InInshirahislamically integrated self-help
ThemeAnger, alcohol and the body
Time5 minutes
MomentEveryday
1Alcohol does not add anger. It takes off the brake. Stimulants do the opposite job and press harder on the accelerator, and having both in you at once is the worst arrangement of the two.
medicalAnger, alcohol and the body5 minutesQur'an 4:43

What drink takes first is the part that holds you back, which is why nothing feels different from the inside. You are not angrier, there is simply less between the feeling and the mouth. A stimulant leaves that part in place and floods everything with drive and urgency instead. Knowing which one you are dealing with tells you what to expect from an evening, and it explains why the mixture goes wrong so reliably.

Islamic evidence

Do not come anywhere near the prayer if you are intoxicated, not until you know what you are saying (Quran 4:43). Not knowing what you are saying is named as the trouble, and that is precisely the capacity that goes first.

You who believe, do not come anywhere near the prayer if you are intoxicated, not until you know what you are saying; nor if you are in a state of major ritual impurity- though you may pass through the mosque- not until you have bathed; if you are ill, on a…

Qur'an 4:43

Psychological evidence

The alcohol myopia model, set out in a review of this literature, explains disinhibited aggression as attention narrowing onto whatever is provoking while everything that would have held you back drops out of view. It is a theoretical account rather than one experiment, and it fits the common report that a small thing somehow filled the whole screen. Treat it as a way of understanding what happened rather than a measurement of it.

Giancola PR, Josephs RA, Parrott DJ, Duke AA. (2010). Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · doi

Review detail

Why it works. One of them weakens what stops you and the other strengthens what pushes you, and both end up in the same place.

angerEverydayscholar review pendinganger-0258-brake-and-accelerator

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