There has always been a misconception that alcohol can completely alter your actions and your intentions. While this may be partially true, alcohol only actively affects your actions, but your intentions are the same as they would be if you were sober.

The common phrase “drunk actions are sober thoughts” comes directly from the idea that alcohol will simply only cause drunken behavior, not actually change your intentions whatsoever. This means that there is truly no excuse for unexceptable behavior, even after having a couple of drinks.

Obviously, alcohol will leave you feeling confident and powerful due to the surges of dopamine released from the brain. This basically reduces your ability to control yourself. However, not all effects of alcohol are seen as “enjoyable” or amazing, instead it can actually be quite problematic than intended.

The problem with this situation comes into play when something bad happens while someone is drunk, and they choose to blame it completely on alcohol to avoid taking responsibility.

For example, imagine finding out your partner cheated on you after getting drunk one random night. At first, they insist that it was entirely the alcohol and they would never do it again. The truth is, being drunk is never an excuse to cheat. The thought of cheating was always in their head, but they never had the confidence until after having a few drinks.

It is quite disappointing, but most people will buy into the excuse that alcohol caused their partner to cheat. Since alcohol is known to be very behavior altering, many people do not recognize that there are still intentions behind actions, sober or not.

Even while drunk you still hold a moral compass, meaning that you can still somewhat determine right from wrong. Now imagine this, after a few drinks your friend starts shouting racist and homophobic slurs, and making sexist jokes. Alcohol does not make you think in this horrible way, these thoughts were always present even before alcohol was brought into the situation.

But once again, people will continue to rely solely on the excuse “it was the alcohol” in order to make their actions seem less intentional.

It is important that people stop excusing their terrible actions on the alcohol they were drinking. People should look more into the actual effects of alcohol on your behavior, and it is crucial to recognize that drunk intentions are sober intentions too.