Numbing Reality

You go to a bar with your friends and order a Red Bull and vodka.  After that drink you loosen up a little, but you feel about the same.  You order another drink and once it’s gone you start to feel even looser, maybe you start to feel happier and more confident.  Another Red Bull and vodka slides down your throat and now you feel more euphoria, more talkative, have a shorter attention span, and your face feels flushed.  At this point you’ve had four drinks in two hours and are pretty drunk.  If you continue drinking more these short term effects continue to worsen and you start to have blurred vision, bad coordination, and memory loss. 

This is the typical scenario for many college students during a night of binge drinking.  They wake up the next morning with a major headache and can’t remember most of the night, depending on the amount of consumption.  We know how the short term effects and the hangovers feel, and yet we still go out the next night and do it all over again.  Why?  Because they only affect us for a day and then it’s gone.   If these effects lasted much longer, say a week, I bet many of us would rethink how often we drink or the amount we consume.  Since these things are so minor we don’t give them a second thought about whether or not we want to do it again.  The experiences we have while we are getting drunk are what we care about, not how many drinks we have or what beverage we choose.  Most people get drunk for emotional reasons like to be happier, to be stress free, or to find affection.  Sometimes they want to forget the things happening in the real world, forget their sorrows and pain.  Whatever the reason may be, it’s not necessary to get drunk to feel better.  There are other ways to feel better that are better for your well-being such as going to a movie with friends or working out at the gym.  You’ll still forget the pain and more often than not it will help you to cope with bad situations better.  I know I’ve learned that getting drunk doesn’t solve any problems and usually makes things worse.  It’s also more likely for you to drink more because you want to get drunk as fast as you can, which leads to worse consequences.  I no longer get drunk when I’m upset about something.  It’s not worth the after math and doesn’t fix anything.  What do you think?