Do you know anyone who suffers from alcoholism? If you do then
you already know how painful it is to care about that person. I
used to know someone who drank too much and his behavior became
unforgivable and it altered the course of our lives.
Do you know anyone who suffers from alcoholism? If you do then you already know how painful it is to care about that person. I used to know someone who drank too much and his behavior became unforgivable and it altered the course of our lives.
I thought maybe if I wrote a column about what people do when they drink, perhaps someone will read it and actually think about it if it seems more like an objective point of view and less of a personal attack.
It seems like young people today are heavier drinkers than generations before them. They are starting at an earlier age and I’ll bet there are innumerable stories of college students who flunk out because of their drinking. Not to mention car accidents, fatalities and alcohol poisoning.
There are a lot of reasons why people start drinking heavily. Addiction, peer pressure and a need to self medicate perhaps. But what I don’t understand is why young people purposely drink (binge drinking) as much as they can, until they pass out, and tell the story the next day with laughter as if it were a great memory.
“Oh my God, I totally threw up, it was so funny.” I’ve heard bits and pieces of conversations here and talking about passing out in “somebody’s garage” or laughing as they tell how they have “no idea” how they got home. These girls get all dressed up to go out, but they don’t realize that when they are drunk, they become really unattractive.
My greatest concern is not of their pickled livers, but the reality what can be done to them while they are incapacitated. I have a daughter who will be in college next year and I have reminded her repeatedly, with fear in my heart, that getting into the drinking crowd could alter her life in an irreparable way. I am terrified by the thought of her being drunk and passed out and possibly being raped. And even if nothing that extreme occurs, cameras are everywhere and people can take pictures of you in compromising ways only to be plastered all over the Internet. When you set out to get drunk, you are setting yourself up to be taken advantage of!
I’ve explained to my daughter that when you get drunk you’re no longer in control. You are at the mercy of the people you’ve surrounded yourself with and they are not thinking clearly either. The nicest people can turn on you with a Jeckle and Hyde effect when the bottle is empty.
There’s the emotional drunk for example. This person will not harm you, but after hearing him or her cry all night about problems that don’t make sense, you’ll avoid them at the next party. Slobbering, mumbling, crying … ugh. Why would you do intentionally embarrass yourself night after night if this how you end up?
Then there’s the girl on the dance floor wrapping herself around some guy who is an equally bad dancer, and then later staggering down the hall looking for a place to hurl. You’ll see her when you leave, sitting on the curb in the parking lot with her girlfriends propping up her flopping head and trying to figure out who will take her home.
Some people become angry when they drink. We read about fights and stabbings right here at local bars. I don’t know where that anger comes from, but most of the time the person who is drinking projects his or her anger on an innocent victim. As the friend and recipient of this drunken rage, it takes a strong person with a lot of love for the drinker, to remind themselves that it is the alcohol speaking and not hold a grudge against the accusations and nonsensical hatefulness spewed upon them.
Then next time your friends suggest a binge drinking type of party, ask yourself why that sounds appealing. What do you have to gain other than embarrassing memories and a hangover? What will you think when the shameful recollection of your life becomes a 10- or 20-year blurred memory?
It seems pretty clear that if you go to a binge drinking event looking fantastic and wake up looking like hell, maybe you should reconsider attending such events, or at least think about toning it down because you all are so much more attractive when you’re not throwing up.
