Excessive drinking can impact one's personality by altering their moods and emotions. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), alcoholism can alter one's personality because of its effects on an individual's brain function especially when there is too much alcohol intake.
Alcohol increases irritability and decreases inhibitions. With this combination, there is a chance you could be more mean or aggressive toward others. Alcohol clouds your judgment and leads to communication problems. This is especially true if the other person is also under the influence.
Although different stages of alcoholism can affect people in very different ways, certain alcoholic personality traits are present among problematic drinkers. This includes a constant focus on alcohol, blaming others, frequent excuses, uncontrolled drinking, financial struggles, shifting priorities, and recklessness.
The first is a low frustration tolerance. Alcoholics seem to experience more distress when enduring long-term dysphoria or when tiresome things do not work out quickly. Alcoholics are more impulsive than most. Secondly, alcoholics are more sensitive.
The most prevalent personality disorders among alcoholics were obsessive-compulsive (12%), followed by antisocial, paranoid and dependent personality disorders (7% each) (53).
Alcohol affects emotional reactions and worsens anxiety. Also, alcohol may cause a loss of emotional control. Furthermore, alcohol may cause unpredictable mood swings, decreased inhibition, a false sense of confidence, increased aggression, feelings of worthlessness, and suicidal depression.
Experts believe the reason some people become aggressive when drunk is due to the way alcohol affects the brain. Binge drinking increases the likelihood of both becoming aggressive or angry and also being on the receiving end of someone else's temper.
While under the influence you'll probably act differently, but that doesn't mean drinking reveals who you really are. Alcohol lowers inhibitions, leading you to act more impulsively and care less about how others adversely regard your behavior.
Alcohol affects the part of your brain that controls inhibition, so you may feel relaxed, less anxious, and more confident after a drink. But these effects quickly wear off. The chemical changes in your brain can soon lead to more negative feelings, such as anger, depression or anxiety, regardless of your mood.
Alcohol interferes with the brain, reducing our ability to think straight or act rationally, it can cause some people to become angry. Evidence shows that while alcohol may not always be the direct cause of a person's aggressive behaviour, it is often a contributing factor, and some people even become violent.
Anger Suppression
We've said it once and we'll say it a million times more: alcohol lowers inhibitions. This can manifest itself in particularly ugly ways if you're a person with a lot of suppressed anger.
Alcohol abuse can cause signs and symptoms of depression, anxiety, psychosis, and antisocial behavior, both during intoxication and during withdrawal. At times, these symptoms and signs cluster, last for weeks, and mimic frank psychiatric disorders (i.e., are alcohol–induced syndromes).
Redness in the face, especially the nose and cheeks - There are many facial signs of alcoholism, including enlarged blood vessels, causing redness in the face. In the long term, these vessels can over-dilate, leading to spider veins on the skin.
Narcissism and alcoholism are different conditions, but they can occur simultaneously and may share some overlapping symptoms. While both conditions can be challenging, certain approaches can help individuals overcome the potential complications of these disorders.
Alcohol abuse can cause people to develop narcissistic personality disorder as they become defensive about their substance use and whether they have an addiction.
Narcissists are defined by entitlement. Lacking empathy and feeling superior, they give themselves full permission to do whatever the want despite the rules or costs to others. Alcoholics sacred entitlement is drinking. They may lose everything and everyone in their lives before they will give up alcohol.
One of the physical characteristics of someone who is a heavy drinker is bloodshot eyes. This change in appearance is due to alcohol abuse swelling the tiny blood vessels in the eye, enlarging their appearance and making the eyeball look red.
Stay calm and approach them in a non-aggressive stance, open, empty hands in a friendly, non authoritative manner. Try not to tell them what to do, but offer them choices and make your movements nice and slow. Be confident yet non-threatening with them and show genuine concern for their well-being.
While it might not come with some of the same red flags as other mental health conditions, alcoholism is considered a mental illness. That is one of the reasons why treatment for alcohol abuse and addiction involves both physical and psychological components.