Intoxication: more or less rational?

[ava1enzue1a]

This may sound a little paradoxical, but do drugs allow you to think more or less rationally? Isn't it common to think that drugs would impair your judgment and cause you to think irrationally, however not always seeming to be the case? For example, someone with severe social anxiety goes to a bar... their mind races with all kinds of worry thoughts like "No one will like me" or they may be afraid to do or say something embarrassing. These thoughts and feelings are obviously a little irrational, so... after a few drinks, suddenly the anxiety and worry thoughts go away and almost like magic, they are able to socialize and talk with others in a relaxed and easygoing manner. Their thoughts are not overcompensating for what "could" happen in any given mishap or embarrassing situation; instead they seem to go more with the flow of things and roll with the punches. Compared with their previous state of mind, the person appears to process things at a more rational level, but this would contradict the general notion that drugs basically impair your judgment.

Or is there some kind of "happy medium" to be obtained, i.e. drugs could be necessary (e.g. taking Klonopin) but not to be overdone (e.g. overdose)? Any thoughts?

 

[RobotRipping]

there are too many drugs to give a definite answer.

I'd say there's a happy medium too. Just too many variables to really answer this.

 

[XThexXTank]

Any psychoactive drug would make you less rational than a completely sober mind. You might think yer decision is rational but if it werent for the drug you prob wouldnt be makin the decision. Its safe to say that about 90% of the dumb shit i done i was under the influence and prob rethink to do it if i was sober.

 

[effie]

+1 on the variations between drugs and a happy medium being a good thing. On the whole I'd say drugs tend to do the opposite, but there are some cases where they can promote rational thinking IMO.

A small amount of a benzodiazepine can reduce panic and irrational thoughts. A large amount can cause intoxication and impair rational thinking. Key here is the person was in an irrational state of mind before taking the drug; the benzo merely enabled them to cut through this down to a normal thinking pattern.

Some people could argue that psychedelics can promote rational thought in some form, above and beyond what the person might experience sober. I also know of people who have had what they would call rational breakthroughs on MDMA. This may be true, but people on psychedelics/empathogens can often to appear somewhat irrational to sober people. Whether this is an issue with sober thinking or psychedelic-induced thinking is out for debate

Overall I'd say - too many variables (substance, state of mind, set/setting etc) to say but as a rule do not assume that an intoxicated person is thinking rationally.

 

[blight12]

I have tried to test and find the performance enhancing drug for general life situations or work. This would be somewhat difficult though as it would need to combat specific fears, hibitions while considering others to ensure the required social conformity. The biggest problem is overconfidence which helps to begin with, but must be tempered with some sort of social awareness, self doubts and sensitivity to emotional sensitivities as well as a logic filter to ensure overall strategy, implementation and results.
Most commonly considered substances can provide the raw motivation, drive and confidence to attack a goal but due to enhanced confidence, less effort is but into considering and working with emotional and human subtleties that can only be accurately determined and considered through healthy doubt based analysis of the overall strategy. And now im going in to far to much detail.

Basically my conclusion is that no substance is ideal as a mixture of skills, confidence, healthy doubts and other seemingly contradictory analysis is required for best results. The best i think of is meth due to stim based drive/confidence as well as detailed analysis and review, overall obsessiveness for perfection and need to understand explain in detail to others, as opposed to the blind confidence of other stims. Makes for the most useful combo of benefits overall.