Why Do We Like to be Inebriated? - Unfiltered Thoughts
A question that I was pondering while I was...well, inebriated.
It’s a strange concept…being drunk.
You’re insulated from reality, not fully in control of your thoughts or actions.
And usually feel like you could throw up at a moments notice.
Ask anyone who knows me, I’m a lightweight.
Yet, we still call a night out drinking with friends or family fun.
Interesting.
If time is our greatest asset, why do we willingly spend it in a state of altered consciousness?
An Escape
I think it starts with the harshness of reality.
Drinking, smoking, or engaging in other socially objectionable activities is often framed as an escape—an intentional break from the rigid thought patterns that dominate our daily awareness.
And I get it.
There’s a certain benefit to stepping outside yourself for a bit.
But it leads to a question that I can’t shake:
Why is reality worthy of an escape in the first place?
I mean seriously—why?
It doesn’t have to be a deeply existential, theory of everything answer to justify cracking a beer on a Tuesday night.
But, there should be an answer.
Is it boredom? (A big one for me)
Loneliness?
A fuck it attitude?
All valid.
And because it changes from person to person, from moment to moment, there’s no universal answer.
But I still think it’s important to ask the question.
If you’re not at least somewhat aware of the why, then how can you be sure of your agency in making a choice?
Was it really your decision—or just a reaction to the neurochemistry in your brain?
A Brief Tangent On Drugs
I’ve only recently seen the appeal of drinking. I never did in high school, and barely in college.
But when I started working 16-hour days, unwinding with a glass of wine suddenly made sense
Still, I never understood why people would willingly consume a poison.
The benefits never seemed to outweigh the costs.
As a result, for a long time, I saw alcohol as objectively bad.
Eventually I realized that this thought pattern was erroneous.
It left me wondering why society designates certain chemicals as “good” or “bad”.
As if they have any intrinsic morality to them at all.
For example:
Fentanyl was responsible for the deaths of 57,997 people from September 2023 to August 2024. That’s a staggering number, each one a real person with a story. And yet, in a hospital setting, the same drug is used to safely manage severe pain for patients everyday—-including for me during a 5-day hospital stint.Sources
My point here is that drugs are a much more complex topic than the typical black and white; Good or Bad dichotomy that we apply to them.
There are some fantastic books on this topic such as:
Tripped, by Norman Ohler
This Is Your Mind On Plants & How To Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
It’s a complex conversation, and one I think is worth exploring further.
Would you want to hear more about it? Let me know down below!
Importance of Addressing The “why?”
There’s danger in not being able to answer the question why we choose to alter our reality.
Again, it doesn’t have to be a deep answer.
But there should be an answer.
Because if we don’t decide for ourselves, our brain chemistry will decide for us.
And that road only leads downward.
The Ideal Reality
Ideally, life should be so engaging, so fulfilling, that breaking pure sobriety would feel like interrupting the best movie of all time (Interstellar, for those wondering).
A reality so compelling that escaping it feels more like a tragedy than a thrill.
There’s a question within that thought; is pure sobriety how life was meant to be lived? Is taking a “break” from it actually beneficial?
Interesting, but there’s only so much we can cover in one post!
I suppose, such a state is what we should be striving for.
Final Thoughts
I’m not saying you shouldn’t enjoy a beer or a glass of wine.
Hell, I probably will tonight.
I just want to think more deeply about things that we typically don’t even give a second thought.
I hope you’ll join me.
Thanks for tapping into my stream of consciousness today. I like this format and plan to share more “Unfiltered Thoughts” in the future.
Have a great week,
Brady