Young Writers Society

So, the first bit of my new project starts out with the MC being completely drunk. Like, he's just spent the night downing tequila. But seeing as I've yet to experience that particular...er...experience, I'm finding it really hard to write from his POV. I'm hoping some of you who have could help me out.

As in, would excessive alcohol cause hallucinations? If so, what kind? Head pounding, stumbling, etc? How aware should he be? Does the mind play tricks? Would he be able to speak understandably? Etc, etc? Anything you can tell would help a lot.

I understand that one might not want to post it, so if you'd rather PM me, that's totally fine. Anyone who helps gets my eternal gratefulness and a cookie. And points if you want 'em.

I don't think excessive drinking really ever causes hallucination. It can blur your eyesight though if you're very intoxicated.

Generally, when you're very very drunk, you'll slur your words. You can still speak but to a sober person you can sound strange. It's hard to walk or move well. You basically can't do any co-ordination tasks (even easy things like spreading butter on toast, or using your phone). You'll do stupid things you wouldn't even think of when you were sober. Basically, all inhibitions disappear. Furthermore, when people are drunk, you can see a different person completely come out from what you know. Completely uncharacteristic behaviour.

About mind playing tricks, that's sort of true. Essentially what happens is your emotions go all over the place. Little things can make you really ridiculously mad, or completely suicidal, or really really happy for no reason. Things that aren't that funny give you a laughing fit. However, it can depend on the person. Some people are violent drunks. Some people are happy drunks. It's often the opposite of your character. I'm generally a pretty relaxed laid back person in real life, but if I'm very drunk, I can be quite angry, loud and in your face.

Being very drunk also makes everything seem more confusing and hard to follow. Also, everything seems to become brighter and louder.

As for downing tequila, he'd probably be throwing up a lot. Tequila does that.

If you need anything more specific, let me know.

(As for personal experiences, I've been badly drunk a few times. But I'm not an alcoholic or anything. Just so you know.)

It doesn't cause hallucinations (except maybe absinthe).

This thread might help.

[quote=Mars]How aware should he be? Does the mind play tricks? Would he be able to speak understandably?[/quote]

A lot of it depends on HOW drunk he is. If you're extremely, extremely drunk you have no idea what's going on, but you can be really drunk and still be somewhat aware. It's very rare to be so drunk you can't talk. I've known a couple of people who that's happened to but I can't think of a time someone I was with couldn't speak understandably, and I spend a lot of time around drunk people. Some people do slur their words but not usually to the point where you can't understand them.

Thanks so much guys! The info and the thread are extremely helpful.

I think it depends on the person how they react to alcohol. Some might have only had a little drink and be totally intoxicated and not functionable, others can down litres and litres of alcohol and barey show a reaction (my opinion is that the latter are more ... well, experienced ^^).

I haven't heard of halluzinations as a cause for excessive drinking, so I guess that's not that common or doesn't happen at all.
Awareness and coordination and all that also kind of depends on the person. One friend of mine, for example, can drink a whole lot and still walk a straight line and is still pretty much sober, while another one gets close to comatose with only a few drinks. The same goes with the talking thing.

Just as Firestarter and J.Wilder said, you can be like a totally different person when you're drunk.
I, for that matter, get scarily harmonious when I drink - and I don't drink that much. Okay, I'm not really an angry person sober, but kind of distanced all the time, so when I drink, I tend to hug people and be cheerful and hyper ^^"

So, yeah. Well, I guess I kind of just repeated what the others said, so sorry about that.
I don't have that much experience with alcohol either, but I hope this helped.
Feel free to ask if you need anymore help