By Sam Clements
I’m quite frankly bored with the topic of binge drinking. It has dominated the news in the recent past and it’s been easy to become blasé towards the matter. Although it has helped create TV shows like “Brighton Beach Patrol” making some highly entertaining TV by filming drunken revelers..
So anyway, if I hear the two words binge and drinking next to each other on the news, I may pull my own teeth out. But for the entirety of this post; you and I will excuse its use.
Freshers’ week is behind us now. It was fun, but I will admit I’m slightly relieved. Non-stop drinking for eight days takes it out of you! Freshers’ week is an introduction to the upcoming semester, but as we are grating away at our livers throughout the term, there’s something I’m more concerned about.
Apart from the chance of enhancing a night out’s shits and giggles, intoxicating yourself with enormous amounts of alcohol has no benefits whatsoever. I don’t care about that; I’m not really bothered about liver disease either.
What does concern me is that alcohol is a depressant, and that’s easy to forget (so are most things) when you’re having a great time being drunk. All to often you see girls hysterically crying and the boys fighting each other for no real apparent reason, so it’s evident that alcohol provokes these negative feelings.
Ever woken up from a heavy night feeling ill ? But also sluggish, mopey, and a bit sorry for yourself? Well you might not have felt like that just because of the physical effects of alcohol, but the depressant effect the drug has on your brain. And my brain is something I’m protective about.
I too have been sucked into the culture of binge drinking, and almost feel that I can’t get out of it. Especially in the university environment.
We are a generation of extremists. If it’s not alcohol abuse, it’s food abuse or drugs, or religious and political extremism.
Are we all looking for a way to destroy ourselves and each other? Or do I just have the beer blues from last night..
I can’t think of anything that we could be told that would stop us drinking, which is quite scary.
Time to change? Probably. Out tonight? Probably.
All very true, good article but unfortunately no solutions. But hey, just seeing the problem is something.