Each day we are bombarded with advertisements and public service announcements telling us not to do drugs or that smoking cigarettes can kill you.
Rarely do we see ads telling us about the health concerns of drinking (except if you consider the tagline “Drink Responsibly” at the end of a beer commercial).
I remember in elementary school learning about drug abuse with D.A.R.E., but I don’t remember any program telling me what to do if someone handed me a drink.
We hear more about programs to help friends and family of alcoholics deal with their loved ones problems than we do of Alcoholics Anonymous programs.
This strikes me as odd because in Louisiana, we are known for our love of eating and having a good time. That “good time” usually involves alcohol.
As a child, I watched people on both sides of my family battle with alcohol abuse and walk in and out of rehabilitation clinics. After a family crawfish boil, the usual thing to do for the older men was to “dump the crawfish.”
This involved them taking off in a truck, dumping the crawfish shells somewhere and then heading to a bar (the last part they intentionally forgot to mention). I always wondered what they were doing and when I curiously asked if I could join, I got a stern, “no.”
As a teenager, I got sucked into the drinking and partying most of my classmates did. It always was a competition to see who could drink the most. My high school had a strict policy against drinking at dances. Before entering the dance hall, each of us were given a Breathalyzer test and not allowed to leave until after the dance had ended. Of course this didn’t prevent students from drinking, it only pushed our drinking binges until later in the evening.
As an adult (I call myself an adult now because the state now calls me that — I turned 21 last Thursday), I’ve watched people in my age group battle their alcohol addictions and come to terms with that of other people in their lives.
Looking back over the past 21 years, I’ve noticed a trend: as a child it’s curiosity, as a teenager it’s a longing to be cool and feel a part of the group, and as an adult it can turn into an embarrassing secret.
As adults, people still are allowed to drink as much as they want, but if anything gets out of hand we tend to look the other way. The stigma is that alcoholics can only help themselves and it’s a lost cause to try and change them.
A friend of mine once told her therapist that her father was an alcoholic and the therapist responded, “Has your mother left him yet?”
It’s as if some people think alcoholism is an incurable disease, which is not true.
Jacques Kado of Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals Office for Addictive Disorders said out of about 28,000 clients treated for drug abuse last year, more than 10,000 were for alcohol abuse.
Clearly, alcoholism is a problem in Louisiana and many are seeking help.
I just wish people talked about this problem more. The University’s Greek community regularly offers programs for chapter members talking about binge drinking. But few people realize we are exposed to alcohol abuse long before entering college.
There should be programs similar to D.A.R.E., at the high school level, that educate students about the consequences of drinking heavily.
I would much rather my children learn about alcohol abuse in a school-related program rather than the way I and many people I know did — through personal experience.