Whether you’re taping on a forty or knocking back kamikazes the end result is usually the same.
Intoxication.
Blotto, snockered, blitzed, bombed, smashed or tweaked, in other words, drunk; every age and culture develops a unique lexicon to describe the act and state of inebriation.
“As social and cultural animals, humans have developed a rich and diverse vocabulary of intoxication-related slang to describe the subjective states they are experiencing while drinking,” corresponding study author Ash Levitt, a graduate student in the department of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri, said in a news release issued by the journal. “However, alcohol researchers have largely ignored the language of intoxication.” ~ Washington Post
Scientist are realizing though that this semantic maze makes surveys and studies that rely upon interview data questionable especially when it comes to the degree of intoxication. Even a well developed “drunkionary” is of limited usefulness when you consider that these terms often vary in meaning when used by the opposite sex.
Click “Read more” to continue…
One important finding was that 222 women in the survey, aged 17 to 24, leaned toward using the term “tipsy” to describe having an average of four drinks over two hours. According to Levitt, this meets the binge-drinking criteria for women but not men. “Therefore, women could be binge drinking while psychologically perceiving their level of intoxication as being ‘tipsy’ or relatively benign, as opposed to heavier levels of intoxication that would be described with less euphemistic terms, such as ‘hammered’ or ‘wasted.’ ”
Now all of this is at least mildly interesting, but if you want to really get confused about deciphering the language of intoxication just listen to an alcoholic. I’ll give you a few sample phrases with an experienced translation.
I only drink in the evening.
I drink to get drunk in the evening, all during the day I have been just drinking to “maintain”.
I don’t have any alcohol in the house.”
I don’t have any alcohol in the house that you can find.
I’ve only had three beers.
I’ve only had three beers in public. I drank two miniatures in the bathroom and knocked out a six pack on the way home.
Just remember, normal people often lie about their alcohol intake by twisting their words. Alcoholics always lie, no matter what words they use.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s helpful for family members (and society in general) to understand why an alcoholic lies or tries to minimize the amount they drink. They cannot help it. They have a chronic, relapsing brain disease. Their abuse of alcohol has hijacked many of the “normal” functions in their brain to the extent that once addicted (alcoholic), they are driven to consume alcohol at all costs. They cannot help it as long as they continue to drink or think they can drink– it’s part of their disease.
This is why it’s so important for family members, and society as a whole, to understand the disease of addiction (in the case of alcoholism – the disease of an addiction to alcohol). This website of information produced by HBO, The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) and NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) provides a wealth of information that can help — http://www.hbo.com/addiction.
Understanding the disease helps family members stop the denial about what’s really going on — an action that can speed the alcoholic’s decision to seek treatment for his or her disease and help family members enjoy a much happier life.
because as Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
I refer to the they as active drinkers as compared to those in recovery and speak of this behavior as a matter of fact, not condemnation.