The old adage to choose your friends wisely has another mark in it's favor with a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that is quotes in the
iVillage Health Article about the impact of heavy drinking friends on one's alcohol consumption. Of course, the premise seems obvious enough. If you hang out with heavy drinkers you are also more likely to drink heavily. Turns out there are some interesting findings that are not so obvious. For one thing, heavy female drinkers influence others to drink more than male heavy drinkers. In fact, heavy female drinkings seem to have a huge impact on the males specifically. Another interesting point from the article is that non-drinkers have less influence on their drinking friends. This probably makes sense because the culture in America today sees drinking as a requirement for having fun and who would not want to have fun?
Now, here is my take on the situation.
Be a leader instead of a follower. This study was very important because it highlights how powerful the lure of alcohol can be for some people. For those of us who think it makes more sense to omit alcohol from our plans, even this study shows that we have some influence over our friends actions. By being with friends and being sober makes us an example of somebody that can have fun without the alcohol. Many, many times I have heard people tell me they will follow my lead the next time because of how bad they felt after a binge session. I almost never criticize them for silly behavior with alcohol although they my face may very well give it away. All I ever do is laugh at them when they tell me the crazy story. Usually, that is enough for them to realize how stupid they were for drinking too much.
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