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Photographer: Andrew Harnik / Pool via Bloomberg
Like so many others, I listened and watched the hearings and the general frenzy surrounding Brett Kavanaugh's candidacy as a distressed citizen. This is a difficult story, even traumatic for our country, which will take a long time to understand if Kavanaugh is finally confirmed or not. But more and more, as a psychiatrist, I am responding to the surprising centrality of beer and alcohol consumption in the political narrative.
In his angry defense before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh said with defiance that he loves beer: "I've been drinking beer with my friends. Almost everyone did it. Sometimes I had too many beers. Sometimes others have done it. I liked the beer. I still love beer.
He dodged the questions to find out if he had ever experienced any blackouts.
Senator Amy Klobuchar. Photographer: Aaron P. Bernstein / Bloomberg
When Senator Amy Klobuchar asked him if he had been drinking until he could not remember the events, he said, "You are talking about blackouts. I do not know, is not it?
When Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked Kavanaugh if the reference to "Ralph Club" in his high school yearbook was related to alcohol consumption, Kavanaugh avoided answering. Instead, he said, "I like beer". Surprisingly, he then asked the senator, "Do you like beer, senator, or not? What do you like to drink? Whitehouse tried to move on to another question. Kavanaugh repeated, "Senator, what do you like to drink?"
By one count, he mentioned the beer 30 times in his testimony.
While the nation is fascinated and troubled by claims and counterclaims, I thought it would be helpful to clarify some points related to alcohol consumption. I am talking here about my clinical experience as a psychiatrist who practiced for 35 years.
Beer is not a mild form of alcohol
In Kavanaugh's testimony, the main role of beer was implicit in the current assumption that a person who drinks beer is less likely to have a drinking problem than, for example, a person who drinks vodka. Alcohol is alcohol. You can get drunk beer and scotch. You can be an alcoholic if you only drink wine or beer.
Breakdowns of alcohol
An alcohol breakdown is different from fainting. A person who experiences an alcohol breakdown retains consciousness but has amnesia for events in some parts or the entire episode of consumption. You may look "normal" to continue a conversation or even drive, but you run out of memory the day after your experience or behavior.
It was once thought that blackouts were a sign of alcoholism. According to current knowledge, anyone who drinks may be the victim of a power failure. They occur when a rapid spike in alcohol levels interferes with the encoding of memories. Drinking too much, too fast can cause a power failure. Several studies have shown that about one-third of adults report having had an alcohol-related power outage at some point. The frequency of outages is highest among students and for most people it resolves as they enter the labor market. A history of repeated or continuous power outage after college is a risk factor for the development of alcoholism.
Interestingly, although power outages are relatively common, an individual's response to such an experience may indicate a risk of alcoholism. Young drinkers who become normal social drinkers tend to be embarrassed and frightened by the experience and limit their intake accordingly. Young drinkers who experience many breakdowns but do not recognize a problem or change their drinking behavior are much more likely to develop serious problems with alcohol abuse. Plus, some people seem genetically more prone to unconsciousness when they drink a lot of alcohol quickly.
Alcohol is a "disinhibitor"
It's really important. Alcohol removes emotional and behavioral inhibitions. In human society, we depend on our brain's ability to inhibit our speech and behavior in order to maintain basic civility. Otherwise, you would act on every impulse and vomit all your nasty thoughts. However, releasing inhibitions is one of the reasons people like to drink, and in low doses it is quite harmless. A drink or two allows most people to feel freer and more relaxed. But disinhibition also means that you can and will say and do things you would not want to do when you are sober when you drink a lot. Some people who are otherwise calm and reasonable become aggressive and warlike.
Intoxication causes personality changes
Ask any child who has grown up with an alcoholic parent. They report the anxiety of coming home from school and ask, "What mother will welcome them home? Or "what daddy" will enter the door after work. Their normal parent, or the drunken parent tense, angry, dizzy, maudlin, unpredictable or violent? This experience of the intoxicated parent as a foreigner living in the body and mind of their mother or father is extremely traumatic. Some clinicians, including myself, believe that persistent and chronic consumption leads to lasting changes in personality, even when the person is not intoxicated. For example, a tendency to anger quickly, or malice and attack when these traits seem to contradict the overall personality of the individual.
Organizing your life around drinking is a harbinger
This is a worrying sign when alcohol consumption is the central organizing principle of a person's social life. I have worked with people who, in a hurry, can not find any way to spend time with friends other than going to a bar. Others can not imagine ending the day without a drink. I have known young men who have joined a fraternity and made friends for life, have learned to work in a team and have grown in an impressive way. And I have known other people whose fraternity experience is a night of drunk nights that has lasted three or four years.
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Photographer: Andrew Harnik / Pool via Bloomberg
Like so many others, I listened and watched the hearings and the general frenzy surrounding Brett Kavanaugh's candidacy as a distressed citizen. This is a difficult story, even traumatic for our country, which will take a long time to understand if Kavanaugh is finally confirmed or not. But more and more, as a psychiatrist, I am responding to the surprising centrality of beer and alcohol consumption in the political narrative.
In his angry defense before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh said with defiance that he loves beer: "I've been drinking beer with my friends. Almost everyone did it. Sometimes I had too many beers. Sometimes others have done it. I liked the beer. I still love beer.
He dodged the questions to find out if he had ever experienced any blackouts.
Senator Amy Klobuchar. Photographer: Aaron P. Bernstein / Bloomberg
When Senator Amy Klobuchar asked him if he had been drinking until he could not remember the events, he said, "You are talking about blackouts. I do not know, is not it?
When Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked Kavanaugh if the reference to "Ralph Club" in his high school yearbook was related to alcohol consumption, Kavanaugh avoided answering. Instead, he said, "I like beer". Surprisingly, he then asked the senator, "Do you like beer, senator, or not? What do you like to drink? Whitehouse tried to move on to another question. Kavanaugh repeated, "Senator, what do you like to drink?"
By one count, he mentioned the beer 30 times in his testimony.
While the nation is fascinated and troubled by claims and counterclaims, I thought it would be helpful to clarify some points related to alcohol consumption. I am talking here about my clinical experience as a psychiatrist who practiced for 35 years.
Beer is not a mild form of alcohol
In Kavanaugh's testimony, the main role of beer was implicit in the current assumption that a person who drinks beer is less likely to have a drinking problem than, for example, a person who drinks vodka. Alcohol is alcohol. You can get drunk beer and scotch. You can be an alcoholic if you only drink wine or beer.
Breakdowns of alcohol
An alcohol breakdown is different from fainting. A person who experiences an alcohol breakdown retains consciousness but has amnesia for events in some parts or the entire episode of consumption. You may look "normal" to continue a conversation or even drive, but you run out of memory the day after your experience or behavior.
It was once thought that blackouts were a sign of alcoholism. According to current knowledge, anyone who drinks may be the victim of a power failure. They occur when a rapid spike in alcohol levels interferes with the encoding of memories. Drinking too much, too fast can cause a power failure. Several studies have shown that about one-third of adults report having had an alcohol-related power outage at some point. The frequency of outages is highest among students and for most people it resolves as they enter the labor market. A history of repeated or continuous power outage after college is a risk factor for the development of alcoholism.
Interestingly, although power outages are relatively common, an individual's response to such an experience may indicate a risk of alcoholism. Young drinkers who become normal social drinkers tend to be embarrassed and frightened by the experience and limit their intake accordingly. Young drinkers who experience many breakdowns but do not recognize a problem or change their drinking behavior are much more likely to develop serious problems with alcohol abuse. Plus, some people seem genetically more prone to unconsciousness when they drink a lot of alcohol quickly.
Alcohol is a "disinhibitor"
It's really important. Alcohol removes emotional and behavioral inhibitions. In human society, we depend on our brain's ability to inhibit our speech and behavior in order to maintain basic civility. Otherwise, you would act on every impulse and vomit all your nasty thoughts. However, releasing inhibitions is one of the reasons people like to drink, and in low doses it is quite harmless. A drink or two allows most people to feel freer and more relaxed. But disinhibition also means that you can and will say and do things you would not want to do when you are sober when you drink a lot. Some people who are otherwise calm and reasonable become aggressive and warlike.
Intoxication causes personality changes
Ask any child who has grown up with an alcoholic parent. They report the anxiety of coming home from school and ask, "What mother will welcome them home? Or "what daddy" will enter the door after work. Their normal parent, or the drunken parent tense, angry, dizzy, maudlin, unpredictable or violent? This experience of the intoxicated parent as a foreigner living in the body and mind of their mother or father is extremely traumatic. Some clinicians, including myself, believe that persistent and chronic consumption leads to lasting changes in personality, even when the person is not intoxicated. For example, a tendency to anger quickly, or malice and attack when these traits appear to contradict the overall personality of the individual.
Organizing one's life around the consumption of alcohol is a harbinger
This is a worrying sign when alcohol consumption is the central organizing principle of a person's social life. I have worked with people who, in a hurry, can not find any way to spend time with friends other than going to a bar. Others can not imagine ending the day without a drink. I have known young men who have joined a fraternity and made friends for life, have learned to work in a team and have grown in an impressive way. And I have known other people whose fraternity experience is a night of drunk nights that has lasted three or four years.
