Ah, a classic. All throughout my 20s, I put myself into this same pitiful loop as well. I cringe thinking about my behavior and relationship with alcohol during those days.

I have the exact opposite problem, I end up telling everyone that I’m drunk repeatedly.

You wake up the next day … “why is there so much duct tape on the fish tank? … Oh no.”

Balmer Peak

Ah yes - the good ol’ Ballmer Peak.

I’ll go to the hardware and grocery stores to gather supplies if I plan on day drinking. 10 out of 10 times my workshop and kitchen will be full of activities for the rest of the day.

I seem to be missing a bottle of vodka

Maybe your 10 year old has it?

This story started out normal, but ended kinda gay. Hooray for alcohol?

I somewhat feel like I’m being addressed here. I can only speak for myself but I’d agree, that this is more like being myself. Yet things/reactions that happened in my childhood/youth are ingrained so deep in my brain, that barriers where formed and the true self is somewhere in there.

Drinking partly breaks down those barriers. Good friends I had for a few years now also helped with this, so around them it became easier being “myself”.

I knew a guy who was a very outspoken but peaceful vegan, didn’t want to harm anything. Animal rights activist. Super nice guy, when sober.

But he also had a drinking problem, and totally flipped when he drank, you could almost see the switch happen in a few seconds when he was at 4-5 beers. His drunk personality was angry, paranoid, quarreling and violent, and he would often get blackout drunk and get into fights and whatnot. Got himself banned from several bars.

I didn’t know him well, but he probably had some trauma/bad shit in his life. He never talked about his family, except his grandmother who apparently had raised him, more or less.

I’m a bit like this, like less extreme at either end but I’m much more confident when drunk, I feel good about myself, I take pictures, I laugh loudly at jokes, I tell my own jokes. I think it’s closer to my true self. As a kid I was very outgoing, I’d talk to anyone, I was a theatre kid and did solos in the choir. Life has made me a much more reserved person, slow to speak and more happy to listen. Not a bad thing really but probably not my natural personality.

When I still drank I was very much like this! It’s not that I actively make a point to “suppress” my personality when I’m sober, it’s more like when I would drink every thought that popped into my head suddenly seemed like a great idea lol

If I had to put a name to this phenomenon, I’d say drinking just turns off the common sense filter in my brain

As a shy person, I hope that drunk me isn’t the true me. That guy was an asshole

Social anxiety is a bitch but a little bit of booze washes that little crippling demon away.

Yeah it’s probably the case. The alcohol sheds their filters and social reservations that other people don’t have at all in the first place. At least I feel like that when I drink. I don’t do parties without a few drinks for that reason.

As long as you’re not forceful about it and can take a hint, everyone could use a couple extra hugs in life in my experience.

I used to do the same thing when I first started drinking. Now drinking just makes me slightly more open but also gives me a headache (even after 1 beer)

Me too brother. I don’t realize I’m doing it until she pauses whatever we are watching and say, “look, I can listen to you or I can listen to the TV. I cant do both.” The guilt sets in and I, for the 6th time in the last hour, apologize for being a little chatter box… until something happens that I once again i must proclaim aloud to my wife who knew full well my apologies and self awareness dont mean shit in times like.