Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

[Kradle123]

:h

I think you all have the best recourses and experience on the planet to answer that truly tough question. :h

I know there's no hard and fast one answer wonders to such a question, but I am hoping that everyone's vast myriad of Struggles and Victories can start to shed some light ...:question2::


:h
Hugs,
:l

[mauritiusdodo]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

IMO both

For me I know that some of my worst personality traits are more intense when I have 'had a few' for example I get more argumentative and more emotional (I can cry at the drop of a hat at the best of times!)

In my experience AL has made me less confident, more paranoid, more anxious and I have a much shorter fuse.

I am hoping without AL I will be able to be the person I want to be and the person I know I am capable of being

[Supercrew]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a......?

Another unanswerable question to ponder.

Alcohol and my addicitive personality created alot of my personality, it also has magnified alot of my flaws and sometimes my strengths. All I know is I wouldn't be who I am today if I didn't walk in my shoes for the last 44 years. But at the same time without the genetics I have I might not still be alive or I might have never had a problem with alcohol.

I think you are trying to find a single answer that is different for everyone. Instead of focusing on the cause of the problem focus on the solution. Healing yourself and mending your relationships is probably the best thing you can do instead of trying to fiqure out what caused it. IMO

[Guitarista]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

Hi Kradle,

For me, alcohol is an illusion. It is a false sense of being, and it is a false, but real character.
It is not who i am at at my core, but it sure is me who utters those silly words and actions, that a sober me would most definately not. Reveal character or create it? Well, if i am creating character when drinking, then it is a false and illusory one, which has been my experience.

[mama bear]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

I know battling it has created great character strength for me.........

[pixie]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

My take on it: your character is a complex interaction of many different things - hope, self esteem, empathy, apathy, intelligence, fear, etc. When you drink, some of those components get altered, some don't, and those that do get altered do so to differing degrees. That creates a different mix of all the components that make up your character. It's a different overall sum of character, but still contains components that are from the sober you, some of which may be exaggerated or more evident, some less evident. But the complex interaction also creates new facets. It's like mixing a bunch of colors together - if you alter the quantity of some, the whole color changes, but the individual colors components are still present.

So I guess I'm saying that it's too complex to be one or the other - it's a little of both.

[LillyE]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

Both Guitarista's and Supercrew's words ring true for me. My genetics and history helped shape my addictive tendencies and living mired in addiction helped shape my character in turn - and not for the best. The more I am sober the more I am aware that conversations with people who are drinking - even if not excessively - start to feel less and less authentic the people drink.

There is a genuiness and honesty present when you're sober and truly yourself - not numbed or hyped up by something artificial. I feel more myself sober with all the good and bad that entails. I also think that drinking makes us love ourselves less and therefore we magnify our flaws in our heads when we're drinking, as well as do stupid things we wouldn't have done otherwise that feed the self doubt.

And I agree with Mama B too -- learning to live sober is a HUGE growing experience and I can't see how one can't come out the other side of it with your character massively altered - but in a good way.

I don't know if that answered your question at all K. Just pondering 'aloud'...

[Byrdlady]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

Wow, great thread....
What I found for myself is that it stripped away character....I consider myself to be the most dependable person I know....but not when I was drinking. I let people down, and that goes against everything I stand for. I lied. I actually led a double life...ugg.
I can see this now that I'm sober. Of course, you couldn't tell me anything then, I was like a teen...I already had all the answers! B

[So over it]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

In simple terms al makes me not me... Or who I want to be.
If I died tomorrow, would I want to be remembered as as my drinking self? Definitely no!
I want to be celebrated as me, by not drinking people will get to know the real me. I love the real me.

Hope this helps xx
Very interesting question though, got me thinking. Thanks kradle!:thanks:

[Trixiebelle]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

Such a great topic, and so complex too.

There is nothing I really disagree with here, lots of great thoughts and it's got me thinking about how much more confident I am when I'm not drinking. I feel so much happier and in control.

So in a nutshell, AL is shitty, it's fake and not someone you'd want for a mate.

[ITGeekChick]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

Reading this thread reminded me of someone. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to get to know a former MLB ballplayer when he started off the season with our minor league team. I had no idea who he was (I'm a hockey chick), I just noticed he was always cracking jokes and having a good time in the dugout. Anyway, he overheard me telling the strength coach that I was bringing my son to a game, and he came over and asked me to bring my son down the the dugout so he could say hi. My kiddo had just been diagnosed with autism, was almost non-verbal, and didn't really know how to interact with people, but I brought him down and this guy was so amazingly kind and patient with him. That player's kindness meant so much to me at a very rough point in my life.

Anyway, at some point I Googled the guy and discovered that he is more famous for his drinking than his playing. It was a surreal moment to me, because it felt like I was reading about someone else, not this person who took the time to interact with my kid.

My somewhat rambling point being, I don't think what we do when we're drunk defines who we are as people. I think it creates a fake version of ourselves.

[mario]

Does Alcohol Reveal Character or Create It ?

After the first drink your body reacts with a faster heartbeat and breathing, and you feel warm. You feel, smell, taste and see less acutely. You have more appetite and a stronger urge to urinate. You feel somewhat more relaxed and find it easier to strike up a conversation. If you?re used to drinking, you?ll notice that you may feel more like another drink.
If you keep drinking (about 5 units in an hour for women, and up to 7 for men) its numbing effects will be obvious on your natural inhibitions as well as your senses. Your mood and behaviour become more effusive and extroverted. You may become more cheerful and friendly, or more irritable and ?direct? or blunt. You can become overconfident in your abilities, and think you can do more than you really can, such as driving a car. You speak more loudly, partly because you can?t hear as well. Your reaction time, memory and judgement of situations are impaired. Your movements become clumsier and your peripheral vision is affected, causing ?tunnel vision?.
If you drink more (up to 9 units in an hour for women, and up to 14 for men), these effects are even stronger. Your self-criticism has disappeared and you are exaggerated and emotional: very happy, quick to cry, overly seductive, very angry, or aggressive. Your face gets red, your pupils dilate (enlarge). You may feel nauseous and vomit.
If you drink more (up to 13 units in one hour for women, and up to 19 for men) your senses are numbed and you become very confused. What you hear, see and do almost doesn?t register with you. You may lose consciousness (black out), and the next day you may not remember parts of the evening.
If you drink even more in this hour, your life is in danger. There is a risk of losing consciousness and choking on your own vomit. At 5 promille (0.5 percent alcohol in the blood) there is an acute risk of coma and death due to paralysis of the breathing centre in the brain.

I always drank to be/get drunk,So I went through a lot of the above very often.