Neurological diversity is a thing. I have no scientific evidence, but based on anecdata from friends, I think people can experience ethanol intoxication in very

Neurological diversity is a thing. I have no scientific evidence, but based on anecdata from friends, I think people can experience ethanol intoxication in very different ways. One of my friends is a former alcoholic; he says that the sound of an aluminum can popping open feels like a religious moment. The sound is apparently so thoroughly associated with endless drinking and partying from his teenage years, that it triggers a brief rush of euphoria, followed by an immediate craving to drink a beer. He's talked about how the first time he was moderately intoxicated, it was the best feeling he'd ever had, both in an immediately euphoric sense, and in a deeper, comforting sort of way. "I just had this feeling that life was going to be all right," he says. Scary stuff - and so very different from your experience.