The tea totaller talks

I knew that I created this blog for a reason, and not just to hear myself think. As time has passed I believe I have proven that, while I may go off on a tangent, I always come back to the heart of things in the end. Substance and depth is important to me. In a world obsessed with how things look on the surface I have always maintained that personality and integrity are worth the most. And so I come to an issue that I have been skating around for a while now. The issue is alcohol. I dont drink the stuff, infact I have avidly avoided it all of my life. But thats not the issue I wanted to raise. I'll tell you straight. A doctor I know who not only works as a GP, but also in an emergency ward said that of all the cases to come into the emergency ward between 12 midnight and 4am he'd say 100% were affected -whether directly or indirectly -by alcohol. Yes, thats right, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!! Then someone was telling me about their daughters friend (who is my age) -he went out with his friends and got drunk so much that he ruined his liver. Did that change his friends behaviour? Not at all. Infact, another one from the same group ended up choking on his own vomit and DIED! And yet the other friends still go out "to get blind" and dont give a damn. Then I read this article in the Herald Sun today and decided that the time has come to speak up.



When did we become a society that lives to "Get drunk"? When did alcohol become all that we hope to be? And how easily that "one drink to calm the nerves" escalates to 3 or 7. With the new binge drinking average becoming 4 standard drinks, a lot of my friends cant deny (but dont believe) that they do drink too much. When did people lose the ability to have fun without being drunk? I know that drinkers say that they can, but actions speak so much louder than words. People are losing the ability to rely on themselves these days. I hear "I'm having a bad day, I need alcohol" a lot. It's a shame really. All we see on tv is glorified alcoholism, where all the cool kids get smashed. How often do we actually see the down side to drinking on tv? Not enough.


People forget that alcohol is a drug. And I know that many people only drink one glass and they do so responsibly and they enjoy it etc. That's all well and good. But there is a HUGE down side to drinking that shouldnt be swept under the carpet. My uncle died as a result of alcohol. I'm sure that there is someone YOU know who has done the same. As google says "Alcohol is second only to tobacco as the major cause of drug related mortality in Australia. The most common alcohol related cause of death is cancer." Mmmm get me a shot of that!

Harsh? Maybe. Disagree? Probably.
Remember that I mean no offence and realise that this is my opinion only.