Recently I had the pleasure of reading an article in the Daily Sundial about alcohol awareness. The article discussed a grant that was given to CSUN to spread awareness and touched on a vital issue that surrounds the lives of a many college students, over excess and indulgence.
In the past, as a young and developing drinker, I always used to laugh at the end of alcohol commercials on the radio and on television. They always seemed to end with the same turn of phrase, “Drink Responsibly.”
For me this just kind of went without saying. I assumed that there were many people just like me who drank and understood the consequence of getting to certain levels of intoxication.
It wasn’t until I began to explore the “real world.” You know, the one where the first guy to puke or pass out wins the race. It wasn’t until I was exposed to this depraved understanding of drunken heroism and mediocre rivalry that I finally realized why those commercials say to “drink responsibly.”
I always used to think that it was just a disclaimer that alcohol companies were required to have, now I realize that some people actually need to be reminded that alcohol is a poison that we use to poison ourselves, and too much poison is never a good thing for any body.
Being the would-be journalist that I am, I had to explore this world, question the motive for such irreverent behaviorand try to understand how some people could be so irresponsible with their drinking habits.
After five years of living a headstrong full-fledged stupidity, I realized that in the world of alcoholism and the uncontrolled youth of this country, there are only two kinds of people: the half-wilds and the outlaws.
The half-wilds are those people that just can’t help themselves when friends or family have a drink and decide to have one with them. These are not the die-hard, ulcer driven drunks that mix four types of different liquor in one drink just to get a buzz.
These are the kids that break under the pressure of peers: The girls that can’t say no to a drink bought for them and the guys that can’t say no when they are the ones buying the drink.
The outlaws are those that instigate and facilitate the kind of behavior that breaks the half-wilds. The outlaws are those that created a world where half-wilds can learn to become outlaws through drinking that is characterized by disorder and carelessness.
For the outlaws, there is a distinct sense that the way that they drink and encourage others to drink is wrong and when a sober head explains this to them and they aren’t already drunk, it causes them to drink.
Both types of people turn drinking into a deviant form of recreation by not having any control and allowing themselves to be controlled by the drink, either mentally or emotionally.
The broken-tooth truth of it is that this country, as do many other countries, makes drinking a casual thing. So casual that sometimes people get so drunk and happy that they crash their car in to wall or into the car of a fellow driver, with a big smile on their face.
For some the idea of getting drunk, slapping on a half-witted grin and driving a hundred miles an hour down a residential street is a fun thing to do. For people with half a brain this is a problem.
The problem is not the alcohol, but rather how we consume it. The problem with alcohol is that its most fundamental characteristic, which is drunkenness, will not allow the user to know when to quit.
The bottom line about this issue is that people just need to be more mindful about how and what they drink. As far as awareness is concerned all you need to know is, as with all drugs, you need to know that it is in fact a poison, that drunkenness you feel means the poison is working.
If you don’t usually drink, then don’t try and down a bottle of Bacardi 151 as a stunt to impress anyone. If you do usually drink then know where and when it is safe to drink. Don’t have 10 beers and assume that just because it was just beer and not hard liquor that you aren’t going to be affected.
Don’t be consumed by peer pressure. Many people think that in order to have a good time with your friends you need to drink, this is not the case. If your friends aren’t that interesting or that nice to look at then the alcohol might help, other wise you shouldn’t need anything to have a good time with people you know and usually have a good time with.
In the end, drinking is fun and it does make difficult people and situations much easier to deal with. If the situations or people that you have to deal with are really that strenuous, drinking can be a good thing and act a stress reliever that can bring about certain positive consequences if used wisely. If used wrongly, negative consequences will endure.
It’s all about moderation, everything in moderation. Too much of any good thing can turn bad and too much of any bad thing is never good. No one has to drink, but if you choose to, be aware of the consequences that you create.
Understand that alcohol is a poison. If you choose to poison yourself then do so with good manners and good taste.
