The relationship between alcoholism and impulsive behavior has been controversial for a while now.  People are not sure whether or not being under the influence of alcohol increases the likelihood for someone to have impulsive behavior or if there is no relationship between the two and that a drunk person will make the same conscious decisions as a sober person. In the short story “The Sniper” this issue is addressed in a wartime situation. In the story the republican snipers use of alcohol could potentially be why he was almost killed.  The inheritance of alcoholism and the reduced amount of serotonin transports in the brain stems of alcohol users can all relate to the main character of the story, and helps the reader understand what kind of personality the republican sniper has and the length of time that he has been consuming alcohol.  In addition, research on impulsive determinates on social behavior can help the reader understand some of the impulsive decisions that the sniper makes under the immense pressure that he is under, and why he feels like he is under this much pressure. When put under pressure people tend to feel like they have to react quickly and usually end up rushing through a decision and not choosing carefully, and personal values should be considered even when making decisions under a large amount of pressure.  Some people feel like they are under pressure when sometimes they really aren’t, this is describing anxious behavior and it can be very dangerous, it is also an effect of long term alcoholism. Another effect of this alcoholism is the consumption of more alcohol which could cause someone to ignore their personal values and continue to make unethical decisions that could harm them.  This story provides many examples and details of how there is a difference between being sober and being under the effects of alcohol and how the decisions made under the influence of alcohol can correspond with some decisions made sober.  However, research allows us to dig deeper and see that the reasoning behind it is actually the personality of the person drinking the alcohol, not entirely just the alcohol.  The inheritance of alcoholism and the effects of alcohol on impulsive behaviors are directly proportional, and can determine what a certain person’s personal values are.  However, it cannot be simply traced back to environmental effects or someone’s genes.

The origin of the development of alcoholism has yet to be discovered.  However, scientist believe that it is either genetic or environmental.  Studies done by Cloninger states, “susceptibility to alcoholism is familial, but its distribution cannot be explained by either genetic or environmental factors alone” (Cloninger). What can be taken from this is that alcoholism does run in family trees, but cannot be linked to genes themselves because not everyone in a certain family will have alcoholic tendencies, but it does make them more susceptible to becoming an alcoholic.  In this sense this means that along with genetics your environment must be another factor in whether or not you become alcoholic in your adulthood.  In contrast, Cloninger also says that “alcoholism is nor simply the sum of separate genetic and environmental contributions” (Cloninger).  This can become confusing because if alcoholism is not simply environmental or genetic then what could be the reasoning behind where it comes from.  This is where examples from the story come into place.  In a battle scenario, high emotions and split second decision making is almost inevitable, both of these can be related to high levels of stress.  In stressful situations is when people turn to alcohol for answers.  In the story the republican sniper shortly after confronted in a firefight, “taking the whiskey glass from his pocket, he emptied it in a drought” (O’ Flaherty).  Heavy drinking such as what was just described is usually explained by situations of high stress and might be considered as a stress reliever, this is the beginning stages of alcoholism.  If the only thing you can do to relieve your stress is finishing bottles of alcohol and you are constantly under large amounts of stress, larger amounts of alcohol are required.  Alcoholism can “vary from country to country, between social classes, between persons of different occupation between men and women” (Cloninger). In certain countries as well as social classes alcohol is used more often.  A certain country that comes to mind when the word “alcoholic” is brought up is Ireland.  Just for stereotypical reasons it is safe to assume that Ireland has a very high rate of alcoholics, which happens to be where this story takes place.  As well as location and social class, occupation and sex also play a large role in determining whether or not someone is more likely to become an alcoholic.  Men are more susceptible to becoming alcoholics as well as men in the armed forces.  Of course this is easy to believe because being in the armed forces can cause PTSD and other forms of mental issues.  Watching people die and killing others can be disturbing to almost anyone who maintains sanity while at war.  Alcohol is an easy and affordable escape from the modern hell that they are living in.

There are many long term side effects that come with alcoholism that many people don’t realize.  Most people think that the worst thing that comes from alcohol is the hangover or becoming sick and throwing up.  However, there are many long term mental effects that come with lifetime alcohol consumption.  One of these consequences is reduced serotonin transports.  Research by Heinz states that, “A significant reduction in the ability of brain stem serotonin transports was found in the alcoholics, which was significantly correlated with lifetime alcohol consumption and with ratings of depression and anxiety during withdrawal” (Heinz).  There is about a thirty percent decrease in serotonin transports in the brain stem of lifetime alcoholics.  This causes them to become very emotional and inhibits their ability to make conscious decisions during times of withdrawal.  Along with this there are signs of depressive behaviors and anxious behaviors that are reoccurring.  In the beginning of the story the republican sniper is confronted with the decision to either smoke a cigarette and potentially give away his position or not smoke a cigarette and be forced with anxiety.  What a lot of people do not realize is that if an alcoholic is not under the influence they can act unlike themselves and do things that they otherwise wouldn’t, the don’t consider what anyone else is doing or the personal values of others.  If the republican sniper is in fact an alcoholic, then he would in fact be very anxious in this situation because he is sober.  Cigarettes often times are used to help with anxiety and stress, this could possibly be why he decided to spark the cigarette instead of go through with the pains of withdrawal.  The following consequence would be his position being compromised and shots being fired.  Heinz furthers his experiment to see whether or not the effects of alcoholism, such as low serotonin receptors, has an effect on impulsive behaviors and rational decision making.  He states that, “Increased sensitivity of postsynaptic serotonin receptors may be due to reduced serotonin turnover…which has been associated with impaired impulse control and increased alcohol consumption” (Heinz).  What can be concluded from this is that reduced serotonin turnover is directly correlated with impulse control.  Which means that over time the effects of alcohol can impair your ability to make conscious decisions, not just while they are drunk but also while they are sober.  Along with impaired decision making skills higher rates of alcohol consumption is an effect of low serotonin turnover.  This can possibly be the effect of the depression or anxiety that also comes with the long term effects of lowered serotonin turnover.  This is particularly disturbing because alcohol is the main cause of the problem and a consequence is the urge to continue drinking at a higher rate, naturally making the problem worse.  The issue at hand is now how much low serotonin turnover effects impulsive behaviors. 

Impulsive behavior, when it becomes a trend, can become quite an issue.  In the story the republican sniper makes several impulsive decisions in a row that threaten his life and easily could have resulted in him being killed.  One of these impulsive decisions was the one that he made to run across the main road straight into enemy territory, directly through enemy heavy machine gun fire.  Whiteside says that, “the behavioral approach defines impulsivity as observable behaviors that an individual engages in, rather than a characteristic of the individual” (Whiteside).   Putting himself in a situation where he is being fired upon by machine guns is a behavior that could be considered as impulsive.  Although this action is impulsive, one cannot assume that this would make the republican sniper an impulsive person.  However, it can be assumed that he is making impulsive decisions due to the large amount of alcohol that he previously consumed in his position, before it was compromised.  This could be a description of what type of individual he is.  Making rash decisions is a symptom of low serotonin transporters which is a sign of alcoholism, as well as rapid alcohol consumption.  Both of these were demonstrated by the republican sniper, leading to the conclusion that he is an alcoholic.  Whiteside’s studies say, “the personality approach views impulsivity as a trait that one possesses and that influences behavior” (Whiteside).  This would mean that the republican sniper suffers from alcoholism as well as an impulsive personality.  This would explain why he makes very quick decisions and why they are so risky.  An impulsive personality is especially dangerous while in a war time situation, combine that with the effects of long term alcoholism and it is unpredictable.  Another reason that the sniper makes rash decisions is because he is urgent.  Moving with a sense of urgency in the armed forces is presumably required.  Urgency can be described as the tendency to experience and act on strong impulses, frequently under conditions of negative effect.  Whiteside considers urgency mankind’s worst enemy (Whiteside). This would make sense because when driven by urgency you are forced to make decisions quickly.  If someone is forced to make a decision without taking their time and thinking it all the way through, then it probably isn’t the best decision to be made.  Along with making rash decisions people who are very urgent have been described to have trouble resisting their cravings.  This easily describes the republican sniper because when early on in the story he was faced with the dilemma of smoking a cigarette, which is a craving, or waiting he smoked the cigarette.  This urgent decision almost caused him his life.  Being this urgent does not allow you to make rational decisions.  

If someone suffers from alcoholism and its symptoms like impulsive behavior it makes it unlikely for them to make a reasonable decision.  They do not reflect their actions before acting upon them.  Research explains that, “Based on the assumptions that human beings do what they believe is good for them.  Thus, they are constructed as ‘rational animals’ capable of recognizing the value or utility of their actions” (Strack).  What this means is that humans are actually capable of realizing what they are doing and can most likely predict what the consequence of that action will be.  This is described in the story, “he paused for a moment considering whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching.  He decided to take the risk” (O’ Flaherty).  This proves that while the republican sniper is sober, because he has not yet taken the sip out of his bottle, he can rationally decide whether or not to take the risk.  Making the bad decision is a negative effect of his alcoholic tendencies.  He could not control his habit and is an example of urgency. Making rational decisions would be a reflection of a person’s personal values. This is because allowing someone to think through their decisions would mean that they would do what they genuinely believe the right thing to do.  Strack belives, “the impulsive system elicits behavior through associative links and motivational orientations” (Strack).   This means that your impulses control what you are motivated to do. If both of these things are true, then that means that someone that suffers from the negative effects of long term alcohol abuse don’t have personal values.  Or at least they have to many impulses and don’t think through their decisions enough to makes valuable decisions.  Strack believes that impulse is the effect of people,” not reflecting their values”. (Strack) Which is natural because, some people make occasional bad decisions that have bad consequences and they learn from that bad experience that they had and consider that one of their personal values not to do it again.  However, if someone has bad impulse control this can cause them to ignore the negative consequences and make the same bad decision more than once.  This would bring others to the conclusion that alcoholics do not have personal values.  In the story the republican sniper was described to be, “reckless under the spirit” (O’ Flaherty).  This is an example of how even after the consumption of alcohol that it makes him become reckless. When someone is reckless they are not aware of their surroundings and do not care what their consequences are.  Once he was reckless he decided to leave the roof which almost resulted in his immediate death if he was not as lucky as he was.

In conclusion it is known that while the use of alcohol cannot be directly related to impulsive behavior, the long term effects of alcohol abuse can be seen to cause lack of impulse control.  Research says that low serotonin levels causes anxiety which can cause a sense of urgency.  When anxious people tend to make bad decisions that often times have negative impacts. This relates to the story because the republican sniper who through his behavior could be considered an alcoholic who suffers from these symptoms of low serotonin transports makes several impulsive decisions.  The impacts that they had caused him to get shot and almost ended his life.  If he wasn’t anxious and urgent, he would most likely have been able to keep control over his addiction to cigarettes and the light from his lighter would not have given away his position.  Learning from situations like this would be a personal value that most rational people would have.  Unfortunately, the republican sniper didn’t react to his personal values because of his lack of impulse control.  This lack of impulse control continues to affect him throughout the story as more and more situations present themselves. When faced with the decision to look for his commanding officers, which would require him to leave his weapons and a safe position to run across a main battleground into gunfire, he becomes impulsive.  Low serotonin levels are proven to cause the desire for more alcohol.  Which obviously makes you drunk.  Especially when consumed at a rate in which the republican sniper did.  The effects of alcohol along with the personality that is impulsive would cause him to make to decision to risk his life for no apparent reason.  Doing things like this could easily be described as a personality that does not have any personal values.  The research that was provided says that it is all dependent on the past use of alcohol.  This means that the sniper has been abusing alcohol for a while.  This can go back all the way to where he came from, the fact that he is a male, and even how he is in the military.  This is backed up because in the military you are put under a large amount of stress and your mind could be clouded and it could make him want to get drunk to clear his mind.  Alcoholism is determined by what type of specific person you are, it cannot be specifically traced to genes or environments, it depends specifically on events that occur in a person’s life.  
