Alcohol & Health
Treatment
Helping Alcoholics
Medically Reviewed by Annamarie Coy, BA, ICPR, MATS
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The average person can get drunk after three to five standard drinks containing alcohol. If you start drinking on an empty stomach, the alcohol will pass into the small intestine, absorbing alcohol faster.
Once your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reaches a certain level, then you’ll be drunk. However, different factors contribute to how much alcohol it takes for someone to get drunk. These include:
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A BAC calculator is available online if you need a convenient way to calculate your blood alcohol level. However, it is possible to calculate your BAC manually.
Calculating BAC starts with a person’s gender because alcohol stays in women’s blood longer. After that, you can follow these steps:
The total can indicate when your BAC will return to 0%. If you want to avoid drunk driving, wait until your BAC is close to zero before driving.
Your BAC is expressed as the weight of ethanol (measured in grams) in 100 milliliters of blood. In most U.S. states, a .08 percent BAC is the legal limit for drivers at least 21 years old, which is the legal drinking age.
Here are nine different stages of being drunk:
If your BAC is .02 to .03, you may feel slightly more:
Although you may feel lightheaded with this amount of BAC, you won’t lose coordination.
At a 0.05 to 0.06 BAC, you’ll feel warmer and even more relaxed and outgoing. You may experience some minor impairment of your reasoning and exaggerate your behaviors (talking louder, acting bolder, etc.).
Your emotions will also feel intensified. This means your mood can improve or worsen depending on your feelings.
At a .08 to .09 BAC, you’ll believe you’re functioning better than you are. For example, you may start to slur your speech and rock off balance. Your motor skills will become impaired, and your vision and hearing will diminish.
This BAC level also affects your judgment. You may feel like you’re wearing “beer goggles.”
Once your BAC hits .10 to .12, you’ll experience serious motor coordination impairment and significantly lose judgment skills. You may also experience:
At a .14 to .17 BAC, you’ll have:
At this BAC level, you may also black out.
At a .20 BAC to a .25 BAC, your mental, physical, and sensory functions are super impaired. You’ll start to feel significantly confused and may need help to walk or stand. If you injure yourself, it’s common that you won’t feel the pain or do anything about it.
You may feel nauseous and vomit at this level, it’s also possible to choke because your gag reflex is impaired. Blackouts are likely.
At a .30 BAC, you’ll have very little comprehension of the symptoms of lesser BAC levels, but worse. At this point, you will likely pass out.
The .35 BAC level is the level of surgical anesthesia. This means that you may potentially experience a coma. You may also stop breathing at this level.
At a .40 BAC, you’ll probably be in a coma as the nerve centers that control your heartbeat and respiration slow down. Death due to respiratory arrest is also possible at this level and beyond.
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Being drunk can feel different for different people. But many of the signs and symptoms are the same across the board. Here are a few signs and symptoms that you’re drunk:
Typically, you’ll feel varying symptoms depending on how drunk you are. The drunker you get, the more and worse symptoms you’ll have.
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Being tipsy is the first sign that the alcohol you consume affects your body. Usually, a man will start to feel tipsy after drinking two to three alcoholic drinks an hour. A woman will feel tipsy after drinking one to two alcoholic drinks an hour.
This tipsiness starts when alcohol enters the bloodstream and affects the brain and body’s functions. Blood alcohol content (BAC) is the unit used to assess the amount of alcohol in a person’s bloodstream.
When a person becomes tipsy:
Being tipsy and drunk are similar, but they’re not the same. While you may feel a sense of euphoria while tipsy, you will still have control over your mental and physical responses.
However, you lose your senses more when you’re drunk, and your inhibitions diminish. How you behave depends on how drunk you are.
Alcohol is a depressant and can affect brain activity. This effect is what causes the feeling of drunkenness.
When you consume alcohol faster than your body can break it down, the alcohol content in your body increases. The substance is then more likely to significantly affect brain activity.
If you or someone you know is too drunk, it’s wise to stop drinking sooner rather than later. You can use a breathalyzer or a field sobriety test to see how drunk you are.
Alcohol intoxication is a danger for many reasons. Not only is an intoxicated person a danger to themselves, but they’re also a danger to those around them.
Drinking too much alcohol can lead to alcohol poisoning and even death. If you or someone you know is in danger, seek help immediately.
While drinking alcohol can feel like a lot of fun, there are some serious side effects of which to be aware. Other longer-term side effects of alcohol use include the following:
There is no way to “sober up fast,” and the journey to sobriety can be dangerous. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms can be severe, so seeking addiction treatment as soon as possible is important. Fortunately, alcohol addiction treatment is readily available.
Alcohol abuse can often lead to addiction and dependency. This can lead to long-term physical and mental health complications.
If you’re having difficulties abstaining from alcohol, consider seeking treatment. However, people respond to treatment differently, so finding the right program for your needs is important.
Talk to a doctor or addiction specialist, they can recommend treatment plans that may work for you. Available treatment options for alcohol addiction include:
Alcohol is absorbed through the stomach lining and into the bloodstream. If you quickly drink too much alcohol, your body won’t have much time to metabolize the substance, causing you to get drunk.
However, there are different stages of being drunk depending on your blood alcohol content or blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The higher your BAC is, the more drunk you become, leading to side effects such as cognitive impairment, loss of coordination, dizziness, nausea, etc.
Too much alcohol in your system can be dangerous, if not deadly. Because of this, it’s important to monitor your alcohol intake to prevent dangerous side effects, physical injuries, and accidents.
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