Diane drank quite frequently with her friends. One Wednesday after school she began thinking about the amount of alcohol she drank and the hazardous and excessive drinking of her drinking pals. As a consequence of this, she respectfully asked all of her drinking friends the following question: “what do we really know about binge drinking, alcohol abuse, alcohol poisoning, and alcoholism? That is to say, how much alcoholism and alcohol abuse information do we really know? For our young age, we obviously drink quite a bit and I am really starting to wonder if we are headed for a life filled with alcohol-associated issues in the near future.

I think we need to go online and learn all we can about alcohol abuse, alcoholism, binge drinking, and alcohol poisoning. And then if we have any relevant issues that we really don’t understand after we complete our Internet research, we can make an appointment at the student health center at the college and ask Nurse Woodard to help us understand what we don’t know.”

It Shouldn’t Come as a Big Shock That What Diane Mentioned Would Start a Heated Discussion

It shouldn’t come as a great surprise that what Diane stated would set off a heated discussion. For instance, her best friend since junior high school, Ellen, stated that they are too young and too healthy to be worried about excessive drinking. Another friend named Max thought that since most youth drink there’s no logical reason why they should be any different. Another drinking buddy named Selah said that all she wants to do is to have fun drinking with her friends. And still another pal named Gary in point of fact agreed with Diane basically because his parents were both alcohol abusers and both of his parents had a history of alcohol related problems.

Diane explained to her friends that she comprehended everything that they had said but that engaging in careless and abusive drinking at such an early age truly cannot be very healthy or conducive toward establishing a meaningful life. When a couple of her drinking pals asked what kind of alcohol problems Diane was referring to, Diane articulated the following: alcohol-related diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver, heart disease, and cancer, and other alcohol-related problems like alcoholism, alcohol-related traffic accidents and fatalities, and alcohol poisoning (which can be fatal in some instances).

Hazardous and Irresponsible Drinking Usually Results in Drinking Problems

When Diane then mentioned that careless and hazardous drinking often results in relationship, school, legal, and financial problems, some of her friends finally started to comprehend how widespread and how damaging abusive and irresponsible drinking can be. To be sure some of her drinking friends opened up and started to tell how these alcoholism and alcohol abuse effects had affected their parents and some of their friends.

After listing some of the alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse problems that are related to abusive and hazardous drinking, the majority of her buddies liked the idea about getting information online. They were, however, leery about discussing their drinking situations with staff at school. As Diane reflected on this she whispered to herself, “at least they want to learn more about their unhealthy drinking. This is an excellent start.”