Why Do I Get Angry When I Drink?

Do your friends and family refer to you as “the angry drunk”? If so, you’re not alone. Studies have long shown a link between alcohol and anger or aggression. Understanding why this link exists may help you to overcome your nefarious nickname.

The Link Between Alcohol and Anger

Alcohol is a psychoactive drug that changes your perception, mood, and emotions. Some people get happy, some get sad, and some get angry. Alcohol can elevate how you felt before you started drinking, so if you were angry about something that happened during your day, alcohol may heighten that emotion. This makes you more sensitive, so something small or irritating may make you react unnaturally.

Alcohol Myopia

In addition to heightened emotions, you may experience something called alcohol myopia. This is when you lose normal perception and logic, making you get irrationally angry over something that you would not normally get angry about. Your perception about what’s happening around you is altered, and your mind may sometimes blow up a small thing into something much bigger.

Risk Factors for Being an Angry Drinker

You may have risk factors for being an angry drinker, some of which you can control, and some that you cannot. These may include:

• Being a man: Studies have shown that men are more likely than women to become angry when drinking. This may partly be due to an altered, elevated perception of what it means to be “manly”.
• Binge drinking: If you are a binge drinker, you may be more likely to get angry and even aggressive. Drinking faster can increase the effects of alcohol on your perception.
• Peer pressure: If you have friends that you socialize with who become loud, aggressive, and angry when they’re drinking, you may become the same way when you’re intoxicated with them.
• Mental health disorders: Some mental health disorders can cause aggression or irrational behavior, and drinking will increase these symptoms.
• Personality: For those who are natural adrenaline seekers, alcohol may increase this desire for adrenaline, which aggressive or violent behavior can bring.
• Stress: Stress is frustrating, and when you drink, that frustration may become anger.
• Trauma: If you have experienced trauma, you may have repressed anger about what happened to you. That anger can come out when you drink.

Consequences of Alcohol-Related Anger

Unfortunately, alcohol-related anger can lead to serious consequences. These may include:

• Bad decisions: Your judgment is impaired when you’re intoxicated, so if you get angry over something that you shouldn’t, you may make a poor decision like starting an argument or worse.
• Violence: Anger in an intoxicated state may lead to violent acts, such as assault, or domestic violence.
• Impulsive behavior: if you are in an irrational, angry state and judgment has flown out the window, you may do impulsive things like cheating on your spouse or driving aggressively and causing harm.

All of these behaviors can lead to legal consequences, or injury to you or someone else.

Do You Have an Alcohol Addiction?

Often, people who become angry when drinking have an alcohol addiction or at least an unhappy relationship with alcohol. You can use 11 criteria to determine if you may in fact have an alcohol use disorder.

1. Drinking more than intended or for longer than intended
2. Wanting to reduce or stop alcohol use but not being able to
3. Spending excessive amounts of time drinking or recovering from drinking
4. Feeling cravings for alcohol
5. Failing to live up to responsibilities due to alcohol use
6. Having relationship problems because of alcohol use
7. Giving up activities that you enjoy in order to drink instead
8. Engaging in risky behaviors like driving while drinking or under the influence
9. Continuing to drink in spite of negative consequences like health issues
10. Needing more alcohol to get the same effects
11. Having withdrawal symptoms when you are not drinking

Having two to three of these symptoms indicates a mild alcohol use disorder, four to five is considered moderate, while six or more is severe. Even a mild alcohol use disorder requires treatment.

In any case, the only way for you to not be the “angry drunk” is to stop drinking. If you cannot do this on your own, then you need to seek treatment.

Treating an Alcohol Addiction

Alcohol addiction treatment generally comes in three forms.

Inpatient Treatment

Inpatient treatment for alcohol use disorder can be a detox program that lasts seven to ten days, or it can be a comprehensive program that lasts 30 to 90 days. The purpose of a detox program is to manage your withdrawal symptoms in a medically supervised setting. It is not generally effective as a standalone treatment and should be followed by another form of treatment.

A 30 to 90 day inpatient treatment program includes a period of detox, but also includes therapy.  You may also be treated for any co-occurring disorders that you may have, such as anxiety or depression. Medication may be part of the treatment.

The type of therapy most commonly used in alcohol addiction treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT teaches you to recognize your destructive thoughts and negative emotions and to challenge them using more reality based, positive thinking. It also teaches health coping skills to face challenges without alcohol.

Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHPs)

A partial hospitalization program (PHP) allows you to live at home while attending treatment for four to six hours per day, five days a week. The program may last anywhere from four weeks to ten weeks. The treatment consists of therapy similar to that of inpatient treatment, both in groups and individually.

Usually, a PHP program is a transitional step that occurs after inpatient treatment, although it can be an alternative to inpatient treatment when inpatient treatment is not feasible.

Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOPs)

An intensive outpatient program (IOP) consists of two to three hours of therapy several days a week for eight to twelve weeks. Often, sessions are held in the evenings so that you can still go to work or attend school.

IOPs can be standalone treatments, or attended after inpatient treatment, a PHP, or both.

Support Groups

Alternatively, some people with AUDs choose to attend support group meetings through a program like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) instead of going to treatment. While this may be effective for some, it’s not a standalone option for those who need medically supervised detox or who have a severe addiction. It can, however, complement other forms of treatment.

In Closing

Getting angry when drinking is not uncommon, but it can lead to serious consequences. Unfortunately, the only way to prevent it is to abstain from drinking. If you struggle with quitting alcohol, Bridges of Hope is here to help. We provide comprehensive and compassionate treatment to put you on a path to a healthier future. Give us a call today.