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Be a "Smart Drunk".Jul 31 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line 30 words can't sum up a 1500 word essay. Read on! Alcohol is a part of college life. Let’s not deny that. Don’t go into this situation thinking pure happy thoughts. Because this is reality. Alcohol is obtainable and it is drunk at colleges all across the country. But there’s a fine line between smart drunks and dumb drunks. Dumb drunks abuse alcohol. Smart drunks don’t. I’m a smart drunk. As moronic as that sounds, it’ll explain itself later as you keep reading. Before I left for college, my mother sat me down to discuss alcohol. She had received a packet from my college urging parents to speak to their kids about alcohol. Her main points were these: 1. Be smart 2. Recognize potential dangerous situations and protect yourself 3. Don’t allow yourself to be pressured 4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or call 911 Those were the four points she wanted to get across to me. She didn’t say, “Don’t Drink” because that would have been useless. Rather she gave me information to prepare me for drinking. Such as don’t drink beer before hard alcohol. “Beer before liquor, the more you get sicker. Liquor before beer and you’re in the clear.” She knew I was going to drink, and so she simply said to be smart. The rest was up to me. This is pretty much all that a parent can do. Provide information, trust your kids and then step back and let them make their own decisions. My dad being a doctor took the alternate route. He explained in great detail what alcohol does to your body. Did I mention this was in great detail? It was gross. He also stressed staying away from the “punch”. Needless to say that “punch” has been replaced with a keg, but it was good advice. Basically, know what you’re drinking. Recognizing alcohol in your system is one thing but someone is another thing. I’m very much of a lightweight and it doesn’t take a lot to get me feeling lightheaded and giddy. I also turn bright red. This last factor is a reason why I don’t drink a lot simply because I get embarrassed by how red I turn. I basically look like a lobster with hair. I know my tolerance level and I never reach that point because I simply don’t view drinking a lot as a fun thing to do. I’ll drink socially but never enough to be totally out of control. When I can’t be in control of my own body, that scares me. But that’s me personally. Recognizing when someone else is out of control is a bit more difficult. One of my girlfriends started drinking a lot every weekend with the guys. I confronted her and she denied it and thus started our downward spiral of friendship. But I was genuinely worried and wasn’t going to sit around and be worried. If you’re too scared to say something to your friend about how much alcohol they drink then you’re not being a good friend. I confronted her in a friendly way and it wasn’t “confrontational” but she still took it to be so. Well that’s her loss. Her idea of a good time was to drink and stand there. Woo. Big deal. I say a good party involves drinking and dancing. Or even just dancing. Another one of my friends became very very drunk at a party. We didn’t even realize how much he had drunk until we sat outside with him and noticed he was tired, his eyes couldn’t stay open and he couldn’t remain balanced. This is where the handy dandy alcohol poisoning card comes in handy. Our school printed an alcohol poisoning card listing the symptoms of alcohol poisoning on it and we all keep a copy in our jeans whenever we go to a party. Our friend wasn’t that bad but he was very drunk and about to pass out at any minute. So we kept him up, kept him talking, kept him walking and made him throw up so he could get rid of some of the alcohol in his stomach that wasn’t in his system yet. We didn’t let him go to sleep until we were sure he was in the clear and even then we woke him up every half hour or so. My boyfriend and I didn’t fall asleep until 7 am dealing with this. Hey, it was romantic. We watched the sunrise together. The point I’m trying to make here is that if you’re a good friend, you take a mental picture of how much your friend is drinking along with yourself. Verbalize when you think they need to stop. There’s no way I could have been at that party enjoying myself watching someone else take care of my friend. We handled the situation ourselves and we were lucky that nothing horrible happened. Then there are times when you have to ask for help. My boyfriend (and I do love him) was in a funk. He sat in his room, starting doing chasers (vodka shots and Gatorade) and didn’t join us at a party. I didn’t have a good time knowing he was by himself drinking and so I left. Call it women’s intuition or whatever you want. I thank my lucky stars that I left when I did to check up on him. He sat there being a sad drunk and I became annoyed with him. So I left. But I didn’t just leave. I left and asked my RA (who happens to be a good friend of ours) to simply check on him. And she did so. And my smart boyfriend called me saying he felt sick. Probably the smartest thing he did all night. And so my RA and I sat with him talking him out of his funk. She finally left and it was the two of us. I was at this point, missing the biggest party off campus but I didn’t care. He needed me and I was there and I wasn’t about to leave. He ended up forcing himself to throw up and I being the gold medal girlfriend cleaned up. I also held him, kept him awake and told him boring stories of my family to keep him awake and to let him know I was still there. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t been there with him. It’s too scary to think. Those are the major situations that I’ve been in dealing with alcohol. What you should realize is that alcohol is indeed a part of college life. The individual might not drink but as a whole, someone on that college campus is. Sometimes it’s more prevalent on some campuses than others. Or with some groups. But for the individual, there’s a choice factor. Do I drink or not? If you choose to drink, be aware of the consequences. Be aware of potential situations that you’ll come across and be aware of how to handle such situations. Alcohol abuse doesn’t have to be your problem or your friends if you handle yourself in a responsible way. And that’s what makes a smart drunk. Knowledge. Knowledge about alcohol and what to do. And the ability to say “no” or “stop”. If you don’t have the knowledge, well I can’t really pity you. I hope this somewhat helps people in knowing about alcohol abuse. I can of course, only speak from personal experience. For more information: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/ Red Ribbon Works http://www.redribbonworks.org/Home.asp Alcoholics Anonymous http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/ Thanks for reading!  |
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