I have already written two columns on the evils of drinking too much alcohol, including trying to drive while impaired by even a little drink. I decided to look further into the subject of binge drinking, as being a particular threat to our children’s wellbeing. I know, they don’t like it when we call them our “children” but we parents will eternally think of them as such. Even when they are married and have children of their own.
My wife and I have one son. How old is he? Depends on who you ask. His mother probably thinks he’s twelve, and always will be. I think he’s sixteen, at least that’s what it says on his birth certificate. And if you ask him he thinks he’s thirty-three. Our challenge is to help keep him safe.
What is Alcohol Poisoning?
The world famous Mayo Clinic of the United States defines Alcohol Poisoning as a serious and sometimes deadly consequence of binge drinking of alcohol, otherwise known as ethanol.
I think that it may be commonly associated here in Spain with young people who congregate to hold illegal bottle parties. At these happenings some very serious drinking takes place as participants intentionally get hammered, po-faced, wrecked, and messed-up. Then, the next day they can be found saying “The Liar’s Prayer”. Dear God! If you will only let me live I promise never to do this again. (Untill next Saturday.) Usually this is said while hugging the toilet.
Why do we do such stupid things to ourselves deliberately? We know that the next day it’s really going to hurt. We’re probably going to make a fool of ourselves on the night. We may even do something that lands us in legal trouble. Then we get to say, “but I was drunk, yer honour! Like that made it better.
Now lest you think I was always an altar boy, I have had my fair share of shameful episodes, including the night I was helping my buddy to celebrate his birthday. We were drinking the French drink, Pernod. I finally awoke the next day inside my car, into the blazing sun in my yard. The key to the ignition was still turned to the on position, but my battery had completely run down. I can’t even begin to describe how my mouth tasted, just that I was so thirsty. Pernod makes you want to drink lots of water, and with every drink of water you seem to get drunk all over again. I was probably legally drunk for a week.
That was the last time I came anywhere near to being over the limit. I was surely suffering from the effects of alcohol poison in my system. Mainly I was terrified that I may have killed someone without even being aware as the car did suffer a bashing; and when it turned out that I had not harmed anyone, I was simply ashamed of myself.
There can be a funny side to drunkenness. Dudley Moore made his drunk famous in “Arthur”. Here’s what’s not so funny: The World Health Organisation has reported that more than 55,000 people between the ages of 15-29 die each year within Europe as a direct result of excessive alcohol, whether in accidents, suicides, murders, or alcohol poisoning.
England and Wales report that some 33,000 lives are lost annually from this preventable cause; and Scotland are concerned because girls outnumber the boys who are brought into the Accident and Emergency due to too much alcohol.
In Ireland the cost to every man, woman, and child from alcohol abuse amounts to 600 euros annually. The country with the greatest problem of all is Russia. Recently President Putin highlighted the seriousness of his country’s dilemma by acknowledging that each year approximately 42,000 people are killed or disabled directly by binge drinking.
What makes these figures hard to accept is that drinking in moderation is usually a social pastime, something we do for pleasant effect. The most devastating affect is in the college and university dormitories of the world where young people are sent to gain further education. For parents to have to come collect their dead student because he or she died from ignorance of the deadly effect of taking too much of a “good” thing is particularly ironic.
So, my only advice is, know your limits and stick by them. And one more thing: go to the internet and look up “alcohol poisoning” and learn to recognize it in your friends, and what to do in such cases. That information could actually save your own life, if you share it with a friend.
The Undertaker’s Cocktail : DRINK, DRUGS, DRIVE
Copyright (c) 2007 Eugene Carmichael
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