Worried about being angry when drunk.

Chewabacca

Hi guys. I thought this was the best place to post the thread. In the last month or 2 I've started to become angry when drunk. At first it didn't worry me but I think it's gone far enough. I finished exams yesterday and as expected from a student I went on the tear. Long story short I started a fight on this guy for absolutely no reason. Luckily my friends managed to stop it before either of us could get hurt. Worse still after that I was having a go at my friends for not fighting for me. I needed my friends brother to pull me aside and calm me down. It's only the second time that I've ever gotten in to a fight when drunk and although I used to fight competitively I absolutely hate when people fight on the street.

Now to the psychological stuff. When I turned 18 I was training martial arts (boxing, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing) up to 5 times a week. Back then I occasionally became angry and irrational when drunk. Over a year ago I stopped training and right around then I became a very cheerful, jolly drunk. I always put this down to that I was basically getting punched in the face for fun and when you fight competitively you're likely to want to fight when drunk. I still never started fights, just was very irrational, short-tempered and basically angry.
As stated earlier, in the last month or two I've started to become angry when drunk. The thing is I haven't been under stress at all. I haven't gotten any really bad news, everythings fine at home, no problems with friends. There's relly nothing going on in my life to make me have anger pent up inside me. The only thing I can think of is slightly worrying that I've failed continouos assesment in college and that I won't be able to go on to second year but it really hasn't been bothering me.

I'm considering not going out on the piss any more because like you all I hate that stupid drunk guy that's starting fights on anyone and the thought of being that guy disgusts me.

Any feedback is much appreciated and I thought that this would be a good place to go for honest answers. Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for all replies.

Subliminal Stimulus

You have two choices. Quit drinking OR quit drinking.

I was in a position very similar to you, and I'm afraid that these problems will only get worse over time.
Best to knock it on the head now and save yourself the 'I'll be able to keep control' bull.

scudzilla

You're obviously a pretty decent guy in the first place, or you wouldn't have made the OP.

Give up the drink, even for a few months and see how ya get on.

If something makes you do these things then remove it, in this case the something is drink.

Good luck wit not drinking, it's not actually that hard, i've hardly drank for 2 years, never had a problem, just couldn;t be arsed with it

You said that it started when you stopped training, when you were training you obviously had an outlet for your aggression, you've removed your training therefore your outlet has gone. How about resuming the training??

MeditationMom

Good advice in the previous posts! In Chinese Medicine anger comes from the liver, so most likely your liver just doesn't process the alcohol very well and you truly don't get angry for any psychological reasons. It also doesn't sound like you drink for psychological reasons. That should make it be pretty easy for you to just stop drinking.

Exercise helps the liver, reducing alcohol and fat intake does, eating and drinking sour foods or drinks helps the liver, and fasting. Fasting, or eating less, can make people angry and irritable if they have low blood sugar, so that is not always a good idea.

I liked your post. How easily people would just dismiss someone who gets into bar fights never realizing that person could be upset about it himself, confused by it, and asking on line for some insights and help. Good luck to you!

sadie9

Are you normally an angry, aggressive, demanding person or are you a likeable, friendly get along with people well sort of person?
Like the Martial Arts would not incite you to anger during the course of a class?
My hunch is you may have some repressed anger over issues in your past. These could even be seemingly small childhood things. Where you were very angry over stuff, but chose not to show it in order to get along with someone, or because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
Some very 'nice' people (I'm one of those) in fact have a lot of repressed anger, because they don't normally express anger.

You could try a bit of counselling/psychotherapy if you could afford it, to discuss it and see where it leads. With the aim of getting in touch with all your feelings more, and being able to correctly process the feelings, including anger in the right way....

JuliusCaesar

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