Lights, Camera, Drink!

Old School, The Hangover, American Pie, Beerfest, Animal House. . . These were all listed in the top ten binge drinking movies of all time.  Which one do you think received the number one spot?  It’s no surprise that The Hangover is the number one binge drinking movie, according to the daily top 10 website.  It’s very popular and many people that have seen it love it.  Just a week ago the second installment of this film was released at the box office.  Entertainment Tonight said it was number one for the weekend and it brought in about $137.4 million. 

(tvtuc.com)

The Hangover and the others mentioned have all become popular among the younger crowd.  Why is this?  Because it shows binge drinking as fun, exciting, entertaining, and reasonably harmless.  All of these movies, except The Hangover, target teens and young adults directly.  They all show high school and college age students drinking at parties and having the time of their life.  It shows freedom and rebellion without little or no consequences.  There is always a happy ending and the geeky boy gets the hottest girl.  It’s the perfect way to show binge drinking and a good light and make students think that they will have the same exhilarating experience. 

Reality is never like the movies.  As much as we want happy endings, the movies fabricate what really occurs during nights of binge drinking.  If The Hangover really happened, one of the characters would have most likely died from alcohol poisoning or the drugs unintentionally taken.  Movie makers would never put death in an over the top comedy such as this.  They want viewers to be happy and laugh at every scene, not shocked and upset.  Portraying drinking as a good and positive thing gives teens and young adults the wrong impression.  They don’t realize until something bad happens that binge drinking is dangerous.  These comedic movies, although entertaining, are teaching the wrong ideas about drinking to all ages, but especially young people.

Red Bull and Vodka

In a previous blog I used the example of drinking Red Bull and Vodka to show the short term effects of drinking.  Red Bull and Vodka is a very popular drink choice nowadays among many others such as Monster and Jagermeister.   The combination of an energy drink and alcohol is appealing because it allows you to remain awake and alert instead of drowsy, which is a side effect of alcohol.  What people don’t realize is that mixing an energy drink with alcohol can be dangerous in many ways.

The reason itself for mixing energy drinks and alcohol is said to be unsafe.  According to the College Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center, fatigue is the body’s way of saying it has had enough.  The energy drink pushes your body to its limits by masking the fatigue, but it is still present.  The alcohol will still have the same effects even though the energy drink makes you feel better or less impaired.  The energy drink itself has certain effects on your body like increased heart rate and blood pressure which causes heart palpitations.  When alcohol is added to this these effects increase further which causes more heart problems. 

A new drink has been on the rise which mixes alcohol and energy into one can.  There are multiple companies who make such a combination, but the most well known and criticized is the company responsible for Four Loko.  This drink contains the alcohol equivalent to five beers or 12% alcohol by volume.  There has been a major debate on whether this product is safe enough to keep on the market and many families have sued the company Phusion Projects claiming that Four Loko lead to the death of their child. 

No matter what form it comes in, the combination of an energy drink and alcohol has been shown to greatly affect the body more than drinking the ingredients individually.  These drinks should be handled with caution and not consumed too often. 

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?