Think Before You Drink. The Why's Behind Your Wine Glass.

Evidently, the key to not drinking too much is to start drinking too early. In a recent CNN article by Jennifer Pifer entitled, “Author: Letting Kids Drink Early Reduces Binging,” Mr. Peele, a concerned parent, psychologist and author, has the innovative idea of exposing his daughter to alcohol starting in middle school so that the taboo and temptation of it won’t lead to binging and addiction.

Stanton Peele (http://www.peele.net/about/index.html) has spent much of his life and career dealing with the myths and misconceptions of addiction. His philosophy is that addiction is more of a mental pattern then a disease. He says that it is more important to observe people’s relationships and past behaviors when trying to understand their drug use and abuse. Although I don’t agree with his methods I think there is something to be said for the mental aspect of addiction, prevention and rehabilitation.

Over the last year we have witnessed a slew of celebrities enter and re-enter rehab facilities at the request of their parents, managers and agents. Britney Spears went to rehab twice this year after the request of her mother, but now denies the presence of any addiction. I think that alcohol and drug addiction is a serious issue, but I also think that rehab and addiction are being used as a quick fix right now. It seems that whenever a celebrity has had too much fun on a given weekend she or he is sent away to rehab to wipe the slate clean. I don’t think that all of these people have serious addictions; I just think they are making bad decisions.

Peele discusses the concept of preparing your children for the future by desensitizing them to the glamour of alcohol. I would venture to guess that Peele would believe what these celebrities need is a change in their relationships and environment instead of an expensive trip to rehab. The concept of exposing your children to alcohol to deter them from binging on alcohol seems a bit nonsensical. I can appreciate the logic behind his actions, but I think that he is putting too much faith in teenagers. I know parents who allowed their children to drink without worries in high school and it didn’t change the fact that all of their friends were still drinking and binging, it just allowed for a freer venue for their parties. The factor isn’t whether your parents are fine with you drinking. The factor is your friendships and the environments that you allow yourself to be in. If you are friends with people that like to go out on the weekends and drink, than the fact that your parents are ok with you having a casual glass of wine with dinner isn’t going to make that much of a difference when deciding if you are going to join them or just be responsible and stay home. The person that a teenager is around their family is not necessarily the person they are around their friends. It is more important to instill good values in your child than it is to distill alcohol to them.

The average American begins drinking regularly at 15.9 years old (http://www.focusas.com/Alcohol.html). This means that while Mr. Peele was allowing his daughter to casually drink at family functions the rest of her peers were also enjoying cocktails and beers with and without their parents consent. The statistics also show that “adolescents who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at age 21.” So, if the average teen is drinking by the age of 16, and parents like Mr. Peele are allowing their children to drink, then who are these people that actually wait until the age of 21 to begin drinking? What are the chances that if a person hasn’t begun drinking by the age of 21 that they are life-time abstainers? I can’t think of one person in my life over the age of 15 that I know for a fact has never consumed any alcohol, and I grew up in a city with a large Mormon population.

The point that I am trying to drive home with the anecdotes and the statistics is that it is not really important when people are drinking, but why they are drinking. Mr. Peele can give his daughter all the wine coolers that she wants, but because she has a good head on her shoulders, and has a strong set of beliefs she doesn’t binge on alcohol when she is trying to have fun. Celebrities go out all the time, trying to get noticed and unwind, so they tend to consume larger quantities of alcohol than the normal person. When you can walk right into all of the hottest nightclubs and the owners are sending you free drinks all night it can be hard to say no. On that same token, when a 15 year old boy is hanging out with his friends and one of them pulls out a bottle of rum that he took from his parents liquor cabinet, its hard to say no to the experience of “getting drunk with your buddies” for the first time. That is a memory that they will have with them forever, even if the hangover is something they would rather forget.

So why are you drinking? Are you trying to unwind from a hard day at work? Are your friends coming over for the big game? Do you have to loosen up before a hot date? Is the pressure of it all just too much? Does it just feel better to be fucked up? As long as your motivations are appropriate alcohol does not have to be the enemy. You can make it part of your life without letting it control it.