Here are the official numbers one drink is either 1.5 ounces of hard liquor, 5 ounces of wine or 12 ounces of beer or a wine cooler.
To put that in perspective, every Friday, the Serpentine One and I sit down to wine and cheese to unwind at the end of the week. If we both drank three drinks, that would polish off the bottle and then some. I don't think we have ever managed that.
I have four other thoughts:
- Don't drink wine coolers in any quantity. Life is too short to waste it on crap experiences like that. What profit it a man or woman to live longer if they waste the life God gave them on stuff like wine coolers or reality TV.
- The one indisputable fact these studies have established is that drinking is not bad for most people. It just isn't.
- Binge drinking, although much maligned by the puritans, strikes me as a normal thing for someone in their late teens or early twenties to do. Most people reach a point where they just naturally move on.
- BUT, and this is a huge qualification, anyone who has seen the damage alcoholism does first hand or has seen the huge role it plays in family violence and other crimes can tell you just how bad alcohol is for some people.
By the way, almost everything I say above about alcohol I suspect is true of porn as well.
I agree with you for the most part. I don't know anyone who does what they call "moderate" drinking, except maybe people I've seen in a professional capacity who might or might not have also been attending AA meetings. Certainly no one in my social or family circle drinks that much--if anything we're all drinking less. In addition, they don't mention that alcohol affects women much differently than men--they metabolize it more slowly so the effects can be greater. The problem for many people is that what they call "moderate" drinking can and does escalate--1-3 drinks a day becomes 4-6.
ReplyDeleteWhile binge drinking might be normal for kids in their late teens, I think the amounts that are consumed today are more than when we were that age, and also the frequency of it. I've been told that vomitting at college parties is not an uncommon occurrence today because of the amount of alcohol they try to consume in one sitting.
Another point the article doesn't make is that the average age of participants in AA has gotten progressively younger in recent years. I know for a fact that some meetings here in CT are strictly for 18-25 year olds, which was unheard of as recently as 15 or 20 yrs ago. Back then and from when Bill W. started AA, you rarely saw people under 40. Today kids are becoming full blown alcoholics at a much earlier age, presumably because they're starting earlier.
Lastly, here in CT and I think elsewhere as well, the legal blood alcohol limit for getting behind the wheel of a car has dropped significantly in recent years, largely because of the lobbying that MADD has done. I can't say that I disagree with that either, when you consider the numbers of people who have been killed or permanently maimed because of drunk drivers. I think people are aware of this because of the state police media campaigns, and think twice about how much they drink if they have to drive home, I know I do.
I also agree with you about wine coolers, if you're gonna drink go for the good stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with you about porn as well, I think that for most people its effects are even less insidious than alcohol. It can also have a beneficial effect on marriages, and serve as an outlet for people for whom sex with another person is not an option.