Most people, when they get angry, tend to "self-medicate", i.e. do whatever it is they think will make them calm down, relax and feel better. Few people talk about what got them angry, generally they tend to either suppress or repress their anger, and many times this leads to a dangerous combination: anger plus alcohol.
Because of this common belief, that alcohol makes you forget, that it somehow makes everything better and your problems magically disappear, more and more people have the tendency to drink something when they get sad, angry or face some sort of problem. However, many times these reasons end up to provide excuses for the drinking itself. Once a drinking problem evolves, people no longer drink to feel better about one issue or another, they drink just to drink, and then think of all the issues they have in order to justify their drinking.
It has been proved that alcohol is a risk factor for heart disease, and statistics show that alcohol consumption is higher in people who experience intense anger. Only 22% of the poeple with only mild anger have two or more drinks at a time, while of the people experiencing more intense anger, 44% drink that much.
When it comes to emotions, alcohol is a numbing agent. How many times have you heard, whenever someone has had a bad day or a tough situation, the expression "Oh God, I need a drink". People drink mainly because they think it will relax them. Then, there's those who drink not only to forget their troubles, but also to numb their feeling at the moment, be it sadness, shame, anxiety, guilt, anger or other. The more they drink, the less connected they are to those feelings. And contrary to popular belief, drinking does not make you feel good when you're angry or upset. It just makes you feel less bad...for the moment.
Because of this common belief, that alcohol makes you forget, that it somehow makes everything better and your problems magically disappear, more and more people have the tendency to drink something when they get sad, angry or face some sort of problem. However, many times these reasons end up to provide excuses for the drinking itself. Once a drinking problem evolves, people no longer drink to feel better about one issue or another, they drink just to drink, and then think of all the issues they have in order to justify their drinking.
Anger and alcohol is a very dangerous combination, and many times, instead of reducing the anger or numbing the negative feelings, it intensifies it and lets it burst uncontrolled. This combination is responsible for countless cases of domestic violence, bar fights, sexual abuse, and sometimes even murder. Alcohol may seem like a temporary solution sometimes, but in the end it just makes everything worse.
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