Why Does Drinking Release the Rage? Understand Alcohol-Related Anger and Aggression

If you don’t know how to express anger, your frustrations can make you miserable or cause you to explode in an angry outburst. As a whole, alcohol use naturally heightens emotions, and for people who are predisposed to aggressive tendencies, it can quickly make bad scenarios worse. Reframe supports you in alcoholic rage syndrome reducing alcohol consumption and enhancing your well-being. You’ll meet millions of fellow Reframers in our 24/7 Forum chat and daily Zoom check-in meetings.

How to Prevent and Treat Alcohol-Related Aggression

Relapse is prevalent, with almost sixty percent of people having one major episode a year after completing treatment. But, anger problems are often cited as one of the main culprits of relapse among recovering alcoholics. In the end, solving a drinking problem isn’t solely about the absence of substances, but rather a complete overhaul of your lifestyle and behaviors. It’s essential to find new healthy habits that fuel your soul and give you a new purpose.

• But as you continue to drink, you become drowsy and have less control over your actions.
• Chances are, you’ve either seen this in your friends or you’ve seen it in yourself.
• If that’s something you feel you’re unable to do, we can support you with other methods of treatment.

Recovering Alcoholics and Anger

I have learned that when Tom gets like that, it’s best to just agree with him. These complications affect several bodily systems, including the GI, neurological, cardiovascular, and endocrine systems. A number of researchstudies have confirmed something that makes a lot of intuitive sense – peoplewho often get very angry and act aggressively while sober are very likely toget even more aggressive and angry when drunk. In some people, the initial reaction may feel like an increase in energy. But as you continue to drink, you become drowsy and have less control over your actions. Alcohol use disorder can include periods of being drunk (alcohol intoxication) and symptoms of withdrawal.

• It’s easy to disregard tough emotions in the moment if you know you can “take the edge off” once you have a drink in your hand.
• Lack of emotional support, social isolation, disengagement from recovery programs, and not treating co-occurring disorders can contribute to dry drunk syndrome.
• Drinking helps someone escape their negative emotion of anger, and feeling angry lets them avoid the fact that drinking has become a problem.

4 Prediction of Alcohol Involvement Outcomes

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Massage therapy can help to relieve physical tension and therefore promote mental clarity. Expressive therapies provide healthy, and often nonverbal, outlets for the expression of negative and difficult emotions. Anger management issues may be rooted in a specific mental health disorder in some cases. People can be more prone to alcoholic rage based on genetics, life stressors, antisocial personality disorder, or personality traits such as underlying irritability.

Research has shown that thought suppression may contribute to alcohol-related aggression. One study supporting this finding enlisted 245 men with a history of heavy episodic alcohol use (Berke et al., 2020). They completed surveys assessing their endorsement of traditional masculine norms, use of thought suppression, and both trait and alcohol-related aggression. It was found that thought suppression mediated the association between the toughness masculine norm and alcohol-related aggression.

How to find support for anger and alcohol misuse

If you or a loved one is struggling with alcoholism, contact FHE Health today and get on the road to recovery. One study published in a journal called Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience sought to explore factors that make some people more aggressive when they drink. Another study of 249 heavy drinkers similarly found that alcohol intoxication predicted higher levels of IPV in those who reported low psychological flexibility (Grom et al., 2021). By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism.

Decreased cognitive function also means it’s more likely for you to misread a situation and overreact. For example, if you’re intoxicated, you might perceive someone bumping into you by accident as a provocation and respond aggressively. This article discusses some of the facts behind the stereotype of the “angry drunk” and explores the connection between anger and alcohol. This makes you more likely to binge on junk food, call ex-lovers on the phone late at night, drive while drunk and also to act verballyor physically aggressive to people who irritate or anger you. If formal rehab seems too much, starting with an AA support group can help.