Did you know that after caffeine, alcohol is the second most consumed substance by University students?
Not everyone chooses to drink alcohol and that decision should be respected.
People drink alcohol for lots of reasons, some people drink:
To celebrate
To relax and have fun with friends/acquaintances
To feel more confident and comfortable
To cope and relieve stress
To gain courage to experiment with gender, sexual and romantic identities
To approach others they are romantically or sexually interested in
To explore the effects of certain kinds of alcohol
Not everyone chooses to drink alcohol, but for those who do, it’s important to know how to balance the good aspects of drinking with the not so good aspects. Below we outline what a standard drink is. In general, a person should drink no more than one standard drink per hour and no more than 2 to 3 drinks per occasion, but even that might be too much for some.
The lower your body weight, the more quickly you will get intoxicated
Make sure you are alternating between drinking alcohol and water or drink less
People with smaller, shorter, or lighter bodies can get intoxicated faster because they reach higher blood-alcohol levels than people with larger, taller or heavier bodies.
If you are younger than 19, alcohol can harm healthy physical and mental development
Young adults (18-24 years old) shouldn’t exceed 2 to 3 drinks a day – which means binge drinking can have long term harmful effects.
Plan to drink less or pace yourself if you are feeling tired
If you haven’t rested enough and alcohol lowers inhibition, you may be more easily irritable, quick to anger or more likely to engage in aggressive behaviours if you drink.
Food helps to slow down the absorption rate of alcohol into our blood, so if you haven’t eaten well or at all you are more likely to get intoxicated quickly
Eat before you start drinking and throughout the time you are drinking to slow the effects of alcohol
Effects of alcohol depend on your mood and how you are feeling
If you are feeling stressed, sad or anxious your tolerance to the effects of alcohol lowers
Because each of us are different, our tolerance for alcohol is different. Peer pressuring someone to drink excessively or to binge drink can cause significant harm to them, and others.
Binge drinking is having many drinks in a short period of time or in one setting. Drinking games, funnels/beer bongs, keg stands, chugging, and drinking shooters are all examples of binge drinking.
As alcohol levels increase in our blood stream, we experience different effects.
As blood alcohol concentration increases, so does impairment
If you are curious about your alcohol use, you can go to Alcohol Reality Check. This website offers a non-judgemental and confidential way to understand what the impacts are of your drinking.
