The Drunk Dial Impulse

Upon consuming a great deal of alcohol, which I am very talented at doing (among other things), I am often overcome with an overwhelming urge to start drunk dialing people – or, more specifically, drunk-texting.

After consuming aforementioned said alcohol, the urge is so strong that I commonly whip out my phone, and start looking through my contacts to see who should be texted.  I text friends and relatives, friends from blogging world (Jane Wonder and Random Esquire), Irishman, Chicago Man, sometimes I text ShaNaNa and she’s sitting right next to me, and occasionally, I’ll find a contact in my phone that I am unfamiliar with and send a text to that number as well.

On some level, I wonder if drunk-dialing is a function of lowered inhibitions.  In a few cases I’m simply getting in touch with people I had been meaning to contact anyway.  Being drunk is my excuse.  Yet, in other cases, I am texting people I would never ordinarily text – like the Unfamiliar Number in my phone.

Or maybe, for some out there, it’s an easier way of reaching out to someone that you haven’t talked to in a while.  Someone you had decided you didn’t WANT to talk to anymore, someone that you didn’t want to be a part of your life anymore.  Someone you only contact when you’ve been drinking, someone that isn’t good enough to contact when you’re sober.  Someone you’ve treated with very little respect.

I digress. I think, for me, when I’m that far in the bag some deep, primal urge takes over and I am compelled to do inappropriate things.  Like texting Random Esquire to mention the fact that I have lots of cleavage showing that evening.  Or sending Jane Wonder the 3am text informing her that I have indeed, been drinking somewhat heavily.  Or giggling and sending Chicago Man a text to inform him I find him fabulous.  Is there something about being that drunk gives us license to behave inappropriately and text at all hours of the day?

Perhaps text messaging originates with some sort of need for acknowledgment.  Perhaps we text because the feeling of recognition and inflated sense of worth that comes from bating others into returning messages at 2am.  Maybe we text because we see reflections of ourselves in the responses our texts illicit.

We may never know where the urge for drunk-dialing originates.  It may be driven by a late night desire for sex.  Or perhaps the elementary desire to do mischief.  Drunk-texting may even be a subconscious expression of the self.

In the end, we’ll probably never know for sure.

… What I do know for sure, is that I drink, therefore I text.