the various articles I read suggest that alcohol reduces inhibitions. Because we care less about what we say or express under the influence of alcohol. We know when we are making alcohol related mistakes, the difference is that we do not care! A leading online addictions centre known as www.rehabs.com delivers this information:

As it turns out, published research proves that statement is surprisingly accurate. When drinking alcohol, the tongue is freed up to say exactly what is in a person’s heart. As blood alcohol levels continue to climb, the responses become increasingly primitive and hostile. In the past, it’s been easy to blame drunk and disturbing behaviors on alcohol, but that’s not cutting it anymore.

Simply put, researchers were able to show that alcohol consumption does not prevent self-control – it just makes people care less about the consequences.

the brain’s neocortex is responsible for evaluating circumstances and making sound decisions. In the presence of alcohol, however, this feature no longer functions properly. The resulting intoxication causes serious and often disturbing behavioral changes.

I WAS USING CAPS MORE,

  I WAS ALSO CHOOSING TO MAKE PARTS BIGGER THAN OTHER PARTS TO

EMPHASISE A POINT.

I wAS TYPING LESS EFFICIENTLY WITH caps and REGULAR TEXT GETTING JUMBLED Occasionally.

The larger text was me shouting! This does confirm that my communication was affected by intoxication. My neocortex was not kicking in and allowing me to shield my true feelings. My true feelings were anger. The one psychological trait I struggle with. I do not suffer fools gladly.

My own personal life traumas did in fact leave me a very angry person for a long time but counselling and personal investigation has allowed me to get that under control. My moral and ethical thinking now has a firm belief system in place that allows me to conform to society’s norms and keep that under wraps. I am a much calmer person than I used to be as a result of understanding the core reasons for my anger.  However when I am drunk these emotions can surface in moments of debate. I never get violent or go crazy but I can definitely enter a new level of assertion in making a point.

So to come back to the original question…. Does drinking alcohol remove the overall integrity of a person?

I believe this largely depends on a person’s unique neurological situation.

Lets do a hypothetical study of two personality types…..

Person A:  is more repressed, has more hidden emotional dysfunctionality. For this reason they have had more learning to do in terms of how to behave normally. They are likely to have gone through early life making more mistakes than a more balanced person because dysfunctional emotion has played a much larger part in their human interactions. They are more likely to have offended people, said the wrong thing, reacted in unreasonable ways. They are also more likely to have formed deep biassed opinions based on hidden resentments, anger, hurt or rejection etc…

Person B: Is not so repressed and has largely come to terms with who they are, why they tick the way they do, understand how past traumas have affected them and have as a result formed sound moral and ethical principles as a result of such study. Driven by rationality. For this reason they use less of their neocortex in decision making. Their thinking is based on core beliefs and principles. They may well have also made mistakes in early life however this person has grown past those mistakes and genuinely become a person who conducts themselves according to  beliefs processed from real personal understanding.

So  would alcohol affect these two people in the same way? 

To Answer this we will take some valuable information supplied by Drugs.ie – Drug and alcohol support

 So alcohol could indeed affect person A and person B differently. it would seem to depend on what our hypothetical subjects are repressing. Who normally relies on the neocortex to get through their day?

With person A;  hidden resentments and inner turmoil not normally expressed are far more likely to come to the surface and reveal themselves under the influence of alcohol. Without the neocortex kicking in this person is more likely to become self absorbed, angry, cry or even go into a rage!

Science backs up the conclusions of this Hypotheses

Ernest Hemingway’s

Final conclusion

After studying the back and forth of emails between myself and my friend during our debate, I was able to reliably conclude that I am indeed an Ernest Hemingway!  Phew!!!! 

I am without doubt the type of person who has a strong and reliable core of fundamental moral, ethical and principled beliefs based on self honesty. When I drink alcohol I do not lose this core mental structure. I did conclude that my expressions can change. I can become more determined and louder in my delivery. The anger dysfunctionality is more likely to emerge,  however the reliability of my content is not affected. My memory and relation to past events seems to be well intact also. I did check my memory on certain events with the analysis of dates and cross referencing with witness testimony and found that to be good.

If as the Oxford dictionary states “integrity”  is:  “The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” Then the consumption of alcohol does not in fact strip me of the core mental structure that allows me to be an integral person. 

I have reliably concluded that #alcohol does not remove my #integrity!

It would seem that Alcohol serves as a truth serum and actually serves to reveal what is repressed in a person!

Are you repressed?

How does alcohol effect you?

Please do let me know by leaving a comment below!  I look forward to reading it!!