So, I’ve never gotten drunk before. I’ve had a drink or two on occasion, but never enough to get more than buzzed. And realistically now that I’m on antidepressants I probably won’t any time in the near future.

Something I’ve wondered about is when it comes up in movies or real life news stories is: Exactly how responsible are you for things you do while drunk? Not legally, that’s more concrete, but practically. If alcohol inhibits your decision making capabilities, to what extent is anything done while drunk something you “decided” to do? You could still be held accountable for getting so drunk in the first place that this was able to happen, but that seems at least somewhat different from the actual act made during inebriation. Like say, drunk driving: Is the act of deciding to drive drunk merely the act of drinking a lot plus a roll of the dice to see if you end up making a decision you wouldn’t have made sober?

Like I said though, I have no personal experience with this, so maybe I’m way off base in understanding the nature of how in control a drunk person is of their behavior.

  • c0wboy dani@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    13·
    21 hours ago

    it’s crazy how many people are confidently answering “you never lose control from alcohol” when they’ve obviously never been blackout drunk.

    like, sure, there’s definitely a varying degree of effects to some point but when you black out (drink so much that you don’t remember it) you lose control of your actions. when you black out you do things that you would never do sober.

    most people don’t black out more than a few times in their life because it happens, they go “wow that was awful I sure don’t want to do that again” and then don’t. they are the lucky ones. then you have people like me (alcoholics) who want to be anything but themselves and want to feel anything but what they’re feeling so desperately that it happens a lot.

    no it’s not just “lowered inhibitions so you do what you want to do sober but stop yourself from doing,” your body goes into autopilot. it’s more like sleepwalking than staying up so late that you start feeling loopy once it hits that point. for an example, the first time I ever blacked out I tried to convince my mom that my dugout (block of wood for holding weed and pipe) would open the hotel room door… that’s not “lowered inhibitions” that’s a brain that’s not working

    now I’m a little annoyed by the amount of confidently incorrect in this thread but on a serious note I’m glad so many of y’all don’t get it. alcoholism is a terrible affliction that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. it’s a bad time, through and through.

    i think a part of why there are so many wrong answers though is because of the word “responsible.” you’re responsible for what you do while blackout drunk because you are the one who got blackout drunk. nobody else poured the booze down your throat for you. so, while what you do in that state is out of your control, you are entirely responsible for it.