Alcoholism is a serious mental health issue, and while excessive drinking can cause anger and aggressive outbursts, there’s more to it. Alcohol is a depressant that impairs your brain’s ability to process information properly. When you’re drunk, you’re less able to think clearly and make good decisions than when sober. So when something bad happens—something that might cause even the sanest person to get angry—your brain isn’t able to deal with it as rationally as usual. Your judgment gets skewed, your emotions heightened, and your temper gets shorter.
How to Deal With an Angry Drunk Person?
Some people are more likely to get angry when drunk than others. If someone has a history of aggressive behavior when drinking heavily in the past, you’ll want to proceed with caution if they start acting that way. Here’s how to deal with an angry drunk person and keep you safe.
1. Let Them Know What They’re Doing
The first thing you should do is let the person know what they’re doing and how it’s affecting other people. This can be tricky—you don’t want to be judgmental. However, if a friend of yours is drunk and getting into fights or causing trouble, they need to know how their actions affect the people around them.
2. Talk to Them When They’re Sober
The next step to helping someone you care about is to try and talk to them. In a conversation when they’re sober, try establishing what the problem may be — are they drinking too much because of depression? Or because of stress?
If you can get them to open up and list the reasons why they might be drinking, start asking if there’s anything that you could do to help them with those issues — say, if they’re stressed out at work or school, is there anything that you can help them with to make it easier for them? If so, help as much as you can on your own accord.
3. Keep Yourself Safe
If the intoxicated person is violent or threatening, you may need to call the police for assistance. If they are not being violent, but you do not feel safe, it is okay to leave and ask someone else to help instead of staying with them. If you do stay with them:
- Keep an eye on your surroundings
- Don’t be afraid to call/yell for help
- Call the police if necessary
4. Don’t Leave Them Alone
You should never leave a drunk person alone. They could get hurt, and they could pose a danger to others. So if you see someone in need of help, it’s essential to make sure they get home safely.
First and foremost, don’t let them drive. Call them a cab or an Uber, or drive them yourself. If you’re driving them home, ask for the keys to their car so they can’t put themselves or others in danger by trying to drive drunk later on. If you’re with an intoxicated friend, stay with them until they are sober. They might fall asleep and choke in their vomit if they remain unconscious.
5. Try to Get Them Help
Before calling the cops or medical personnel, try to get the person to a safe place. Either take them home yourself or call them a cab. If there’s no way for the person to get home safely, and you believe they’re in danger of hurting themselves or others, call an ambulance and non-emergency police number.
Finally, if you believe your friend’s problem with alcohol is severe enough that they need treatment—either because they’ve begun showing signs of alcoholism or because they can’t stop binge drinking—help them find a qualified treatment center.
Stay Safe Always
If you are dealing with a drunk person, the first rule to understand is that they are not rational. They may seem very confident in their ideas or actions, but they are not thinking straight, and this can lead to dangerous situations where they do things like drive while intoxicated.
Aggressive behavior, violence, and even death have resulted from simply dealing with drunk people. Even if you know them well, it’s difficult to predict what an intoxicated person will do because alcohol changes their personalities and reduces inhibitions.
Addiction is a tricky disease, so please seek professional help to get your loved one to start treatment, hopefully.
Sources:
https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2013.0711
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