To rant about alcohol and the way it's normalised?

[CheapSausagesAndSpam]

It's EVERYWHERE and it's poisonous. People normalise it..."Oh...wine o'clock already tra la la!"

And all that shite.

It's responsible for thousands of deaths and injuries and trauma every year and yet it's the first thing people think of when they want to celebrate something.

Get this

3 May 2017: New figures released today show that hospital admissions due to alcohol are at their highest ever levels.

The data, summarised in a release from NHS Digital, shows that alcohol-related hospital admissions in England have increased by 64% over the last decade, with an extra 430,000 people being admitted due to alcohol-related causes in 2015/16 compared with 2005/06.

This takes the total number of alcohol-related hospital admissions to over 1.1 million in 2015/16.

And this

Alcohol is linked to over 60 illnesses and diseases, including heart disease, liver disease and cancer. Figures from the local alcohol profiles for England show that admissions due to liver disease have gone up 57% over the last decade, and that the number of people diagnosed with alcohol-related cancer has increased 8%.

How is this a lovely drink? How is this something that is ok to do in front of children and even to allow children to partake of?

People on MN often say "Oh I let my 12 year old have half a glass of wine...it's a good way to introduce it!"

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO!?

And new research points to the fact that it causes irreversable damage to stem cells, scrambling DNA and eventually causing cancers.

www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jan/03/alcohol-can-cause-irreversible-genetic-damage-to-stem-cells-says-study?CMP=fb_gu

Think about it. Society is not doing itself any favours.

Totally agree. Especially in this country.

So you think alcohol should be used to control the population then!
Unbelievable the lengths people will go to to justify their drinking 😂

The normalisation if it and how it is 'fun' and makes people more sociable. All rubbish and a very dangerous message.

I drink btw. Occasionally. Not every day. Not every weekend. Not even everytime I go out. Sometimes.

Lowan
I would be willing to believe the rest of your post if the first line
There is a new government strategy coming in to be implemented next year called CQUINS.
were not untrue
as CQUIN is several years old already www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/9-cquin-guid-2015-16.pdf

I have just explained myself in my post. I'm a nurse, working in this sort of thing. If I wrote down everything we look at regarding bloods and tests and other things I'd be writing all night so apologies if it came across uneducated I just didn't think anyone would want to read it all

No, you said that LFT's can tell you how much alcohol someone drinks. You know that is not true. You lied to fit your point.

The normalisation if it and how it is 'fun' and makes people more sociable. All rubbish and a very dangerous message

It is fun to most people and does make them feel more sociable. You may not agree personally, but its not rubbish and its not dangerous.

@Ta1kinPeace apologies I haven't actually looked too far into it yet with Christmas but in a bulletin I got was it was being pushed and implemented more directly in trusts between late 2017-2019. Was an email from a campaign team, with my manager cc'd I'll try and find out more

@peppapigwouldmakelovelyrashers I will not engage in an argument. I know what I mean despite being unable to articulate it very well- I apologise for that but

Drink! Drink! Drink!

C'mon, it's Friday night.

Bugger off you goady, healthy, cheerful person 😄

I can't even remember how to spell it! 😭

I agree with tackle stress and then we can tackle alcohol.

5bdays into dry Jan and I can see I wouldn't want to drink (much) if I had time to relax.

I'm certainly not teetotal, but regularly go several weeks not having an alcoholic drink. I love a good vodka&tonic but I simply don't feel the need to drink one several times a week (or a day).

I think drinking on a daily basis has very sadly become normalised in recent years. It's dressed up as a fun, gregarious, and enjoyable past time. It's glamourised and portrayed as being harmless and almost necessary for busy adults.

And of course, if you get a group of alcoholic-inclined, like minded people IRL or on MN or other (ahem) forums then the concept of 'diffusion of responsibility' comes into play. They encourage each other to drink and because 'everyone else is doing it' it makes it much easier to give in and join in. And suddenly you find you're drinking alcohol every single night, and invariably get drunk at the weekends.

This. Is. Not. Normal.

This. Is. Not. Healthy. Or. Happy. Behaviour.

Alcohol becomes a subtle crutch that you need rather than just 'want'.

So if you’re all pretty much in agreement that drinking alcohol is normal, does this mean we’re all going to start fighting for other recreational drugs to be legalised?

5 days of sobriety hitting hard, @Battleax ?

Jannerite
come join us all over on that exact thread, martini and hash brownie spliffs smell bad in hand

I should probably institute "slightly damp January" to keep myself in my outcast comfort zone 😏

thing is alcohol brings out the real person easier than if they had not drank...
my mother was/is an alcoholic. alcohol was never the problem. the problem was that she couldn't hide her nasty self from the world when shed been drinking. She was always nasty but alcohol allowed her to get "away with it"
My ex partner is a woman beater but again the problem was that beating me whilst drunk gave him an excuse.
My husband however is the same sober (personality wise) as he is when hes had a few too many just as I was the same when I was ramming alcohol and drugs down my throat to save my life.
If someone is an asshole then they are, drinking doesn't make them that way, they just can't hide their true selves!!
Also, alcohol doesn't kill people other than those who drink it too much it is AGAIN used as an excuse to explain disgusting, harmful behaviour

OP If you don't want prohibition what do you want?

as the victim of a problematic drinker i notice this now more than ever. fat, sugar, smoking, sure... but they don't affect your personality, or your treatment of people you love, do they.

Saudi Arabia and similar muslim countries

I had a colleague who worked in Saudi for some years. He told me that if you got to know Saudis to the point where they invited you to their homes the first sign of success was a well-stocked drinks cabinet.

Saudi is no more dry than was American under Prohibition or Russia/USSR from 1914 to 1924 when the Tsar, the Mensheviks,and the Bolsheviks tired and failed to ban the demon drink.

"as the victim of a problematic drinker i notice this now more than ever. fat, sugar, smoking, sure... but they don't affect your personality, or your treatment of people you love, do they."

Blame the drinker not the drink.
If someone becomes abusive when they drink they shouldn't drink. It doesn't say anything about other people's right to drink or not.

"The normalisation if it and how it is 'fun' and makes people more sociable. All rubbish and a very dangerous message. "

Come on. It's not rubbish. It is fun and it does make people more sociable.
There's a darker side as well, but you can't deny that for most people it's fun and a social lubricant.

I don't deny that it is gwen but I think that is the problem. In the words that you use too.