May 6, 2009
“Where Do/Don’t You Fit In?”
“You take one down and pass it around…”
That should be a part of a saying that drinkers and non drinkers know as well as they know their own names.
Since the beginning of human civilization, people have had the liberty or better yet, freewill to partake upon a casual alcoholic drink. Practically every civilization has experienced the elusive side effects of alcohol. Celebrations like: weddings, college graduations, birthdays, etc., alcohol is usually the highlight of the event.
Alcohol has become a household beverage, surpassing most other types of beverages at an alarming rate. Don’t believe it? Just listen to some of your co-workers or friends during a conversation particularly taking place on a Friday afternoon. You will more than likely never hear, “I can’t wait til five o’clock so I can head over to the nearest convenient store for that new soft drink that just came out.” Also for some, the clock can’t move fast enough to the moment when happy hour begins. That term happy hour is elusive in itself for they never ever last for only an hour. If its pay day, then discussions turn into who’s buying the first round. People are selected or even openly volunteer to go to a local liquor store to buy the keg.
People will enjoy a drink or several drinks for a few other reasons besides a celebratory one. Various people may tag along and drink to feel belonged, or to feel like they could become the life of the party. Other reasons may even include: that drinking a beer is more refreshing than having a glass of juice. After all, drinking juice can’t help to drown away reality.
A person’s mood can dramatically shift with just one drink, or it may take several to get the “buzz” that they want to feel, everyone has their own threshold. So what are some of the moods that drinking can cause?
Well there are basically three narrowed down categories or types of moods-drinkers that exist. The first is a person whom by drinking in excess brings on a happier or more brazen type of personality. Their inhibitions are no longer a factor, where as when they are sober; hinder who they truly wish to be around others, possibly the opposite sex. This type of person has been coined the phrase, “A Happy Drinker.”
When the “happy drinker” has reached this state of self euphoria, they believe that whatever their most inner inhibitions were before will immediately disappear, at least temporarily. They’ll be the first one to grab the microphone at a karaoke bar and belt out lyrics in a slurring fashion that have nothing to do with the song. What can also disappear during their “outer body” experience of behavior, are their recollections of things they may have said or did during their intoxicated state. They can be around people they feel most comfortable with and still affect their overall reputation. Also that type of slight amnesia can actually be placed into each of the categories.
Furthermore, drinking gives them a sense of freedom; a will to possibly explore their limits with the opposite sex. When these two types of drinkers intertwine, there’s no telling what could happen between them as the night progresses. A quick, sneaky escape away to become more intimate could pop into their minds, and a potential one night stand may ensue. However, not everyone truly escapes their impulsive sexual exploits. The same simple night of fun can lead to a lifetime of responsibility that neither person ever wished for to happen, parenthood.
Then you have the flip side of a happy drinker, the person known as the “Angry or the Violent Drinker.” This is a type of person whose demeanor can morph from a Jekyll to a Hyde at light speed. The once demure sometimes even shy person can become a self ticking time bomb with severe initially unknown consequences waiting in their path. Unexpectedly or maybe even in incremental amounts of time, an inner rage starts to brew. Their constant reminder of a bad day at the office or fight/breakup they recently had could easily get thrown into a blender with alcohol as its main ingredient.
A harmless glance at the person from a complete stranger can easily unleash their angst on that unsuspecting person. The anger fuels their rage which can spill into a brutal fight or even trickle down further into a vehicular slaughter, actually using their own car as a weapon.
Their egos when overly consumed by alcohol can give them a godlike feeling of domination. Similar to a religious person who finds great enlightenment when reading the Bible for wisdom and strength to endure each day, so too will the drinker try to confide in their own Bible in a Bottle.
The third kind of drinker that needs to be included is the “Shy or Quiet Drinker.” They in their regular daily lives tend to lead a vivacious social life, so long as they’re not in a drinking environment. The person can coexist well with others; have an outgoing persona, with a contagious positive attitude. It seems like they have everything under control, until they’re enticed to join some friends at a bar or club. They know within themselves that drinking isn’t for them because of how it had changed them, but many will cave in, because at least they’ll still be around their buds.
“It Only Takes One to Know Too Many”
There’s an old expression that still holds true today, “Oh come on what’s one harmless drink gonna do?” “Or you gotta start sometime, why not now.”
Time and time again, all it only takes is just one drink. The drink could be as “harmless” as a beer, or as strong as a shot of vodka or whiskey. Once someone has had a taste, they could end up being hooked. Take for instance once an animal has tasted blood, its insatiable appetite for more can never be fully quenched. Now in order to not put everyone into a lump sum of raging alcoholics, there is a moderate amount of people who don’t fall into that category. I’m aware that people do have a single drink perhaps two and then internally realize they have had enough.
So how early in life and how literally are people connecting with the two previous expressions?
According to: The International Institute for Alcohol Awareness:
74% of children under the legal drinking age have had at least one drink one or more days during their life.
26% have had their very first drink other than a few sips before their teen years.
43% have had at least one drink on/more than one occasion in the past month.
26% have had five/more drinks in a row (binge drinking) in the past month.
And in 2005, underage drinkers drank 15% of all the alcohol sold in the US of A.
Remember, peer pressure has no bias.
Alcohol has been shoved aside as being considered a serious drug, while the steady three substances: cocaine, heroin, and cigarettes are still placed at center stage. Here’s where a deeper and more debatable topic spawns from. Since there are so many facets to comparing alcohol as being a less “dangerous” form of getting a buzz, then why has it cost this country so much money, and endless shedding tears?
Just four years ago, 2005, the people of these United States shelled out more than $60.3 billion for alcohol related incidents. The money was used to fund medical care, loss of employment, which $21.1 billion was spent, as well as pain and suffering. When this fee is broken down it translates to near $2,100 per year, per youth. Drunken driving incidents and youth violence totaled $31.1 billion dollars. Another ongoing issue with youths and underage drinking affects the teen mothers who develop fetal alcohol syndrome or FAS. This cost American citizens $1.1 billion.
So when does underage drinking usually begin? By or before age 15, teens are four times at a greater risk of developing dependence and are two to three times more likely to abuse alcohol by age 21. In 2004, over 65,000 youth’s age 12-20 were admitted for alcohol treatment. The heart of the underage drinking timeframe is children in grades 9-12. So basically, you aren’t old enough to drive, vote, or gamble, but somehow can drink without little to no supervision, for it’s nearly impossible to prevent someone of legal age to supply the drink or drinks of choice.
If you wish to learn more about the stats that were summarized above, please check out www.beawarenow.org.
Where exactly do alcohol related deaths fall into the category of annual causes of death? It according to DrugWarFacts.org placed third with 85,000 total deaths in 2000 behind tobacco and poor diet/physical inactivity.
“Drowning your sorrows and your Wallet”
Television the original drug of a nation has adopted a very profitable friend over the last 20 years, the glorification of alcohol. There’s hardly any way to escape the influences of the advertising moguls spewing out numerous 30 second clips of unadulterated satisfaction. Some misnomers they broadcast usually involve thoughts like: If you drink our product, you will be surrounded by gorgeous women/men, or feel instant refreshment with a blast of ice with the assistance of a bullet looking train blasting down the tracks, etc.
The most recent and overtly used commercial is promoting a certain whiskey with a dashing looking buccaneer as its mascot plastered on its label. He stands proudly in his cavalier pose, suggesting that by buying the companies drink that you too can become the “Captain” of your own party. Advertising companies are far from stupidity for they know how to capitalize on the vast open market of television and literary outlets.
They will never ever reveal any statistics regarding the dangers that can and are involved with over consumption of their product, but they do state to drink responsibly? That just seems a bit odd, the phrase containing responsibly relating to alcohol. If someone is an alcoholic, how will they even know what that means?
Maybe If the ad makers perhaps said instead, “That if you drink this all in one sitting, it will poison your liver, cause renal failure and ultimately death,” then that would be stating a truth in advertising, but that is a commodity that is hard to come by. There are, however, some people who do know their limitations when drinking as stated earlier, and what would we do without them, for they’re usually the people who end up being designated drivers.
Which brings up another point, the predetermined designated driver? What is that type of behavior really stating? That means that whomever a person or persons will at a later time arrive at a party already know in advance that their friends are going to get sloppy drunk. That a percent of people have set their mind on the stellar fact that they are going to lose all inhibitions and it will be even more acceptable for they’ll have a buddy who will remain “dry” to take them home or even on to the next affair, blows my mind.
OK, back to the topic at hand. How much is America shelling out each year to promote alcohol sales and consumption?
In just five years from 2001-2006, almost 1.7 million ads promoting alcohol aired on TV. More than 392,000 of those ads were more likely to be viewed by underage youth than adults per capita on programs like: Scrubs, Mind of Mencia, and That 70’s Show. Distilled spirits: whiskey and brandy advertisers spent 27 times more amounts of money as beer companies to run 30 times more ads on cable TV in 2006 than in 2001. The two major networks that were relaying the ads were Comedy Central and VH1. In 2001 the beginning spending budget was $779,112,254 and shot up to $992,175,810 by the end of 2006.
The real kicker however is the “out of whack” ratio of alcohol ads to “responsibility” ads, they outweigh the later by 30-1. Underage youth were 287 times more likely per capita to see a TV commercial promoting alcohol than an industry-funded “responsibility” ad regarding underage drinking. “Responsibility” advertising continues to be drowned out by the volume of product advertising. Of the $5.9 billion spent to advertise alcohol, just 2.2% was spent.
Information supplied by: www.camy.org.
Final Word:
Imagine what this economy would be like if we’d realize that most of us are paying for a substance that is and has been destroying a great nation. How many families could be reunited if their lives hadn’t been taken by alcohol? What truly drives us as a nation to want to cause such detrimental harm to a loved one or even ourselves? The countless paychecks spent frivolously to achieve a temporary state of oblivion, only to feel nauseated and incapacitate the following day. What things could have been accomplished if the money spent were used for constructive productivity or other types of recreation? A long awaited trip to a pristine destination, an addition onto home, swifter methods to help eliminate debt, the list is endless.
Fun will always come with a price, and that all depends on how much a person is willing to spend for it. It’s most unfortunate that there probably isn’t one person who doesn’t know of someone who has died or is dying due to alcohol and their misuse of it.
This is a nation with freedoms to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but we must remember to not abuse those rights. To be able to control your own destiny is a gift and no one can take that from you. Truly if you are a drinker and don’t know what else to do, there are options, counseling, associations just waiting for you to get help. Don’t ever feel that you need to drink in order to fit in. If you have or know people that will only accept you if you do, then are they really worth having if they can’t accept you for who you really are? Respect goes both ways. And remember whenever you hear, “Ah it’s only one drink, one drink won’t kill ya” please stop and think, think long and hard, because it could very well be the one that does.
