You're at a bar. Maybe a house party. Someone’s had three too many tequilas, and they’re stumbling. Then, someone else—usually the "expert" of the group—suggests that the drunk person should just keep drinking. Specifically, they suggest a "balancer" or a specific type of clear spirit to "level them out." The logic is usually fuzzy, something about hitting a plateau or shocking the system back into focus.
It’s a dangerous myth.
Let's be blunt: can you drink yourself sober? No. It is biologically impossible. In fact, trying to do so is one of the fastest ways to end up in an emergency room with alcohol poisoning. Your liver doesn't have a "reverse" gear. It doesn't care if you switch from whiskey to vodka or if you start sipping light beer to "taper off" while you're already hammered.
The human body is a machine, but it’s a slow one when it comes to toxins.
The Biology of the "Sobering Up" Illusion
To understand why this myth persists, we have to look at how ethanol actually interacts with your brain. When you drink, alcohol acts as a central nervous system depressant. It binds to GABA receptors, making you feel relaxed, and inhibits glutamate, which slows down your firing neurons.
People think they can drink themselves sober because of a phenomenon called Mellanby Effect. This is basically a trick your brain plays on you. You feel "more drunk" while your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is rising than you do when it’s falling, even if the BAC level is exactly the same at both points.
If you’ve been drinking all night and your BAC is .12 but dropping, you might feel "soberer" than when you were at .12 and still climbing. This leads to a false sense of security. You think you’ve mastered the art of the "functional drunk." You haven't. Your motor skills are still trashed. Your reaction time is still garbage.
The Liver's Hard Ceiling
Your liver is the bottleneck. It’s an incredible organ, but it’s not efficient at multitasking. On average, the human liver can process about one standard drink per hour.
A "standard drink" is generally defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) as:
- 12 ounces of regular beer (about 5% alcohol).
- 5 ounces of wine (about 12% alcohol).
- 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits (about 40% alcohol).
If you drink two drinks in an hour, you've created a backlog. If you try to "drink yourself sober" by adding a third, you're just adding to the queue. There is no biological mechanism where adding more ethanol triggers a faster metabolic breakdown of the ethanol already in your bloodstream. It’s like trying to clear a traffic jam by sending more cars into the intersection. It’s total nonsense.
Where Did This Weird Myth Come From?
Probably from "The Hair of the Dog." We've all heard it. You wake up with a hangover, your head is pounding, and someone hands you a Mimosa or a Bloody Mary.
The "Hair of the Dog" actually has a tiny bit of (dark) science behind it, which is why people get confused. Hangovers are partly caused by methanol poisoning. Most alcoholic drinks have trace amounts of methanol. When your body finishes processing the ethanol, it moves on to the methanol, breaking it down into formaldehyde and formic acid. That’s when you feel like death.
By drinking more alcohol the next morning, you’re giving your liver ethanol to focus on again, which pauses the breakdown of methanol. You aren't getting sober. You’re just delaying the inevitable crash and staying intoxicated longer.
The "Adrenaline Rush" Misconception
Sometimes people think they’ve drunk themselves sober because something stressful happens. A fight breaks out, or the cops show up. Suddenly, the person who was slurring their words is standing up straight and speaking clearly.
This isn't sobriety. This is adrenaline.
The "fight or flight" response can temporarily mask the effects of alcohol by sharpening focus and increasing heart rate. But the alcohol is still in the blood. As soon as the adrenaline wears off, the person will likely collapse or go right back to being visibly intoxicated. The BAC hasn't budged.
The High Stakes of Trying This at Home
When people ask "can you drink yourself sober," they’re often looking for a way to stay at the party longer. But the line between "pleasantly buzzed" and "respiratory depression" is thinner than you think.
Dr. George Koob, director of the NIAAA, has spent years documenting how alcohol affects the brain's circuitry. He notes that as BAC rises, the risk of "blacking out"—where the hippocampus stops recording memories—increases significantly. If you're trying to drink more to feel "more balanced," you're actually just accelerating toward a blackout state where you have zero control over your actions.
Then there’s the stomach.
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Alcohol is an irritant. Gastritis, or inflammation of the stomach lining, happens when you dump too much booze into your system. If you try to "push through" a drunk state by drinking more, your body's natural defense is to vomit. If you’re too intoxicated to protect your airway, this becomes a fatal choking hazard. This isn't just "party talk." It’s clinical reality.
Things That Also Don’t Work (But Everyone Thinks Do)
While we're debunking the idea of drinking more to get sober, we should probably kill off a few other barroom legends.
Cold Showers:
This will just give you a "clean" drunk person. The shock of the cold might wake you up momentarily, but it does nothing to lower your BAC. In extreme cases, it can actually cause physical shock because alcohol already affects your body's ability to regulate temperature.
Black Coffee:
Coffee contains caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant. Alcohol is a depressant. When you mix them, you become a "wide-awake drunk." This is arguably more dangerous than being a sleepy drunk because you feel capable of doing things—like driving or operating machinery—when your coordination is still profoundly impaired.
Eating Bread:
Eating a giant loaf of bread after you’re already drunk is like trying to put a lid on a pot that's already boiled over. It might slow the absorption of future drinks, but it won't soak up the alcohol already in your bloodstream.
The Only Way Out is Through
Time.
That is the only "cure" for being drunk. There are no shortcuts. There are no secret drinks. There are no supplements—regardless of what those "hangover cure" companies tell you on Instagram—that can force your liver to work faster than its biological limit.
Your body needs to oxidize the alcohol into acetaldehyde, then into acetic acid, and finally into water and carbon dioxide. This process is steady and stubborn.
How to Actually Support Your Body
If you realize you’ve overdone it, the goal isn't "getting sober" instantly. It’s harm reduction.
- Stop drinking immediately. Every drop you add increases the time it will take to get back to baseline.
- Hydrate with electrolytes. Alcohol is a diuretic. It forces your kidneys to flush out water. Sip on water or a sports drink to prevent the dehydration that causes the "day after" misery.
- Eat something light. If you can keep it down, some simple carbohydrates might help stabilize your blood sugar, which alcohol tends to tank.
- Do not sleep it off alone. If someone is severely intoxicated, they need to be monitored. Position them on their side (the recovery position) to prevent choking if they vomit.
Understanding Your Limits
The reason why "can you drink yourself sober" is even a question is that our culture often treats high tolerance as a badge of honor. It’s not. A high tolerance usually just means your brain has adapted to the presence of a toxin, which is often an early sign of alcohol use disorder.
If you find that you need to keep drinking just to feel "normal" or "level" during a night out, that's a physiological red flag. It’s your brain’s chemistry struggling to find an equilibrium that it can no longer maintain without the substance.
Real experts in addiction and hepatology, like those at the Mayo Clinic, emphasize that the liver is remarkably resilient, but it has limits. Chronic attempts to "balance" intoxication by adding more alcohol lead to fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, and permanent cognitive decline.
Actionable Steps for a Safer Night
The next time you’re out and the "drink yourself sober" myth comes up, be the person who shuts it down.
- Implement the 1:1 Rule: For every alcoholic beverage, drink one full glass of water. This slows your consumption and keeps you hydrated.
- Check the ABV: Not all beers or cocktails are created equal. A "craft" IPA might have 9% alcohol, nearly double a standard lager. Know what’s in your glass.
- Track the Clock: Since the liver handles one drink per hour, try to pace yourself to that rhythm. If you're at three drinks in one hour, you're already two hours behind on "sobering up."
- Use Technology: There are plenty of BAC calculator apps. While not 100% accurate (as they can't account for your specific metabolism or stomach contents), they provide a sobering reality check of just how long it will take for your body to be clear of alcohol.
Drinking more to get sober is a biological paradox. It’s a myth born of "tough guy" bar culture and a misunderstanding of how the brain handles stimulants versus depressants. The only thing you get by drinking more when you’re already drunk is more drunk. Stay safe, understand the chemistry, and don't let a bad myth lead to a dangerous night.