Once Should Do It by Kevin Quint
How many tries should it take a person with a chemical (i.e. alcohol and/or other drugs) addiction problem to get better? Most people would say, “Once should do it.” That’s because […]
Through the Scary by Laura Newman
I wish I knew the rules, the ABC’s, the path. I wish I didn’t have memories of driving around Reno on dark nights and dark days hoping I would find […]
Much Ado About Nothing?
There has long been controversy about women who drink alcohol during pregnancy. In fact, the problem of birth defects and other problems caused by maternal drinking has become such an issue that the advice now given (at least officially) is, “No level of alcohol is safe for the unborn baby during pregnancy.”
Responsible Drinking is Safe and Legal
We, as a society, have a very ambivalent attitude about alcohol in general, toward abusive drinking, and even toward underage drinking.
Even though the science has shown us that underage drinking (under age 21) and heavy drinking over a certain amount at any age is bad for your health and puts you at greater risk for addiction, we still have that attitude of “kids will be kids,” “let them sow their wild oats (they’ll get over it soon enough),” or “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do” (or a woman, for that matter).
I Don’t Need Help
What would you say if I told you that 90% of babies with asthma don’t get the medical care that they need? What would you say if I told you that 90% of children with cancer don’t get treated? What would you say if I told you that 90% of women with breast cancer can’t find a doctor to see them until they have progressed to a more serious stage of the disease.
OK, take a deep breath. None of that is true. But what would you say if I told you that 90% of the 23 million people with substance use disorders in America don’t receive treatment? That statistic is true but it may not upset you or make you feel so uncomfortable as untreated babies with breathing problems.
The Extreme Drinking Games People Play
Extreme drinking games — when I was 16 that might have sounded kind of fun. There are games such as Beer Pong, Drink ‘Til You Pee, Dicey, Fuzzy Duck and maybe hundreds more. There’s even a drinking game related to the family card game Uno. In fact, when I Googled “extreme drinking games,” I got hundreds of links and web sites. I’ll let you do your own research on extreme drinking games, but basically they are designed for the participants to drink as much as they can in as short of time as possible. What’s the goal? Extreme intoxication, of course.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Since the 1940s, our knowledge about what is safe and unsafe for anunborn child has increased exponentially. We’ve known for a long time that pregnant women shouldn’t smoke cigarettes at all. And the standard for drinking is, “There are no safe levels of alcohol during pregnancy.”
Children of Alcoholics Week
What do you think it’s like growing up in a home in which one or both parents have an alcohol or other drug problem? These are homes that may look fine from an outsider’s perspective but for those children living in it that home can be a living inferno.
What’s So Funny About That?
What’s so funny about a drunk person in any situation? Is it that we enjoy someone else acting a fool? Is it that we enjoy seeing someone falling down, getting up and then falling down again? Is it we think that if a person is foolish enough to be in that condition they deserve to be the object of laughter and scorn? Or maybe we just chalk it up to a good time and wish we could be doing what that person is doing.