Lethal dangers of alcohol overlooked

By Colleen Snyder

Alcohol is deadly. This is a fact most college students know, but often choose to ignore. They also manage to look past the fact that binge drinking, or drinking more than four or five drinks in one sitting, causes the brain to be deprived of oxygen. When the brain is under the influence of a large amount of alcohol and cannot get access to enough oxygen, it stops regulating voluntary bodily functions such as heart rate and respiration. Over 100,000 people die every year in the U.S. of alcohol-related deaths, and still, we drink.

I am not writing this article from a privileged position of one who has never taken a sip of alcohol. I have had more drinking experiences in the last couple years than I would like to admit, and I now feel extremely fortunate to have come out alive.

My 16 year-old sister almost died of alcohol poisoning this past October. My parents were shocked and horrified when the paradmedics finally got a hold of them that night. When my mom called me in tears early the following morning, I was sadly not shocked. I was aware of my little sister's increasing interest in drinking and figured, "Who am I to say she shouldn't drink? I enjoy it."

My hands literally shook as I hung up the phone that morning. I immediately called a friend to drive me to my parent's home in Sacramento. I could smell the alcohol as I turned the corner from the entryway to the hallway that leads to my sister's bedroom. She lay there in bed, wearing only a bathrobe, arms bandaged from the various IV's and needles she had been poked with while unconscious. (When the paramedics find a 16 year-old girl alone and unconscious in the backseat of a car, as my sister was found at 7 p.m. the previous night, they do every test in the book on her.) My first reaction was anger - I was angry that she had done something so stupid and almost taken herself away from us.

My anger turned to grief though, as I realized that I could have easily been in my sister's place, back from the dead and lucky as hell. This incident is all it took to make me realize my grave mistake. Not only had I enabled someone I love in almost killing herself with alcohol, I had myself been abusing alcohol for awhile.

The next weekend I was quickly faced with the question of what to do next. Do I continue to go bar-hopping on Friday nights with my friends? Do I volunteer to be the designated driver every night we go out? I am still struggling with answers to these questions. But for now, I have removed myself fully from the drinking scene. And from this position, everything is very clear.

People act stupid when they drink - they fall down, they talk too loud, they slur their speech and often, they end up doing or saying things they really, really regret the next day.

Although seemingly harmless, these actions are the results of toxins debilitating the brain. People don't lose their balance and ability to think rationally after drinking only one or two beers. If that's all people were drinking, there would be no problem. However, a recent Harvard study reported that nearly one-half of all college students drink four to five drinks in one sitting at least once in a typical week. This is when things get scary.

Despite major binge drinking that takes place around college campuses, there seems to be a lack of attention to the topic of alcoholism amongst students. People assume that all young people go through periods of experimentation with alcohol and drugs. I disagree.

To an extent, some people may be in an experimentation phase while in college. However, when experimentation can kill, it is not something to be brushed aside lightly. Someone who gets drunk to the point of vomiting or blacking out, but awakens the next day, or even the next weekend, ready to drink again is not normal. When a person does not learn from the negative consequences of an action, there is cause for worry.

Besides the dangers directly linked to alcohol, there are mental health problems that are often associated with drinking. People who drink a lot are often very depressed, anxious and highly compulsive people according to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. Drinking heavily as a young adult also often corresponds with drinking heavily as an adult. Therefore, it is imperative not to dismiss the possibility of a college student being an alcoholic simply because he or she is "too young."

I am not saying that every person who enjoys alcohol is an alcoholic. I am not asking people to stop drinking. I, myself, am not making any promises to stop drinking altogether. I know there is a happy balance between drinking socially and drinking destructively; now I am just working to find that balance. There is no shame in making mistakes, but if we love ourselves and if we love our friends, we must learn from our mistakes before we self-destruct.