Choose Your Friends Wisely

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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• Impulsive Behavior in Males Increases After Heavy Drinking (stopalcoholdeaths.com)
• iVillage Health Article 

You do have the freedom to say "No Thanks" to an alcoholic drink.

I was just reading one of my favorite bloggers who references a book by Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison called Disease to Please. You can get to the link and read the Alcohol Free Social Life blog entry here. The blogger is making the point that a lot of people feel obligated to drink recreational alcohol based on their internal need/desire to please other people. For example, a number of people will tell you that they drink only "socially". In other words, when they are out with other people who are drinking alcohol, they feel the inclination to imbibe themselves. According to the theory of the book, as I understand it, this need is essentially a psychological "disorder" that compels some people to do things they do not necessarily want to do in order to please others. "Disorder" may be a strong word but I cannot disagree with that assessment. In most instances there is not the threat of bodily harm if you decide not to drink. Most of the time, the "Disease to Please" is some perceived possibility that you could/would somehow anger or disappoint someone else. Of course, the truth is that almost nobody else will care whether or not you drink alcohol. In fact, just saying "no" to an alcoholic drink often sparks some interesting conversations.

The reality is that some people feel obligated to do things that they may not really want to do just because everybody else is doing it. The culture in a America is such that a large portion of the population is convinced that drinking recreational alcohol is a legitimate way to pass the time. You should make up your own mind and not feel compelled to follow the crowd. Make your own decision and remember that you do indeed have the freedom in this country to say "no thanks". Most people will probably respect you more for it.

Excellent Blog Resource

I stumbled across http://www.alcoholfreesociallife.com/blog/ recently and I have to say that they produce excellent content on their blog. Articles about the impacts of alcohol on the human body got me to their site but the articles about how to deal with being a non-drinker are most impressive. Their real world advise and tips about what to say to offers and how alcohol can impact you psychologically are very insightful. They offer most of their info from the perspective of somebody who is trying to stop drinking but a lot of the same principles apply to someone who never really starts.

Just to reference one tidbit from the blog post about the psychology of alcohol, it is no secret that alcohol is indeed a depressant. If you are already depressed, then why in the world would you want to ingest a substance to push you even further down that scale of emotion. Drowning your sorrows does nothing but make you feel even worse. For that matter, if you are happy, why would you feel the need to bring yourself down to a lower level. There is quite a bit more on this site that is equally relevant to someone deciding if alcohol serves any real purpose for them.

Too much alcohol really does make you stupid!!

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to a news story about a guy that managed to get himself arrested for DUI twice in the same night. Getting arrested once was apparently not good enough for this genius. While in the squad car, he managed to get to the front seat and proceeded to drive off. Fortunately, nobody was actually hurt but that is not always the case. You can find several references of DUI fatalities every single day across the country.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drunk drivers accounted for 32% of all automobile fatalities in 2008. The NHTSA also provided data that showed over 17 Million people drove within 2 hours of drinking in 2008. That means that a shocking 8% of the drivers on the road were under the influence in 2008.

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Real World New Orleans Blackout Example

Just watched an episode of the Real World - New Orleans and was reminded of another reason why I do not bother with alcohol. There is a young blond girl named McKenzie who seems to have a significant drinking problem. She gets so wasted that the other cast members, who are also drinking, are sincerely concerned for her safety. It seems that she consistently "blacks out" after she has had a few. Seriously, if you are drinking so much that you do not remember your night then what exactly is the point. Everybody seems to feel sorry for her and just rolls their eyes even when she is sober. After a few drinks they even start calling her Mary because she has a completely different personality that she apparently does not remember.

Interestingly, the episode included McKenzie meeting a guy who noticeably drinks very little. This is the part that caught my attention. She was impacted by a young man in New Orleans only for Spring Break and he is not drinking because he too has had issues with black outs. Because of his influence, McKenzie seems to have an epiphany that maybe it is OK to not drink so much. In fact, she states a very insightful reason not to drink. What she has come to realize is that the guy is very engaging and she enjoyed talking to him. This is a tremendous point. You can have a BETTER time if you are sober and spend some time talking to an interesting person than if you are sloppy drunk and forget who you might have met. Maybe the guy she stumbled upon was meant to impact her life. For that matter, maybe that encounter is meant to impact sopme viewers and/or inspire this little post.

The bottom line here is that you can and should have a good time without the need for mind altering substances. Why bother with alcohol?

Leader or a Follower?

Are you a "Leader" or a "Follower"? Do have a deep-seeded need to fit in with everybody else or are you really your own person? To be a leader, you have to be willing to be the one in front of the crowd. You must be able to make independent decisions about what you do and how you do it. In America today, the sheep are all drinking alcohol and one has to be a true leader to buck that trend. Why would you just follow the crowd anyway? Following the crowd and being a mindless clone is BORING!! There is no reason to let other people tell you how you should enjoy yourself. If you are in a setting where everybody else is drinking alcohol, you do not have to go along with them. Because this is America, you really do have the freedom to enjoy a a safe and sober night if you choose.

Being an individual and making your own decisions is freeing and empowering. It does sometimes take strength and even character to be the only sober person in a bar or some other traditionally alcohol immersed setting. Even with that natural pressure to follow the crowd, hanging out with friends and meeting new people is fun. In fact, that is exactly what makes it fun to go out or to private parties. The coolest people are doing their own thing because they want to live their own lives. If you have made the decision to ignore the marketing ploys that have made a lot of the American people believe that alcohol is required to have fun, then boldly and proudly enjoy your sober life. Choose to be a "Leader" and seriously consider whether drinking alcohol for entertainment really makes sense.

Alcohol Free America was started to present the notion that recreational alcohol is not the only way to have a good time. Even as CNN reports that more Americans are drinking alcohol (linked below), we encourage people to be true leaders and set the tone for their own lives. If you are strong enough to make your decisions then WHY BOTHER WITH ALCOHOL?

Feel free to share this anybody you know that is bold enough to take a stand against the norm in America today.

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• More Americans drinking alcohol (cnn.com)

Beer, Wine or a Milkshake?

I have heard from several people how much they "like" the taste of alcohol. Not sure how much I really believe them but my question is always "What is better, that wine you love or a milkshake?". Pretty rare for somebody to try to convince me that a glass of wine is better than a milkshake. Of course, nobody has EVER tried to say that beer tastes better than a milkshake. The problem is that alcohol is an acquired taste whereas a milkshake is is just good from the first time you try it. Now some people prefer the fruity drinks which they say taste so good. I would say those drinks are just as good without the alcohol and probably still not as good as a smoothie.  

The next part of this conversation typically turns to the calories in a milkshake versus alcohol. To be fair, a milkshake does tend to have a lot of calories in one 12 oz serving. According to freediet.com, one milkshake typically has about 408 calories which is three times as much as a 12 oz regular beer (139 calories), four times as much as a a light beer (103 calories) and almost 6 times as much as a 3.5 oz glass of wine (70 calories). However, very few people I know will only drink one beer if they are out. It does happen on occasion but not very often. The standard definition of a moderate male drinker is 2 drinks a day. By far, most people I have ever been out with drank least 3 drinks. If you figure that one milkshake is usually enough, the caloric intake gets to be pretty close to the same if you are talking about beer. You probably come out ahead with wine since 3 or even 4 glasses of wine would still be significantly fewer calories than 1 milkshake. For the record, whiskey, gin, vodka and rum all have more calories per fluid ounce than a milkshake.

With all of that being said, a milkshake is a lot safer than any recreational alcohol consumption. It tastes a lot better with a lot fewer negative side effects.

Why bother with alcohol?