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

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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.

'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. '

Seriously? There are definitely other causes! That's so lazy and shocking. Obesity can definitely cause liver disease.

Interesting @whatsthatcoming.

I wonder if it’s because the damage of drinking too much over a number of decades has already been done for some older people, so they are still dying from the effects of alcohol, but maybe younger generations are more sensible about it and there will be fewer deaths in coming decades.

"not all liver damage is caused by alcohol"

Indeed - I believe obesity is supposed to be a significant factor in the rise of liver disease, because fat also does damage??

I don't particularly care one way or the other what other people do.

I don't drink much myself as quite honestly I don't like the taste and I don't like feeling tipsy.

I do think it's a bit pathetic how many people clearly need alcohol in order to enjoy themselves.

Whiskyowl Hepatitis C is a major cause of liver cancer, and becoming a global health problem.

Something not being AS BAD as in other countries doesn't mean it's not a problem. That's not saying it doesn't matter. It's saying that other countries having a bigger problem with alcohol doesn't mean the state of affairs in the U.K. fine or desirable.
There are plenty of things that can be done that don't involve prohibition. Look at what has been done with smoking. It's no longer seen as the cool thing for teens to do.
I'd like to see similarly prominent warnings on bottles of wine.

The amount of alcohol drunk is decreasing with every generation in this country.

I think it's absolutely fine to normalise alcohol, it was always on the table at Sunday lunch and from around 10 I was always offered some. Alcohol was never anything special or prohibited to me so when I turned 18 I never went overboard with it and very rarely drink anything at all.

These stupid prosecco o'clock etc. slogans and merchandise arent normalising alcohol, they're trying to make it glamourous to encourage people to drink which is wrong and promotes an unhealthy attitude it.

Also, the fact is, and maybe working in HC skews your perspective, I get the impression people are living longer but actually just spending more years of their lives with chronic conditions, pain, little quality of life, potential poverty.

Exactly how I see it too.

My mum was a nurse too. You’re a fucking hero .

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!"

When I was a child I was allowed the occasional sip of alcohol. My parents never had it in the house when I was very young, literally just brandy and stout for adding to the Christmas cake and pudding. And they'd let us sip this during the baking process if we asked. It was disgusting, so I doubt we even swallowed it. When I was older my parents would buy one can of beer a week to make a shandy with. They would then give us an even more diluted shandy if we asked for it. At that point they also bought wine for Christmas dinner. We could have some if we wanted but again, we felt it was disgusting and preferred to have a soft drink. As a 16 or 17 year old I would sometimes drink an alcopop (it was the late 90s) or spritzer when at a family function with my parents who had no issue with me drinking moderately in their company.

As an adult, I couldn't really careless about alcohol. I'm not teetotal, I'll drink sometimes but I don't care if I do or not. Over Christmas the weather was very cold on all of the nights out I was going to, so I chose to drive, prioritising getting home quickly and being warm over having a glass of wine. On Christmas day I walked to dinner at my parents' house so I could have a drink and I ended up having 1/3 of a glass of wine topped up with 7up, followed by the end of the can of 7up, then a cup of tea.

Contrasted with my ex-husband who was never allowed to drink alcohol as a child or teen. It was a very forbidden, adults only substance in his house. He's an alcoholic and a drug addict now. And I believe the fact that it was elevated to that kind of status in his childhood played a part in his lack of ability to regulate consumption as a young adult. It's not the entire reason for his problems obviously and his siblings were not similarly affected. But I do strongly believe it's a factor.

So with my own DS, someone who I am very, very worried about developing problems like his father's. I plan to keep alcohol demystified. As he gets older he can have sips and when he's older again, I'd rather he begins any relationship he has with alcohol at a point when I can help guide him, rather than for it to be something he feels he has to hide from me. It's already how I treat sugary treats. they aren't forbidden, they are regularly available in moderate amounts. And my 5yo DS has an extremely take it or leave it attitude to sugar. He received 11 selection boxes, a box of biscuits, a chocolate Santa, chocolate coins, 2 tubes of jellies and a tube of smarties over Christmas and has eaten 2 tiny Freddos and a pack of Buttons so far. Whereas many kids I know who don't normally get sweets, have zero control when given something like a selection box and eat all of them straight away. I strongly believe that guided moderation is the way to go with anything that isn't particularly good for us.

People, the 'prosecco o clock' shit merchandise isn't really anything to do with culture or glamourising. They are just TRYING TO SELL YOU SHIT. They want your money. End of.

We should just stop being any ugly shit so people stop making it. The issue isn't limited to alcohol friendly slogans on the MOUNTAINS OF SHIT in the shops.

Saudi Arabia and similar muslim countries have huge problems with obesity and liver disease, despite being dry. Because they can't drink alcohol, large quantities of soft fizzy drinks are drunk where we'd enjoy a beer.

Sugar and alcohol have very similar effects on the internal organs - it's why Non -alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is a thing (Different effects on the brain - hence why you don't get drunk on a cake binge). Sugar is just as detrimental to physical health, although doesn't cause behavioural related social problems like alcohol.

I love to drink
but I'm very strict with myself now to have several dry days per week
and one dry month a year

The booze industry is very good at lobbying and offers good salaries to ex MPs who do not restrict its activities.

On the other hand, the high latitudes drinking culture is worldwide and millennia old.

I absolutely hate how I'm seen to be boring because I don't drink. I don't need drink to be interesting or to have fun. I like to go out and do loads of sporty stuff and try new things all the time, all without having a drink.
That said I don't particularly care if those around me drink, I just choose not to.

I used to drink to fit in but not any more, my brother is a 45 year old non functioning alcoholic and he's a mess.
He started out drinking socially then drinking with his gf in the evenings at home, they then both realised they were drinking too often and relying on it too relax or have a good time and she stopped but he couldn't and I doubt he'll be alive much longer.

In my group of friends there's a couple who always try and push everyone else to drink and have a taxi when we go out, they seem to get irritated by the fact we won't all be drunk yet they're the ones who end up ruining the evening.

'Saudi Arabia and similar muslim countries have huge problems with obesity and liver disease, despite being dry. Because they can't drink alcohol, large quantities of soft fizzy drinks are drunk where we'd enjoy a beer.'

BIG smoking levels, too. We met this guy from Kuwait on a cruise. He smoked like a lum, as did all his friends, and they said cigs are about $2/pack.

I think alcohol can become normalised very easily - a glass of wine after work or with dinner becomes a few glasses a night and more at weekends. There certainly wasn’t a culture where people drank at home like this when I was growing up. It’s not healthy or normal to drink everyday and anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.

This tool is really useful to add up how much you are drinking and also
the calories. I now see wine glasses as the equivalent of burgers and it puts me right off

www.drinkaware.co.uk/understand-your-drinking/unit-calculator

Alcohol is about the only drug that when you give it up, people don't want you to. I've been sober for four years, because I had a dreadful problem with it and while I know most people can drink without 'needing' to, I really do worry about the hold it has on society now. You are somehow not normal if you don't drink, which is sad

Normalising alcohol as a culture is fine normalising excessive drinking isn't.

Draylon you speak a lot of sense

My alcohol consumption has nothing to do with TV/media and so on. (I don't even watch TV anyway) Also agree with the PP who said binge drinking and being sick at the end of the evening is not seen as normal where I am either. Drinking a glass or two after work is.

I agree with the op, although she's a bit more strident than I would be.

Alcohol is glamourised and marketed very heavily. And drunkenness is normalised. There's really no good reason to drink. Other beverages taste nicer - the point of alcohol is to get inebriated, even if only slightly.

Just today on Facebook I scrolled by a meme "... When it's day 3 of dry January..." and a cartoon of a wild-eyed nervous wreck.

If 3 days of not drinking is unpleasant, then there is a problem with alcohol.

I enjoy a glass of champagne but within reason (mostly!). The majority of our friends are the same thankfully. An acquaintance however is, in my opinion, dangerously close to having a drink problem but does a great job of minimising it. I fear for her health.

Great, I’m with you; so you must think the op ibu to “rant about normalisation of alcohol”? I think she would be reasonable if she had said “normalisation of problem drinking”, but that’s not what she said.

Do you see why I and other said she was bu at the beginning?

Oh ffs forgot to quote;

Normalising alcohol as a culture is fine normalising excessive drinking isn't