Alcoholism and student culture
author: ethan butterfield | a&c editor
The worst solution. / Via Pixabay
A reflection on booze and its harm
Recently, I had it revealed to me that someone close wasn’t doing to well and that the reason was due to an overconsumption of alcohol. Now, for obvious reasons, I’m not going to state who this person is, or what drove them down that road, but what I will say is that, regardless of the state they’re in, I’ll always be there for them. I’ll be there to tell them that they need to get cleaned up and that alcoholism is an awful, fucked–up disease that I’ll be there to help them fight.
I’m sure I don’t need to say it, as the amount of times all of you out there have heard the phrase “alcohol isn’t the answer” is probably somewhere in the high double digits. But, for the sake of my own sanity, I’m going to say it one more time. Alcohol isn’t the answer. It’s like I said when I wrote a piece on gambling addiction/culture a while back; just because something is an option, doesn’t mean it’s the best solution. Again, this is something that people already know. That’s why it kills me to see it still happening. It affects those around us in such a way that drinking from the bottle just becomes second nature for them, using it as a device to escape from the world in more ways than one.
Now, I wish, I really wish, that I could offer an easy remedy for alcoholism. I wish I could just make something happen that would result in everyone (whether close to me or not) being happy and healthy. The truth, however, is that alcoholism is something that needs to be managed day in and day out. It’s not one 12–step program away from being solved, it’s a hard road of looking yourself in the mirror and deciding the type of individual that you want to be. It’s sweating in your sleep and being pissed during the morning, afternoon, and night, until the next sleep where you continue to sweat and the cycle repeats. Long story short, it’s a disease. Plain and simple. It eats away at you from the inside until your body just can’t function anymore. That’s what alcoholism is.
It doesn’t stop at the bottle though, as there’s also a culture that surrounds alcoholism (or rather the support of alcoholism). Now, I’m not saying that Saskatchewan isn’t a thriving metropolis of entertainment, but I think it can be safely assumed that one of our major pastimes in this province is drinking. Then, when drinking becomes a pastime, it might start to develop into a hobby, and so on and so forth. Does this mean we have to change our culture? Not necessarily. But, at the same time, we also have to keep a close eye on those close to us to make sure they don’t end up developing a life–altering habit that’ll fuck them up for life.
Of course, when I say all of this, I don’t mean to sound pretentious or that I’m giving off an I–know–more–about–this–than–you–do attitude. The reason why I’m releasing my thoughts on this issue is because a) I’d hate to think that anyone out there might be dealing with the same problem and not realize that someone else understands where they are mentally, and that b) It’s honestly just something I need to talk about right now.
So, I suppose that’s all I really have to say on the subject. For more statistics or detailed descriptions on the over-consumption of alcohol, you can visit the Government of Canada website, as well as Canadian Centre for Addictions webpage. At the very least, those sites will have some useful information that’ll give you a good idea statistically about how alcohol reaches people in a negative way.
