Alcohol
I drink… what happens?
A strange question indeed for many people. It’s pretty obvious what alcohol does, right? It makes you get all funky, all life-and-soul of the party, down right groovy, baby.
Oh yes, and it makes you dribble. And say and do things you wish you hadn’t the following morning, if only you could remember what they were. Hmmm. Alcohol is a depressant drug – it slows down the action of the central nervous system. For lots of people, that leads to experiences including a loss of inhibition, relaxation, talkativeness and sociability.
A bar-full of noisy, chatty, confident and ever-so-slightly (or just blatant and outrageously) flirty people. Hello sailor! Higher doses can lead to loss of control (slurred speech, blurred vision and wobbly legs) and even loss of consciousness. Generally a less appealing edge for most of us.
Alcohol’s dis-inhibiting effect doesn’t always unleash the party animal and cue an evening of fun and frivolity. Alcohol is a key to unlocking whatever emotional content you keep under wraps. If, underneath that cool, calm, relaxed and generally civilised exterior you are actually seriously pissed at the world, if only you could express it in some way, then alcohol will help you to find the way. It’s unfortunate that being a fundamentally selfish hunter-gatherer with a pack instinct and vision that’s just made for hunting you will be most likely to attempt to destroy the nearest moving thing, once you’ve passed that threshold. With a bit of luck they’ll be sober enough to duck, or too drunk to notice, much like the potential love interests on the periphery of your hazy vision.
What are the Risks?
Alcohol is a depressant drug. Using alcohol reduces your ability to react, quickly. Everything slows down.
Now take a breath in. Breathe out, slowly, and read that last sentence again, really slowly.
That’s right, and maybe just lower the tone of your voice a little, too. And get real relaxed. Taking it easy.
Some activities require your absolute attention, and focus, and ability to respond immediately. Alcohol will get in the way of these activities. Whilst having a drink (or two) to limber up before an important conversation you want to have with someone might not always be particularly risky, attempting to drive, cycle, swim or cross a busy road on the way to your meeting could be very dangerous. As could the return journey.
Alcohol inhibits the erectile function of the penis. *No stiffy* So if your meeting included plans for a bit of that, well, hard luck. or not.
Alcohol use can affect someone’s ability to make rational decisions. It affects some people’s ability to make any kind of a decision at all, other people just decide that absolutely anything sounds like a really good idea. Alcohol use has been linked to sexual risk taking (except * see above) – that other person just has a special something about them, and to hell with a contraceptive. It can somehow seem – well – secondary. Or even less important than that. Or maybe just an afterthought, if it figures at all. Taking risks can, after all, be fun. Not like HIV, Herpes, Gonorrhea, Syphillis…you get the picture. Hopefully not too graphic, yet.
Can’t get no satisfaction
Regular use of alcohol can lead to tolerance. It’s a little bizarre when people are noticing that they can drink more, maybe even much more, than their friends, and still not behave as if they’re half as intoxicated. It can start to seem like a night out is becoming more and more expensive, or needs to start earlier, or last longer. Tolerance happens when your body begins to adapt to a level of alcohol in the body. You begin to need to take more alcohol to get the same effect. If you keep on drinking regularly beyond this point, you will enable yourself to develop a physical dependence. You will become ill if you don’t take alcohol.
I knew someone once who was stopped by the police after drinking a half-bottle of vodka, and then driving home from the store. 09.45 AM. This is in Europe, where a half-bottle is 350ml, a little more than a standard can of coke. About a half a pint. The police couldn’t believe he drove so well, they said, as they arrested him. This man hadn’t been able to see straight, or to walk well, or to concentrate, before he’d had a drink. By then, he was drinking more than a bottle of spirits a day, every day. Unusual, maybe, or maybe just determined.
Jingle Bells
Alcohol use has been linked to lots of social problems, including domestic violence and violent crime. It can also lead to problems with how we relate to each other, or not. Being drunk isn’t much of an excuse if you say something to a friend you regret the next day.
Long-term use of alcohol is known to cause many physical illnesses including liver damage, stomach cancer and heart disease. Alcohol causes the body to lose heat to the environment – the blood vessels dilate, bringing them closer to the surface of the skin. It’s probably worth saying that again, now, just to help it be brought to your attention, now. Alcohol causes the body to lose heat to the environment. Alcohol should never be given to someone to ‘warm them up’. It might make them feel warmer, as they feel their body lose warmth to the environment. This is very dangerous. Their body will actually cool down. Going for a brisk chilly winter walk outside to get some ‘fresh air’ is somewhere near the top of the list of bad ideas for fun things to do when you’re drunk. Hello frostbite! Bye-bye toes! To say nothing (or at least, very little) of hypothermia and exposure.
Alcohol will reduce a persons sensitivity to pain. It has a history of use in medieval (English) medicine, especially dentistry, when it would be a second choice for anesthesia if there wasn’t a handy cudgel with which to hit the patient over the head. It’s possible to suffer injuries and not realise until the effect of the alcohol wears off – burns, cuts, bruises and more serious trauma might go temporarily unnoticed, and untreated. Alcohol causes dehydration, so taking alcohol with other drugs that dehydrate (like speed and ecstasy) is potentially very risky.
Pished
A large dose of alcohol will cause overdose leading to loss of consciousness and possibly even death. For a non-tolerant person (someone not drinking regularly) about 30 units (a bottle of spirits) would end in a trip to hospital and could be fatal. If someone is drunk, the only thing that will help them to sober up is time. The body breaks down alcohol at the rate of one unit per hour – it’s metabolised by the liver, which only works at one speed. Giving someone black coffee, stimulant drugs or a cold shower to “sober them up” won’t make their liver work any faster. They’ll still be drunk – their judgment will be all over the place – and they’ll be wide awake. Sounds messy. Taking alcohol with other drugs that have depressant effects (like heroin, methadone and some prescribed medicines like temazepam, diazepam or valium and antihistamines) will increase the potential for overdose.
If you are with someone who has been drinking and then loses consciousness, make sure they are in the recovery position and try to stay with them. The “recovery position” will help to keep the person’s airway open. Even if they don’t overdose, they could vomit while they are unconscious and choke. Calling for an ambulance will ensure that they receive medical attention should they need it.
Benchmarking – “safer” drinking limits
The UK Health Education Authority (HEA) suggests that men drinking 3-4 units a day or women drinking 2-3 units a day are unlikely to be causing themselves physical harm as a direct result of their drinking. These levels assume one or two non-drinking days during the week. People who regularly drink more than this increase the risks of suffering alcohol-related illnesses. If you drink, having several alcohol-free days each week will reduce the risk of harm.
Pregnant women are encouraged to avoid alcohol altogether, or not to drink more than one or two units each week. There is a significant body of research suggesting links between maternal alcohol use during pregnancy and a ‘foetal alcohol syndrome’ that may affect the development of the new human being.
Research suggesting that there may be health benefits to moderate alcohol use has been published. The beneficial effects are reported to be a reduction in Coronary Heart Disease in men aged more than 40 who drink 1-2 units of alcohol each day. As with much research about the use of drugs, the research cannot prove a causal link – the health benefits may be related to other lifestyle choices, or other variables, that may or may not also be related to the use of alcohol. Confusing, and fun to ponder on how else the statistics could be interpreted. As with most things.
One unit = half a pint of beer, lager or cider, one glass of wine or one 25 ml measure of spirits. Many of the alcoholic colas, lemonades and other fizzy drinks available contain as much alcohol by volume as beer or cider.
You have the right…
The use of Alcohol in the UK is legal, within certain conditions (age, location, degree of drunkenness). There are aspects of alcohol use (such as driving whilst intoxicated and public order offenses involving alcohol) which are controlled by law, but generally the legal controls focus on the sale of alcohol to others.
It is not against the law to produce alcohol in the form of beer or wine. It is sometimes entirely inadvisable to consume ‘home-made’ alcohol on the grounds of poor quality. Even if the product is of a reasonable quality, you cannot sell any alcohol without the appropriate license.
