Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Alcohol - The Legal Drug

So it's Friday night and time to get absolutely wasted, but first let's recap your week:

Monday, you've seriously got a hangover
Tuesday, you're recovering from yesterdays hangover
Wednesday, is the recovery completion date of hangover
Thursday, you are now sober and can walk in a straight line . . . maybe
Friday, it's time to get hammered - drink, drink, drink til' 4 am
Saturday, you're still drunk from last night and decide to make it worse and go for more drinks
Sunday, you guessed it right, I am so pissed right now let me do the 'responsible' thing and spend the last bit of my wage on more alcohol. Later you find you have no money or idea to get home!

Billboards across town catch your eye with those striking blue bottles of WKD . . .  
The American Dream, brainwashing us to fly first class, pop champagne, live the life. . .
Party invites on Facebook for this Saturday night, free drinks . . . Jackpot!!!
Summer Festivals galore and beach side concerts - bottoms up!

In actual fact, the reality of alcohol is far from what these glamorous, Hollywood material adverts are telling us and the small print; 'Drink Responsibly', might as well not even be there.

In order to have fun we have to consume an unregulated amount of an intoxicating, life threatening and health damaging drink?

What is fun about a drunkard driving at 100 mph with teenagers in the back colliding into a 15 ton lorry killing everyone instantly?

What is fun about waking up in an unusual environment the following morning and realizing you are a victim or guilty of rape?

What is fun about waking up in a hospital with multiple injuries on your body, and being told you were mugged the night before?

What is so fun about having the worst hangover, an unbearable headache, memory loss, constant vomiting and smelling and looking foul?

Please don't give me that - "alcohol is an anti-depressant, it's good for you" excuse.
First of all anti-depressant basically means, run away from your problems and worries. How irresponsible? One must deal with their problems to overcome them and find a solution and anyway, majority of those problems are probably consequences of being drunk!

Popular songs about sex and drinking, constantly hit number one on the charts. Hollywood, teenage movies promote the idea of 'having sex and drinking is the only way to have fun'. Children as young as thirteen are influenced by this.

Okay so you don't care that you are excessively damaging your organs and health, because you can't see that. But, you can see being locked up in prison because you got too violent, you can see being beaten on the side street because you forgot your way home, you can see the diagnoses of serious STDs and you can see the pregnancy test reading positive, because you drank too much that night and decided to have unprotected sex.

So, you still choose to ignore all this for a couple of minutes of 'fun'?
Alcohol is a killer and it's legal. My life is so damn good without it!

One of the many anti - drinking advertisements

3 comments:

  1. Whomever has told you that it is an anti-depressant is wrong. It actually is a depressant, not at the time, but afterward.

    I believe that you are sending a message that should be sent, however maybe you are rounding everyone up in one category.

    Personally I drink maybe a glass of wine every week. Then once a month I will go out and get extremely drunk. I go out with people that I know and trust to places which we know and trust to limit the danger that we are in! If I know that I am getting to a point where I will not be able to remember, I go home because the temptation is just to much for me!

    I completely agree with the advertising, music and films, it certainly does not send a good message!

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  2. Indeed alcohol is a depressant, but some don't realise that.

    As for "rounding everyone up in one category", unfortunately many will read the first paragraph and think, yes that's me. The fact of the matter is that there is a strong drinking culture - too many people are getting VERY drunk, otherwise I wouldn't have blogged about this issue that must be dealt with.

    Some may be responsible drinkers but that temptation is always there - after all we're only human.

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  3. "First of all anti-depressant basically means, run away from your problems and worries."

    As someone who suffers from bipolar disorder, and I am a perfectly functioning human being, I find this statement offensive. I take anti-depressants, and that does not mean I am running away from my problems; in fact, it means quite the opposite. After suffering from manic depression for four years, I decided to tackle my problems and solve it by being diagnosed by a doctor. Anti-depressants are there medically to help, not to hinder. It is most certainly not cowardice.

    Before you make a sweeping statement, consider what you are writing first.

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