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 agree. I have experience of seeing alcoholism on a close relative and as a result I rarely drink. Asking for/ordering a soft drink in a social situation tends to end up with people looking at me like I've got 2 heads and trying to convince me to have a 'proper' drink. Some people do consider alcohol to be an essential part of the human diet. And daily drinking/weekly binging has become completely normalised.

Clandestino. Congratulations on your fantastic life choices. The point, which you're missing, is the vast majority of people do not live your abstentatiious clean lifestyle. We eat and drink what we please in moderation, we are able to control our consumption. We do not need government control.

Our rights as adults should not be negated becaus a small percentage of the population cannot control themselves. And for every person who wants to ban booze, someone else wants to ban sugar, or fat, or plane travel, or cigarettes or caffeine, or salt or any other number of drums being banged that demand state intervention,

As said, for me, no. I don't want to live in a nanny state, you may wish to, good for you, but in the real world there would be a national outcry if the state started to control us in the manner this thread is requesting.

You could all move to Egypt or the Middle East though. Where it is prohibited, Enjoy.

I totally agree op.

Ahhhh, purity. Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

;)

Alcoholism or disordered alcohol drinking is a massive issue.

A glass of wine with meals, as they do in mainland Europe, is fine. Its a foodstuff.

To ban something that a lot of people can indulge in sensibly is a nanny state tactic.

whiskyowl Well said!

I don't think it should be banned but the idea that everyone should drink and that everyone now and then drinking until you are sick and ill the next day is quite funny. Replace alcohol with any other drug. I've overdosed on (insert drug) and it's making me violently sick. I'll probably have to spend all of tomorrow in bed recovering. Doesn't sound quite so hilarious then.

Bluntness, I think you are very very deliberately missing the point of my post and that of the OPs.
I don't want to ban booze, neither does the OP. But OP wasn't talking about moderation. She was talking about the normalisation of binge drinking.
Unless you have a severe allergy to alcohol, you don't get hospitalised because you drank a glass of wine. It's about being so drunk your body is poisoned. And the fact that it's normal over here and even creates a sense of pride. No party was celebrated well, no fun was fun enough without a proper booze consumption and hangover.

I think the majority of people that struggle to drink in moderation would struggle to do something else in moderation if the drink was taken away.
Most of the people in my family or social circle that drink do so in moderation, I started drinking early at family meals etc - it wasn't taboo, it was something that came with food when you were old enough. I think I have quite a healthy relationship with booze and I enjoy it.
My dad however is a text book functioning alcoholic. You'd never know if you met him, he never appears drunk, he's not an angry drunk and he manages just fine without his booze when there's other stuff going on but the minute he's "off duty" for the day (he's retired but a busy retired!) he opens a can or bottle without fail. It's just what he does and it's his personality type I reckon rather than something inherent in the booze or "society" or anything. He was a heavy smoker too and he's quit that but he vapes pretty much constantly now!
My point is if drink was banned or even somehow magically made to appear less glamorous or fun I don't think it would make much difference to the problem drinkers. And beyond that human beings are generally flawed creatures, few of us are as healthy and restrained as Clandestino above, most of us have our vices and that mix of interests and activities and vices is what makes life interesting. You take away booze we'd find something else.....

One of my Ds's is with the Met, it has completely changed his attitude to alcohol, he says the majority of anti-social behaviour is caused by alcohol from the being drunk and disorderly to killing either by drunk driving or in a drunken rage.
A huge proportion of people cannot self regulate (my own darling husband included)
Its not just antisocial behaviour there are plenty of people who collapse drunk making themselves so very vunerable.
There is an awful culture of "drinking" in this country you are almost ostracised if you refuse a "drink" it really shouldn't be like that!

I wish to live in a free society where I can make my own consumption choices.

< hollow laugh >

That's a total oxymoron. "Free choice" in a capitalistic society is entirely guided by consumption.

I am virtually teetotal but I don't really find it too difficult to avoid the drinking culture tbh. My family are from another country where drinking isn't such a big thing, and I tend to socialise with them or with friends from that country, or with other friends who I know through a sports hobby and plenty of them don't drink much for health reasons. I've only felt pressured to drink when I was younger or in certain social groups, but these days I'm confident enough to just refuse (or linger with a single drink all night - my alcohol tolerance is so low that any more would make me feel ill).

I've had quite severe MH issues throughout my life but I've never been tempted to self-medicate with alcohol.

I don't think alcohol should be banned but I do think people need to be conscious of their choices and accept the consequences to their health/lifestyle... I know a few people who have been heavy drinkers all their lives and have had cancer/serious illnesses diagnosed which have been shown to have a higher risk with increased alcohol consumption. Obviously their choice but they need to accept that the illness was partly due to their choices and not just bad luck really.

Posting my thoughts only.

As a recovering alcoholic, no other drug would have rows and rows dedicated to it at a supermarket. Can you imagine picking up cocaine in the same way.

Alcohol is a drug, just a legal one. It almost ruined my life.

I know from my NDN who was a GP, that some villages in our area are particularly infamous for shit lifestyle choices. However, obesity is a much greater long-term health risk for society than substance abuse. Type 2 diabetes absorbs 10% of NHS spending already, and many grossly obese young people won't even have developed it yet. As about 50% of the population (outside MN obv ) is overweight and most are also unfit, ascribing so much of the blame to a single cause, as some posters are here, seems disingenuous. If you want to convince yourself, go ahead: I'd just suggest that it's a bit more nuanced than that.

Alcohol is normal.
Heavy drinking is not. Its a symptom.

Rant as much as you like about heavy drinking, but dont confuse the two. Emergency services dont have to deal with people who have enjoyed a quiet drink.

Good post Fitton

I agree with Bluntness.

Has it ever occurred to some, too, that a good many people don't want to live long lives? Perhaps their lives are truly shit and they really, despite prevalent Victorian attitudes, don't have any real way to change them. Perhaps they'd rather die than be healthy and demented, perhaps their bon vivants who enjoy things in moderation?

Lifestyle has become yet another stick to beat adults with and virtue signal.

She was talking about the normalisation of binge drinking

Was she? That’s completely different to how I read it, but I agree that binge drinking is very damaging culturally as well as health-wise. There’s not a lot more off putting than someone getting totally shit faced to the point they start to make dangerous decisions. I don’t see how ranting about the normalisation of alcohol (those words taken straight from the op) is a solution to that. Arguably, normalising alcohol is a good way of tackling binge drinking. If it’s normal, then there’s no need to go on a mad bender and drink a litre of wine, or so the theory goes I think. Glamorisation of binge drinking...? If that’s a thing then obviously I’d be against that. I can think of few things less glam than a binge drinker.

But bluntness We are free to make 'our own informed decisions' and look what's happening.

And what is a 'nanny state' FGS? What do you want? Anarchy? You sound about 14 tbh.

The majority on this thread are not asking for a ban on alcohol.

The NHS is on it's knees. Enjoy.

Funny how some people on here assume OP is advocating prohibition and get all defensive about a nanny state. What's that all about?

Disapproval of normalisation, questioning the necessary ubiquity of alcohol as a social lubricant, is way different from advocating a ban. And we don't have to be perfect ourselves to see the harm that this normalisation does. I enjoy alcohol too, but it's rather shocking to see what passes for a good night out in city centres in this country, and to see people defending it without any recognition that it might be harmful.

I'm in my 70s, have been disabled for many years, rarely leave my house except to go to doctor's surgery or out shopping for a couple of hours once a week with a friend. I drink alcohol because I enjoy it - I never drink enough to make me drunk, nor do I ever have a hangover. I don't care if it ultimately causes my death - it will be a nice change not to be in pain every day.

When I want a nanny to preach to me about alcohol I'll ask for one. In the meantime all the know-it-alls can go back in their boxes and preach to themselves while the rest of us live our lives as we please.

I don't think you'll achieve anything by ranting about alcohol but I do agree that the increase in hospital admissions is very concerning OP.

expatinscotland

I don't plan to die demented, in fact I hope I will pass away before that point. My lifestyle choice of drinking no alcohol is simply that it's not worth the wasted day with a bad migraine.
If binge drinking was only a matter of one person quietly holed up somewhere in the corner and drinking themselves to death, I wouldn't say a word. Their life, their choice.
But alcoholics don't live in isolation. They have families and those families suffer because of that. Aggressive alcoholics get into fights, beat the members of their families or even kill people because their minds were clouded by alcohol.
You only have to open the Mumsnet. Christmas time was full of posts about family members - alcoholics and their dreaded visit or antics.
Drunk drivers kill because their judgment is impaired.
So if your lifestyle choice is to drink yourself to death, be my guest (not literally). Do it in isolation where your choice has no influence on lives of others.

I’ve had the most wonderful exeperiences under the influence of alcohol. The most amazing fun, the deepest chats, the greatest laughs, the most wonderful celebrations of friendships. The best dates, the best sex, the most laughs. So many wonderful memories.

The times in my life where I haven’t consumed alcohol haven’t been as fun, socially. But I really think it depends on your lifestyle. My friends and I like to socialise by meeting in lovely restaurants and trying new foods and great cocktails and wine. I love love love going to the pub for lunch and a chat.

Some people maybe socialise by popping round to their friends for a cup of tea, or by Meeting at a shared hobby but that’s not my lifestyle and never has been. I think this is fairly common. Alcohol has, in fact, enriched my life hugely.

Not all drinkers are dying and addicted, or puking in the street.
Some of us are just enjoying our experiences

i totally agree with you op - but people need a release of somesort, always have and always will.

i find joints calmer and other drugs but they wont be legalised. we will never get rid of alchol but perhaps become more aware of it. I totally agree that it ruins lives, causes mayhem...

you see I think back to my own childhood and wonder if they were smoking joints instead of jacking up on alchol would it have been as bad¬!