Alcohol: a depressant/high

December 26, 2007 11:45 AM

If alcohol is a depressant and lowers my 'vibration', then why do I feel "buzzed" or "high" when I drink a lot?
posted by mrmarley to health (7 comments total)

A depressant is a drug that has a specific sort of neurochemical effect—one that doesn't necessarily correspond to any other lay connotations to the word "depress". That alcohol makes you feel buzzed is orthogonal to the effect it has on, say, your cardiovascular and respiratory systems. You get buzzed because it alters your brain chemistry.

As for vibration, that link is a pile of cuckoo-nutso non-science, so any difficulty you're having reconciling its contents with practical experience is kind of beside the point.
posted by cortex at 11:53 AM on December 26, 2007

I'm not sure that this question is answerable. You're asking for an explanation of intoxication that functions within a New Agey worldview that believes

Chemical is vibration. Alcohol and earl grey tea are opposite in terms of vibration. Although stress and anxiety is a form of high vibration, it is undesirable because the vibration is incoherent and disorderly. Alcohol lowers vibration.

The only way you're going to get an explanation of why alcohol buzzes you if it's [insert hand-wavey vibrational woo-woo here] is to give your contact info to the MindBody people and let them try to sell you their Secrets of the Universe™ course. I would strongly advise against doing so on the grounds that it beggars belief.
posted by mumkin at 11:59 AM on December 26, 2007 [3 favorites]

That link about "vibrations" is a load of horseshit. To just debunk one of their claims:

Cold, damp and dark places with lack of airflow are breeding grounds for bacteria, whereas sunny places with abundance of airflow eliminate unhealthy micro organisms.

This statement is completely false. Bacteria inhabit all kinds of sunny places. In fact, some bacteria are photosynthetic. The cold part is completely ass-backwards too, as lowered temperature is usually used to retard bacterial growth. This is why foods in your refrigerator spoil less quickly.


I don't have the time or energy to go through that entire page statement by statement, but be assured that it's full of pseudo-scientific bullshit and you shouldn't believe any of it.
posted by chrisamiller at 12:14 PM on December 26, 2007 [2 favorites]

In very simplistic terms, there's a part of your brain which has the job of formulating possible actions you could carry out. Then there is a part of the brain which examines those plans, and vetoes most of them.

In the early stages of alcohol intoxication, it selectively depresses brain activity in the latter section, which means that more of those possible actions are translated into behavior. Thus in the early stages of intoxication, the paradoxical effect is to seem to have more energy.

But that's also why you do stupid things when you're drunk, things you regret the next day.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:42 PM on December 26, 2007

Nthing the cuckoo-nutso bullshit, but yeah, alcohol is a stimulant in small quantities, a depressant in larger quantities. Where the balance between the effects lies is pretty much up to your own individual biochemistry.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:28 PM on December 26, 2007

I've known people who will get 'wired up' from depressants and 'sleepy' from stimulants.

This could be the case with you. Do stimulants (caffeine, etc) make you calmer, rather than jittery?

I've heard ideas on why that is, but I don't think it would help you to spread unconfirmed armchair brain-science here.

It is most likely the illusion/initial effect of stimulants, as stated above.
posted by Stilus at 6:27 PM on December 26, 2007

The question cannot be answered.

alcohol is a depressant = science
lowers my 'vibration' = woo-woo BS
I feel "buzzed" or "high" when I drink a lot = subjective experience

There is simply no way to reconcile all these concepts. You can feel "buzzed" or "high" on depressants or stimulants. The woo-woo "The entire physical universe is made up of pure energy and vibration" is on the same conceptual plane as "everything is love!" and is just as useful in relating to science and your experiences, that is, not at all.
posted by splice at 8:54 PM on December 26, 2007