The 4 Kinds of Drunks

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The 4 Kinds of Drunks
By Heath Shive

Ian Fleming wrote a short story collection of James Bond adventures entitled Octopussy and the Living Daylights. According to one line from the book, there are 4 kinds of drunks:

1. Sanguine: the happy and social drunk
2. Phlegmatic: the sad and pitiful drunk
3. Melancholic: the pensive and brooding drunk
4. Choleric: the angry or violent drunk

You can be any one style of drunk.  Or you can be a different drunk at different times.

But why?

To the science!

This Is Your Brain on Booze
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Alcohol is absorbed into your bloodstream.  Eventually the alcohol will reach your brain, where it gets absorbed by your cerebral cortex – the outer layer of the brain that processes sensory data, motor functions, and your perceptual experience of the world.

This is where the trouble begins.  Since alcohol is a depressant, it impairs the synaptic functions between the nerves in your brain.   

If you keep drinking, the alcohol begins to work through the cerebral cortex and into your limbic system. 

The limbic system of your brain is where all your emotions are!  

In the limbic system, the alcohol starts impairing the synapses – which in turn makes it harder for you to process and control your emotions!

As Kevin Kampwirth writes in his Mental Floss article: “The limbic system, which would typically keep our emotions in check, now subjects us to mood swings and exaggerated states.” 

According to Fleming, these “exaggerated states” are classified as sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, or choleric.

But they all end in hangovers.

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