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.

Are you talking to me Corbyn? That's exactly what I'm saying; Lots of people up in arms about a prohibition that nobody has suggested.

Can we just ban irritating phrases like ‘wine o’clock’ and those ghastly clocks with ‘prosecco’ instead of 6 o’clock or whatever? In the name of good taste aside from anything else.

Yanbu at all. I hate our alcohol-focussed culture. No problem with enjoying the odd drink but we are way off the scale and it's so ingrained in our socialising to be pissed.

I miss my days of being a dirty skank. But I equated that with all the shagging I did rather than booze. That was fun

Careful now. You're giving the angry posters new "what about" inspiration

No Battleax talking to the many people on here arguing with themselves about prohibition that no-one has called for.
It's very similar to the fun enthusiasts in America. Anyone making any sensible suggestion is accused of trying to take sensible people's guns away.

*gun enthusiasts

Well make you’re mind up Corbyn, we’re either in dire straits as a nation due to the British binge drinking psyche or it doesn’t matter. Can’t have it both ways!

Sorry corbyn. I think I need to give my screen eyes a rest

Where have I said it doesn't matter?

I think we have some fun enthusiasts on the thread

Alcohol is just one of the many issues affecting health that is putting a strain on the NHS.
DH and I were discussing last night about how they keep referring to the ageing population as the reason for the strain on the NHS. Whilst I agree that getting old leaves you more prone to illness and vulnerable to complications from otherwise common illnesses, It is not a given (MIL at 89 is in good health and FIL 93 was until a couple of years ago), I don't think that we have seen the worst of it yet. We are in our 50's. We socialise with many different circles of friends most of whom do no exercise at all, drink too much and range from overweight to morbidly obese - a couple of them also smoke. Whilst most of them have been lucky to escape serious illness as a result of their lifestyles so far, (although one has had a TIA and one that I know of has been diagnosed with T2 Diabetes) they are without a doubt ticking time bombs as far as diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and possibly diet related cancers are concerned. They are not in the minority - so in 20/30 years time, this group will be the elderly who are occupying hospital beds and care homes in far greater numbers than the current elderly generation.

So we do need to do something quickly about the general over indulgence in all sorts of unhealthy food and drink and the associated mental health problems which lead people to consume them as a sticking plaster to cover the problems in their lives.

You said we can’t use the uk isn’t as bad argument because that’s saying that the UKs drinking doesn’t matter

But many people on this thread are citing this as a British problem and can’t we all be the same as our European neighbours (who’d drink more, incidentally)

totally agree with OP, it's one of the most harmful rec drugs but people overlook the risks because it's so socially acceptable.

Prohibition is not a solution however (look what happened when USA tried it)

Laiste - what is a "registered alcoholic"?

I agree op, you go to any greeting card shop and there are so many cards about being pissed, getting pissed its just so ingrained and normal. T shirts, mugs, tea towels, wooden signs on the wall. I find it really really odd. You watch those ambulance programs or police programs theres so much cost involved with people getting wasted.

yanbu

I heard some doctors being interviewed this morning about the nhs ‘crisis’ (not allowed to call it a crisis according to J Cunt obviously). They all mentioned higher demand due to an ageing population and how that’s set to get worse, unless something is done to cope with demand.

It’s tricky isn’t it, to get across the message that you should make better choices for the sake of your health? So, what? We can all live to a hundred, lose our houses to pay for social care, leaving our dcs with no inheritance? I can see why people don’t feel motivated by that to make healthier choices. BUT, I still don’t know a single person who thinks drinking to the point of being sick is normal.

I’m getting confused on this thread tbh. At first I thought it was to do with normalisation of alcohol, then I think it was glamorisation of alcohol, then it was normalisation of binge drinking. Are we doing the class in mumsnet-talking-at-cross-purposes?

*classic

I also don’t know anyone with a prosecco o’clock clock, thank fuck...

Oh god, another one. Humans have been drinking alcohol since the year dot. You know why it is normalised? Because its fucking NORMAL!

Save us all from the whiners. What do you want, prohibition? Because that has always worked so well in the past.

Actually, alcohol consumption in the UK is declining (www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39785742) and has been for some years now.

The NHS figures show an increase in alcohol related incidents, not because we are drinking more, or that there are really more alcohol related injuries or deaths than before, but because the NHS have changed the way they record incidents for their statistics. For example, all deaths caused by liver disease are now noted as being alcohol related, regardless of whether they are or not. While I am not for one minute disputing the correlation between liver damage and alcohol, not all liver damage is caused by alcohol.

Alcohol can be a massive problem for some people, but, like a previous poster mentioned, it's usually the underlying issues that need to be looked at. For the majority of the population it is a pleasant relaxant that helps us unwind after a busy day, or to socialise with friends.

Whilst I don't think binge drinking should be encouraged or normalised in any way, we (I include the media in this) need to stop scaremongering about moderate drinking levels. We should not be misled with shock articles, but should be given the facts and allowed to weigh up the pros and cons of drinking ourselves.

That’s mad about liver disease stats @citra!

I remember seeing a program where they looked at three cabbies’ livers to check health and the worst one happened to be a man who was a lifelong teetotaller for religious reasons, but sedentary and fond of sweet treats. Obviously that’s not very scientific, but thought it was interesting. The program was about being sedentary which is why they used cabbies.

Alcohol consumption overall has been steadily declining since 2004. Young people are drinking much less than they used to. UK consumption is pretty much average for the EU. Yet alcohol related deaths are pretty steady.

What that says to me is that all of the guidance we receive about how much to drink, drink-drive campaigns etc might well be affecting the general population, but does not impact on those who need it.

(It's also interesting to look at historical trends of alcohol consumption. If you consider since WW2 it seems like there was a massive increase in how much was drunk. However, this was mainly due to the impact of the two world wars and rationing - brewers were limited to how much malt they could use and there were more laws about pub opening times. Go back to before WW1 and they drank more than we do now.)

I was married to an alcoholic and agree with you OP.

My granddad died in his late 50s from a stroke - he was a very heavy drinker. Both of my uncles had massive heart attacks in their 40s - one survived, the other died. As a result of living with these men, my mum has never had more than the occasional glass of wine and I'm the same. I'm diabetic which restricts me, but I can truthfully say I think I had around 3 G & T's over Christmas, and a few glasses of wine and felt I'd indulged.

I find it really sad that being drunk is so socially acceptable and the norm. Alcohol is a poison to our bodies, and one that we should treat with the respect it deserves.