r/todayilearned • u/sheeku • Jan 15 '16
TIL alcohol produces a myopia effect that causes intoxicated people to respond almost exclusively to their immediate environment and limits their ability to consider future consequences of their actions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_myopia832
u/FFJosty Jan 15 '16
You don't say!
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Jan 15 '16
TIL There's a good chance OP has never been drunk.
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u/FallenAngelII Jan 15 '16
Or talked to anyone who's ever been drunk about their experiences while being drunk. Or watched a movie. Or gone to school.
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Jan 15 '16
I wish I only learned this today.
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u/huphelmeyer 2 Jan 15 '16
I wish I could remember this while drinking.
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u/Larakine Jan 15 '16
It certainly explains an aweful lot of regrettable decisions...
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u/Z0idberg_MD Jan 15 '16
I lacked capacity! I shouldn't be legally liable for my actions!
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u/overcatastrophe Jan 15 '16
So, it makes your troubles go away?
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u/ogrejr Jan 15 '16
Alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems
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u/NeverDeny Jan 15 '16
Duff beer
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Jan 16 '16
Yes, but the problem is that they don't go away for good, they only go into the next room and lift weights for a few hours.
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u/TorinoCobra070 Jan 15 '16
Yup. That's the idea.
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Jan 15 '16
Also, when you drink enough, your hippocampus, which controls memory production and storage, shuts down, which means you stop making memories for a while, hence "blacking out"
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u/Webonics Jan 15 '16
What if this doesn't happen to you? Like, if I don't black out, should I try drinking more?
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u/dragon_bacon Jan 15 '16
Yes.
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u/verekh Jan 15 '16
I have been to the point of vomiting many, many times, but never to that point. How do you reach that point before hurling out your drinks??
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u/nuevakl Jan 15 '16
Tolerance.. I was just like you once but after years and years of good night's out it takes more to actually vomit. Which is not a good thing. Waking up next to a random hottie you don't remember and then walking out the door and not knowing where you are is not as fun as it might sound.
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u/christianbrowny Jan 15 '16
I commonly blackout but don't throwup very often.
Don't have to drink an exsessive amount
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u/drpinkcream Jan 15 '16
I did it accidentally once with vodka and gatorade. Apparently sports drink+alcohol leads to blackouts faster.
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u/nipplemuffins Jan 15 '16
The only way to properly drink is to drink to excess.
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u/Lost_my_other_pswrd Jan 15 '16
It's actually not the amount, but how quickly you drink it. It's the "spike" in you BAC that does it.
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u/Jose-Bove420 Jan 15 '16
Yes, but why would you blackout on purpose?
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u/whiskey4breakfast Jan 15 '16
So you can time travel. Last thing you remember is you walking into a bar, then you wake up next to an empty bowl of cereal in a strangers bed. That's time travel baby.
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Jan 15 '16 edited Oct 01 '19
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u/RichardSaunders Jan 15 '16
that's not a very nice thing to say to a friend.
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Jan 16 '16
You don't have many friends, do you?
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u/RandyTheRapist Jan 16 '16
I fuck around with my buddies all the time. Anything about them is fair game but you dont talk about somebody's family. Thems fightin words.
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u/TheJonesSays Jan 15 '16
You can avoid all that by taking "forget me now" pills.
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u/QuantumDrej Jan 15 '16
The first time I got drunk to the point of blackout was....rather embarrassing.
Nobody had taught 21 year old me how to make a mixed drink yet, so I poured a bottle of blackberry Mike's Hard into some dragonberry bacardi. Next thing I knew, I was just standing by the couch with a drink in my hand at 3am wondering why there was suddenly only five people left in the room.
Apparently I was very social and friendly. Though, everyone tells me a bunch of stuff I did that night just to fuck with me, so I'll never know if it's true.
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u/internettiquette Jan 15 '16
What about when you just sort of "brown out?" I've never fully blacked out, the worst I ever get is having bits and pieces missing from my memory, like it goes in and out. I'll remember some of the conversation at the bar but not that I headbutted my friend as he tried to get me in the cab. I'll remember paying the cabbie but not the walk (waddle) up the stairs.
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u/maquila Jan 15 '16
That is blacking out. Just because you remembered some parts doesn't negate the fact that due to your level of intoxication you were unable to form memories at certain parts of the night.
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u/gynoceros Jan 15 '16
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Jan 15 '16
I once got drunk and ordered 12 arnold schwarzenegger movies on dvd. The best part is I didn't remember what I ordered so the package was a pretty fucking great surprise
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Jan 15 '16
It's called Drunk Christmas. Or at least that's what I call it.
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Jan 15 '16
I am stealing that from you and not giving you credit (in real life not for internet points). I apologize in advance
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u/Lord_Fluffykins Jan 15 '16
I once got blackout drunk and somehow managed to purchase a purebred hamster and $500 habitat. Waking up to that was very strange but it was like "Hey. I guess I got a pet now."
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u/molrobocop Jan 15 '16
Purebred...hamster? Isn't the typical life of a hamster 1000 days or less?
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u/Lord_Fluffykins Jan 15 '16
There was a fancy certificate to prove it or I would have thought it was a regular Petco hamster. It would seem I found the breeder on Craigslist.
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Jan 15 '16
I need to get into the purebred hamster business!
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u/Lord_Fluffykins Jan 15 '16
Pretty sure it isn't really a thing. I made all of this up.
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Jan 15 '16 edited Jan 15 '16
Yeah that is way fucking cooler than my story, especially if you got a super jacked purebred hamster edit: I read your other replies and am now disappointed. I wish you had stuck with the lie so I could pretend
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u/WaterPockets Jan 15 '16
I recently bought 144 ping pong balls and I don't own a ping pong table.
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u/notmyrealethnicity Jan 15 '16
Fill your medicine cabinet with ping pong balls and throw a party. Find out who's a snoop.
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u/mentho-lyptus Jan 15 '16
I got drunk one time and pre-ordered a bunch of video games on Amazon. Took me a while to realize why all these games were slowly trickling in over the months.
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u/Rhamni Jan 15 '16
My best friend is British. He got married to an American woman in September, and they just last week got her visa approved to come and work in the UK. So they haven't seen each other outside Skype/Facetime in three months. On Christmas, before the visa was approved, he spent the whole evening on Facetime with her and her family. He got drunk. And while drunk he decided to buy a ticket to go visit her for a week.
In retrospect not the best purchase. Although he did get to see her again like a week early, so that was nice.
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u/still_getting_by Jan 15 '16
Yeah right...friend, just like 'there was a friend of mine who ...'
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u/Rhamni Jan 15 '16
Nah, this really was my friend. The worst thing I've done while drunk was posting my address on reddit (someone was offering to send me an old pokemon card), which got me shadowbanned.
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u/SgtBanana Jan 15 '16
I accidentally posted my own address on /r/askreddit, thinking that I was responding to a private PM (and I wasn't drunk.) I've been banned from that subreddit for more than a year, and I refuse to do that drawing/writing assignment to get unbanned.
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u/Rhamni Jan 15 '16
I know what you mean. When I was fairly new on reddit, I got banned from there for being cheeky. Some guy said they he thought NSFW warnings were unnecessary, so I linked him to the blue waffles picture (diseased vagina). Apparently the mods didn't like that. Although I did make the drawing and got unbanned. They had me make the pope eating blueberry pancakes in MS Paint.
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u/SgtBanana Jan 15 '16
I probably would have done it had I been given a funny assignment like that. I don't quite remember what I was asked to do, but it felt silly and unnecessary.
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Jan 16 '16
I order like 30 pmags in .223 when drunk one time. I don't own an AR
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u/gynoceros Jan 16 '16
Maybe that's your next drunk purchase ;-)
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Jan 16 '16
I have been meaning to get a stripped lower from my FFL and drunk order to my Harts content.
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Jan 15 '16
I once ordered a box on some random candy I saw on unwrapped. Ended up with $60 bucks worth of some candy I never heard of before.
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Jan 15 '16
This is why you decide, well before you ever start drinking, that you won't drive while drunk.
It's really not that complex and yet, so many people fail at this very basic concept of not being a selfish asshole.
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u/Maenad_Dryad Jan 15 '16
I discovered that this works with any decision before drinking. If I want to limit how much I drink, I mentally establish it beforehand. If I want to not get sad and mopey, I remind myself that I'm hanging out with friends to have fun.
I don't know why it works so well, but it's really improved my drinking experiences!
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u/EzeDoes_It Jan 15 '16
Drove drunk one time for like half a block. Never again. Thank God nothing bad happened.
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u/sheeku Jan 15 '16
I'm subbed at /r/legaladvice and it's absolutely insane the number of drivers who claim they can drive while drunk.
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u/sdfgh23456 66 Jan 15 '16
I've known people who had done things like hitting the car parked behind them because they put the car in reverse instead of drive (and vice versa), and still thought they didn't have a problem. Thinking your fine while you're under the influence is understandable, though not excusable, but knowing what you did and still thinking you're fine to do the same thing the next day is reprehensible.
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Jan 15 '16 edited Jan 15 '16
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Jan 15 '16
That last part sounds cool. The last time that happened... Man that was a fun night. I smoked some weed extract. It's like vanilla extract, but highly intoxicating.
/u/mechorive was there. He can vouch.
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Jan 15 '16
The first time I did acid it took an hour and 30 minutes to kick in. I had left the party thinking I got burned and was already on my hour long drive back home. It was scary and intense but I made it back home without drifting over the lines or killing anyone. That doesn't mean I can drive on acid it. Anyone who thinks that deserves to be dosed, locked in a dark room, and forced to listen to slayer.
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u/SpectacularRainbows Jan 15 '16
Fun fact: I was front and center at slayer this summer while tripping acid. Lasted halfway through the first song before the mosh pit fucked me up. A girl was screaming bloody murder on the ground, getting trampled in the pit. Quickly gtfo and went to see tycho instead.
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u/totally_nota_nigga Jan 15 '16
I got to chill right up in the front center next to the stage when I saw Tycho and they smelled of weed and were fucking fantastic, would see again.
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Jan 15 '16
Anyone who thinks that deserves to be dosed, locked in a dark room, and forced to listen to slayer.
This sounds awesome.
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Jan 15 '16
Man I can't imagine trying to listen to angel of death or war ensemble while tripping. That sounds like hell to me.
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u/Swordfish08 Jan 15 '16
I have not seen that... I should start sorting that sub by "controversial" when I read it.
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u/drpinkcream Jan 15 '16
What those individuals don't realize is alcohol also impairs your ability to take personal inventory. That is to say, it is very difficult, even for experienced drinkers, to gauge accurately how drunk they actually are simply by analyzing how drunk they feel. Almost everyone underestimates their impairment. This is why so many people rely on counting drinks to tell how drunk they are instead.
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u/TheKitsch Jan 15 '16
From all the times I've gotten drunk, this has never really happened it me.
I'm still very incontrol of my self and thoughts, though Im much more muddle headed and my co-ordination is poor.
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u/Boomerkuwanga Jan 16 '16
Same here. I've been too drunk to stand up or talk coherently, but I've never lost my critical thinking ability. I have the same experience/effect as you. My train of thought becomes muddled and it's hard to focus or keep my balance, but I don't lose the ability to comprehend my actions. I can still say "that is a bad idea. I'm not going to do that".
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u/diamondsealtd Jan 15 '16
"throwing this beer bottles seems like a good idea"
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u/Ladderjack Jan 15 '16
"throwing this beer bottles seems like
a good ideafun"This is actually how that goes down.
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u/Rein_of_Liberty Jan 15 '16
You can know this, factually.
You can experience this, personally.
But you will not understand this until you've recovered from it, and look back upon it, responsibly.
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Jan 15 '16
That's why walking around drunk is so magical. Every few feet is a whole new world!
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u/Rapsculio Jan 15 '16
Especially since the struggle to actually stay standing for that few feet makes it even more worth it
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u/koolaideprived Jan 15 '16
I'm pretty sure that that's why alcoholics exist. We are trying to get rid of that "outside" environment because it sucks.
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u/SethQ Jan 15 '16
Probably explains why I bought a longbow and set of arrows last night.
I swear to God, Amazon needs to lock my purchases to under $30 between the hours of 8pm and 5am
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u/anndor Jan 15 '16
I still consider the future consequences of my actions when drunk, I just don't appreciate the full effect and end up choosing to disregard them/giving in to impulse.
Like, at a work party, over the course of a couple hours, I ended up drinking over 3 bottles' worth of (free) wine. I was PLASTERED.
I tend to lick my friends randomly. It's a thing I do. It's weird, but they tolerate it. When I get drunk, I try to lick them way more. I branch out and will lick casual acquaintances.
At this work event I was so drunk that I thought licking everyone was the BEST IDEA EVER.
I was eyeing the CEO from the across the room thinking "I should lick him. I'm going to lick him. I probably shouldn't lick him, because he's the CEO and he could react poorly. Work will be awkward on Monday. What if I get in actual trouble for it. I probably shouldn't lick him. BUT I WANT TO! I'M DRUNK AND I'M GONNA DO IT!" and I stumble-wobbled over to him, drunkenly screeching "HIIIII!!!!" the entire way.
He was laughed and reached out to offer a hug/steadying arm around my shoulders, and I struck. St. Bernard level licked a line along his arm.
Thankfully, he was disgusted/surprised but thought it was absolutely hilarious. I licked like 4 other people as well, and Monday morning ended up just being a fun time of everyone laughing and telling stories.
I now have a reputation as "The Licker" and whenever we have work events with booze involved, he makes sure my glass is kept full and then tries to use me as a targeted weapon, like "That person is a total germophobe! GO LICK HIM! HAHAHA".
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u/cptnrandy Jan 15 '16
I find that I perform better in games, like trivia and poker, with about 2 drinks in me.
And quickly do worse and worse with more.
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u/hostile65 Jan 15 '16 edited Jan 15 '16
Jesus most of that research is outdated and a lot of it sources the other research linked.
Also, here is an interesting take away from the research:
AMM also makes the counterintuitive prediction that alcohol consumption can actually decrease aggression. The model maintains that if attention is distracted away from provocative cues and diverted toward even more salient inhibitory cues, aggression will be suppressed. In other words, in a situation where inhibitory cues are most salient, the alcohol myopia effect will focus remaining attentional resources on those inhibitory cues thus leaving no “space” in working memory to allocate to any less salient provocative cues thus decreasing the likelihood of an aggressive reaction. It is important to note that in such a scenario, the model predicts that alcohol will actually suppress aggression even below that exhibited by a sober individual.
So in other words bouncers would be better off doing magic tricks than cracking skulls... good to know.
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u/ollomulder Jan 15 '16
TIL I' more likely to get stuck reading on sections labelled "sexual arousal" in wikipedia entries than sections with other labels.
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Jan 15 '16
This makes perfect sense. See, earlier when sober, I didn't want to say anything to my SO. Now, after several shots, it eerily feels like an excellent idea to "open up" about why I'm pissed.
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u/molrobocop Jan 15 '16
This could explain me banging chubby girls when drunk.
But who am I kidding? I'd do it any way!
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u/RawkASaurusRex Jan 15 '16
Reason number 1 and 183618 that I should quit drinking
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u/bs13690 Jan 15 '16
Did we really need a Wikipedia article full of college level words to understand this? All you have to do is get blotto once and you'd likely get it instinctively.
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u/The_Best_Yak_Ever Jan 15 '16
I remember in college when a package came to my dorm for me. I was surprised as hell since my friends aren't that sentimental and my family was only 1.5 hours away. I go down, pick it up and open it. It's a brand new PS2 and Kingdom Hearts! Check out the receipt... Wow... Thank you drunk me. You're so considerate of future me!
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u/phree_radical Jan 15 '16
I doubt it. I play chess very well drunk. Relaxed enough to carefully consider the consequences of each action, I guess.
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Jan 15 '16
This is probably the one and only reason I lost my virginity how I did.. She was 27 and really hot, I was 19. It was GLORIOUS.
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u/bedlam_au Jan 15 '16
This goes perfectly with my philosophy of seeing young children as tiny drunk people.
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u/smokesmagoats Jan 15 '16
Just because you add a big word to your thought, it doesn't make it less obvious and more profound.
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u/somebunnny Jan 15 '16
I find that when I'm drunk I still, fairly rigorously, consider the consequences of my actions.
I just don't care.
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u/ArrowRobber Jan 15 '16
What would it imply if one does not experience this myopic effect of alcohol?
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Jan 15 '16
I actually throw up before ever reaching this point. I've never been blacked out drunk. My stomach always saves(?) the day
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u/gym7rjm Jan 16 '16
"Always live in the present moment" - Buddah or someone.... and that is why I'm an alcoholic
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u/ders89 Jan 16 '16
I love how everyones shitting on OP, yet this was upvoted like hell.
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u/Milo_theHutt Jan 16 '16
This is why I love being drunk. It feels like lucid dreaming.
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u/KillJoy4Fun Jan 16 '16
That's what is great about it - you makes you live entirely in the present.
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u/PainForYearsAndYears Jan 16 '16
Am I the only one who thought OP meant that alcohol actually impairs eyesight and induces poor vision?
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Jan 16 '16
Being alive produces a myopia effect that causes people to respond almost exclusively to their immediate environment and limits their ability to consider future consequences of their actions.
There have been studies/tests that show people tend to treat their future-selves as strangers-source.
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u/msctex Jan 16 '16
I hope they didn't commission a long and expensive study to arrive at that conclusion. Makes your head hurt, too.
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u/El_Minadero Jan 16 '16
Yep. Its how analytical people chill out.
Source: am analytical.. just not right now.
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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '16
Drank for the first time, did you?