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.

I hate it too; I can't stand why we normalise something that targets the vulnerable. We are teaching (through the bath time gin, mummy's glass of wine type acceptance) an entire generation of children to deal with their difficult feelings by turning to alcohol.

Bluntness I'd be very surprised if you didn't know anyone who was an alcoholic; I think it's more likely you know several, but, as usual with people with alcohol addiction, it's rarely spoken about.

We normalise alcohol, but we make it incredibly shameful to those who have a problem with it, or think they have a problem with it. They are often ostracised.

Thanks @museumum; that’s what I was trying to say!

Alcohol isn't the issue its the abuse how can that be true?
Most drinkers, and I include myself in this are constantly trying to moderate their intake. It only takes one really bad life event to turn a moderate drinker into a heavy/ problematic drinker. How can alcohol itself not be the issue?

It is a drug like any other drug except other drugs are prohibited by law but alcohol is actively advertised and promoted as some thing that is good for us in moderate amounts. There is actually no consensus as to what is a moderate amount, every country has different guidelines, in effect we are guessing as to what constitutes a moderate amount of alcohol but we don't really know. The problem is that for most people drinking moderately is hard if not impossible to do as alcohol by its very nature makes us want more. Of course banning it is not the answer but stopping advertising it would be a good start.

The NHS is constantly in the news at the moment and there is lots of concern about whether if it is able to take the strain. If we could reduce the alcohol related. A&E admissions that would take a massive burden off the NHS not to mention all the chronic alcohol related diseases.

I totally agree with you op and do not think you should calm down, we should be angrier about the harm alcohol is doing to our society and trying to prevent our young from following in our foot steps.

Buntnesthe fact is that people who drink won't think of themselves as "abusers" but many people drink too much but think they don't.

Agree with the PPs that alcohol itself isn’t a problem but the fact it is used as a crutch/mask/coping mechanism for so many undiagnosed mental health issues. And whereas drug use would be unacceptable, a drink ‘to relax’ is positively encouraged.

I’m not teetotal and I enjoy a drink but that’s it - I enjoy being a social drinker. I barely drink in the house as don’t see a point although my DH enjoys it. So if I have a while where I’m not out at gigs, parties etc I just don’t bother with drinking.

The other thing is, for some people it can feel like there is little reason to preserve their health. What can they look forward to if they reach old age in rude health?

A GP friend of mine says in the area where he works, doctors talk about “shit life syndrome”, where patients end up self medicating, or being over medicated by doctors because they truly can’t cope with the pressures of modern life in a deprived area.

Wider problems is exactly what I was trying to get at.

I think problem drinking is more to do with stress (which is more to do with increasing inequality than anything else).
An additional issue for those who don't drink alcohol, or drink it very rarely, is the generalised pressure on people to conform and fit in - I'm quite used to spending time with groups of people where some drink and some don't, and no one pesters anyone else about their choices, but then I have always had a mix of friends with a mix of needs/quirks/backgrounds/preferences. I can't imagine being out with friends and anyone nagging at a non-drinker to 'just have one' without that person being told to fuck off or at least wind their neck in. Mind you, similar treatment might be given to anyone who spent the night whining at everyone else about how much they were drinking and spouting a load of pious bullshit about 'intoxication culture'.

Agree with Bluntness

I could write the same OP changing it to Obesity/Smoking etc

I think we all know the risks of sugar/being overweight/too sedentary/alcohol/fags/drugs etc, the problem is addiction.

I would say that 100% of alcoholics have MH issues. I know that I do. Happy, well-adjusted people do not need the crutch. I also think that the image of alcholics 'looking' like alcoholics is unhelpful. No-one outside my group of drinking friends would have any idea about my other life.

I shall get accused of being a killjoy I think...

But I do find it really sad that many of my friends rely on alcohol albeit in a way that stops far short of alcoholism.

Hands up: I don't drink. I rarely ever have. I hate taste. It's not a health issue or choice, it's not - as my sister keeps asking "because you don't like being out of control?" - it's simply because anything I've tried tastes (to me) vile.

Many of my friends have told me, that they simply do not have as good an evening out if they're not drinking. These are not women who drink to excess on these nights - it's a shared bottle of wine, a couple of gins. But without that social lubricant, they either aren't relaxed, or simply don't enjoy the evening as much.

A friend stopped drinking when she was pregnant and told me that basically, she realised that some of the evenings out she had been having, or even dates, just weren't that good and the alcohol made them bearable.

I find that really sad. I dated a guy who couldn't have a good night out unless off his face on coke - and it's just a more extreme version.

I think it would be nice if everyone was relaxed, happy in their own skin, and able to enjoy themselves completely sober.

You see it on Relationships board a lot - first date on OLD, people want to have a drink to loosen up / for confidence. It's a shame they need it.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that everyone drinks for these reasons - but based on conversations with friends - it's common.

Separate issue entirely - I'm shocked at the recent NHS alcohol stats. Not the Xmas period, but week in week out.

Seriously, whatever. I like alcohol. My friends like alcohol. I don't want prohibition, I feel sorry for those who cannot control themselves, like I feel sorry for many other people, but I do not see it as a reason for prohibition or government control of my choices.

I get there is a lot of tea totallers on mumsnet. A huge percentage axtually in comparison to the real world, so views will be unbalanced but the reality is you're pissing in the wind, they ain't going to ban or control it,,,why, because most of us drink responsibly and the vast majority of the population would be vehemently against it.

Interesting suggestion that the problems the NHS is facing are down to all those stupid peasants drinking too much (and eating too much junk food, and smoking.)
Of course, if you can blame everything on poor people making stupid choices, you won't have to account for the disastrous underfunding the NHS suffers, nor the rapidly-increasing health crises that are due to poverty and malnutrition...

I was thinking the same yesterday. I’m in bed with flu and binge watching The Good Wife. The main character is constantly drinking large glasses of red wine, while the other characters’ social lives are mainly shown in expensive bars drinking shots. Every other social event is shown with glasses of martinis or champagne in the forefront of the picture.
I am the same age as the main character and if I drank that much I would permanently hungover, not negotiating top level legal deals and arguing complex cases a short notice in court!
Alcohol consumption in this series is synonymous with success, wealth and fun and it is a very dangerous message.

I could write the same OP changing it to Obesity/Smoking etc

Exactly. You could go on about all these irresponsible people on Facebook, saying how it’s ‘chocolate o’clock’ and how much they love cake tra lala. Meanwhile there are people losing limbs to diabetes.

I agree.

I don't drink and I hate how this is seen as strange. I'd go out after work with colleagues and have them try to persuade me to have an alcoholic drink, and not want to give up trying - why?!

I know I drink too much, the people that smoke know they smoke too much, fat people know they are fat, people who are lazy know it.

And so on...

Look at the threads on weightloss, giving up booze, fags, taking up exercise, increasing steps... we all KNOW what we should do.

I agree with you op. Due to a health issue I had a good few weeks off prior to Christmas to see if it made a difference and felt enormously better - I drank over Christmas and felt like crap again. I think I may not drink again.

I read a book by Jason Vale that argues that there is no such thing as an alcoholic - everyone who drinks alcohol is dependent in some way. He illustrates how it does nothing for you whatsoever and how we are all conned by society into thinking it has benefits. He argues that showing restraint ('I only drink at weekends' and so on) is simply managing your addiction and some people are better at managing it than others ('moderate' drinking/'problem' drinking/full blown 'alcoholism'). It was quite compelling!

FWIW I think we should approach alcohol in the same way as we do tobacco - increase taxes, stop glamourising it in media and adverts, control how it is presented: generic bottle/labelling and inclusion of consequences on the label.

I have been teetotal my whole life. no particular reason and I don't have a problem at all with other people drinking.

what I do find worrying is how often people see my desire not to drink as some sort of freakish behaviour and that unless one has a "legitimate" excuse such as driving or being pregnant, there is pressure to "just have one."

I thought this pressure would have eased off by the time I was nearly 40 and it hasn't really.

@littlepeas Thanks for the book recommendation.

I agree it's become way too normaiised. I love a few glasses of wine but have had.a real struggle to get my consumption down to a reasonable level. It is frightening how a glass of wine a night can so easily build up to 2 then 3 then before you know it you can drink a full bottle without any after effects.

I think it's like so many other things in modern life. Easy availability and clever advertising and PR have lead to a situation where people go OTT with alcohol and go out with the intention of getting drunk and excuse their bottles of wine with dinner every night as 'everyone else is doing it'.

It's the same with food. Crisps, fizzy drinks and takeaways used to be occasional treats, now they're just a normal part of life for lots of people, leading to huge health problems.

I don’t drink that much at all, and actually not at all since I became pregnant again, but you bet I’ll have an occasional weak G&T in the garden on a warm summer’s evening.

So op. Have you got any vices? Are you a healthy weight? Don't over do it on the caffeine? Exercise regularly? Eat a healthy balanced diet?

soberistas.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/jason-vale-youre-my-hero/

Here is an article on the book I mentioned.

So op. Have you got any vices? Are you a healthy weight? Don't over do it on the caffeine? Exercise regularly? Eat a healthy balanced diet? I was going to ask this too.