Alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems. Difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times and an impaired memory. Sounds like an awesome weekend, but some people (like doctors) call these "damaging effects on the brain." Fun haters. This article talks about the effects that alcohol has on the brain. For some, like binge drinking college students, alcohol can cause addiction. But I'm guessing no one in our class has a drinking problem. We drink, we get drunk, not a problem. Anyway the article not only talks about effects on the brain it also talks about....oh yeah, blackouts. I forgot what I was gonna write right there. It throws out some comparisons between the effects that alcohol has on men vs. women. Overall, not a bad read.
The question is how many of you think about the effects of alcohol on your brain when you're in the championship game of a beer pong tournament? I'm guessing not too many. But, how many of you think about the effects of alcohol on your brain when you wake up in your closet naked?
Alcohol is definitely something scary in my life. I have a lot of alcoholism in my family. Especially in the last 6 months has it actually done damage to my family that I have noticed. When I'm at UNI, I don't necessarily am able to see my gpa or uncle get drunk until they pass out throughout the day or at night.
I enjoy alcohol, it does calm me, but since these things have been happening I definitely have been thinking more about how it affects the brain. I enjoyed this article because it helped me answer some of those questions. The other sad thing is, is that alcohol can be such a strong substance that it brings along other problems such as depression, eating disorders, withdrawal, and much more. It's so strange how one thing (alcohol is this case) can change how we act, think, speak, and even walk. As much as we may enjoy alcohol, it is one thing that can kill us.
Alcohol is something I enjoy as a 21 year old, but I do now drink in moderation, and take each situation with alcohol with a grain of salt.
I hope your last question isn't referring to your own personal experience...haha just kidding. This article takes on a really holistic approach, and introduces and addresses many issues regarding alcohol addiction and consumption in general. First of all, I knew females and males metabolize alcohol differently, but I didn't know women ran a greater risk of developing more severe impairments and physiological damage (e.g. nerve damage or cirrhosis). Your questions do raise important points, though. It's true, many students do not think about any neurological damage when consuming massive amounts of alcohol, because if they were they wouldn't be binging on such a dangerous substance in the first place. The problem with binge drinking in college settings is the fact that probably most students don't learn from their worst hangover ever, at least for the long run. They will talk about the hazy night with their pals, laugh at some moments and move on with their day. I'm glad you mentioned beer pong when asking us about our own self awareness when drinking. The advent of drinking games has turned something social into something competitive, and for a individualistic nation, those two elements are a recipe for (potential) disaster. I'm not saying playing beer pong isn't inherently social, but adding that flare of competition clouds people's judgment even more, spiraling them into a night full of over indulgence and unabashed inebriation.
Well this is going to make me sound like a huge nerd, but I actually do think of the effects of alcohol when I'm drinking. This is what four years of being a psych major has done to me. When I start to feel the effects of alcohol like being dizzy or slurring my words, I actually get kind of grossed out at myself for drinking so much. Yes, even when I'm winning in a game of beer pong and am starting to get dizzy, I think about the fact that the alcohol is currently messing with my cerebellum and that's why I can't walk straight. Again, NERDY. But I do think this is good in some ways. It helps me to control drinking and just use it as a social activity. My only real motivation for drinking is going out with friends or people who are also drinking. I might not really want to drink but there are always people around to pressure you into it. Not that that is a bad thing all the time. I've had some pretty good nights where people egged me on to drink, but if it wasn't for the social aspect of going out and having fun with other people, I don't think I would be much of a drinker.
Personally, I love beer pong and drinking in general...It's what most of us look forward to on Friday's or Saturday's whether tailgating or going out to the bars, etc....IT'S essentially OUR MOTIVATION to get through the school week and party hardy on the weekends. Although I realize this may be an overgeneralization of the college culture (and offensive to some), but stats have shown that our colleges are turning into schools where binge drinking is most people's #1 major if you will. It's interesting to note the website defines binge drinking as 5 or more drinks in two hours for men. Drinking games, especially competitive ones where people's drinking abilities or skills are challenged, surpass this total much more often than not. This oftentimes results in blackouts, which are becoming more and more prevalent with students consuming alcohol.
I am a sports addict and love the thrill of competiton and sport. Drinking games have become the norm in today's college atmosphere as they often coincide with our social and psychological needs. I probably know more drinking games than I do actual games...Hell we've even turned Monopoly, a game of capitalism, into a drinking game. For people with personality constructs such as mine, I agree, drinking has become physiologically more dangerous with the advent of drinking games like flippy cup.
Overall, it is an interesting topic to think about because it is so prevalent in our present culture and demographics. Most of the time we shrug off the "supposed" effects alcohol can have on us because we can't see the physiological effects they are actually having within our bodies. The best solution, in my book, is awareness.
Alcohol isn't something that I worry about or something that consumes my life or the lives of the people close to me, so I don't really think about it too much. This article was pretty scary to read though. It's crazy to think how much damage alcohol can really do to a person. I understand that most college kids drink a lot more than I do, which is fine, but I also think that most young people really slow down their drinking once they are out of college, so it's hard to think that THAT much damage can be done to a person that drinks a good amount for 4 years (or more counting high school, etc.) I think this article is mostly aimed at people who have drank heavily for most of their lives.
The part of this article I found most interesting is blackouts. Pretty much everyone I know has talked about blacking out when they drink, I on the otherhand have not blacked out. I'll admit, like most college students, I've gotten sick and made bad decisions due to intoxication, but I have never actually blacked out. I don't think the article explains very well exactly why and how we black out, which I would like to know. I have a friend that blacks out pretty much every time she drinks, and I never have...why? I guess the only answer I can think of is I metabolize alcohol better than she does.
I do think the prevelance of drinking games in our generation is doing us harm. Like you said, most people don't think about what is going on in their brain when they are drinking or playing a drinking game, so they don't really care how much or how often they drink. Drinking games definitely make people drink more, whether it's because they need to have a re-match game of beer pong or they are challenged to a chugging contest...drinking games only make people drink more...but I guess that's the point. I think people just need to be aware of what alcohol can really do to them in the long run.