Reply #11: classic wet brain

[sui generis]

Street term for cerebral edema brought on by excessive drinking. Often occurs in aged alcoholics. The condition is caused by excess of fluid - either intracellular or extracellular - sloshing about in the president's skull.

As there is nowhere for the fluid to go, it exerts pressure on the cerebral cortex and/or interacts with the cells of the brain in various ways. Symptoms vary, but in old drunks, this generally causes a state of permanent apparent drunkenness - perhaps the brain responding to the intrusion in its most comfortable pattern.