A Rant About Alcohol

Remember when I said I wasn't going to post anything meaningful?
Yeah, I lied.
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Lately I've been trying to work my way around Blogger without crashing my computer every time I try to post, so please excuse my lack of activity. Additionally, I'm experiencing done sort of bloggers block. I can't seem to come up with topics that aren't overly controversial or insulting (my iPod auto corrected this to "ovulating"). But after reading the autobiography if British pop rock band McFly, I've decided to address a topic very much relevant to my age group. Alcohol.

Warning: I wrote quite a lot. I divided it into sections, so if you get bored, just skip to what you want to read about more.

Alcohol in Entertainment and Media

In America, the legal drinking age is 21. Each year, drunk driving accidents kill around 10,000 people, including 200 kids under the age of 14. Alcoholism contributes to liver failure and mental illness, really just creating a lot of problems for everyone. According to the CDC, roughly 1 in every 6 adults binge-drink four times a month. Enough with the stats. They blatantly tell us that alcohol is bad.

Why, then, is it that teenagers are so tempted to start drinking so early?

There is an age limit set on such consumption for a reason. Cranial and cognitive development is affected by alcohol. Also, younger, smaller bodies are far less tolerant of the toxic contents of alcohol. But I see my peers showing up to school under the influence, bring alcohol to parties (the main reason I don't party), and pressure one another to obtain alcoholic drinks from family members or older friends.

In the debate of whether video game violence should be restrained/whether it influences today's youth to be violent, I stand neutral. However, when those same sources, media and entertainment, I do strongly oppose the prominence of alcohol glorification. Think of popular comedies, whether they’re movie or long-running TV shows. Think of dramas and even occasionally science fiction.  How often do you see characters being portrayed as bubbly, energetic, fun, humorous, and other positive traits… when drunk?

One of my favorite shows, How I Met Your Mother, is practically set in a bar. Another, Grey’s Anatomy, is probably set in their bar for at least a third of the series.  When the camera then pans to Meredith dancing drunkenly on a table with a bottle of tequila then making out passionately with the man she desires (sure, it sounds bad when I put it like that), does that not add to the suggestion that alcohol is fun? Harmless? Beneficial to your social life and your ability to be entertaining?

Hormone-fueled teenagers are also made especially vulnerable in a different way. We think we have the planet’s biggest problems, whether they’re our social lives or grades. Most of us don’t really know how to keep things in perspective. Twitter followers and Instagram likes are big deals for us. When we’re sad or angry, we vent.

The same television shows I’ve referred to earlier, along with others (Bones, New Girl, to name a couple), have characters that get sad. It’s part of the plot. But rather than sleep it off or talk it out like (debatably) reasonable people do, even teens, they drink.

And what is ironic in a subtly sick way is that these shows play the recovering alcoholic story quite a lot. On one hand we have characters drinking to party, drinking to drink, drinking to feel fewer emotions, then across from them we have their coworkers struggling to not drink, showing sappy flashbacks to angrily swung chairs and barfights and other things done in their drunken stupor.

So what’s the big deal?

An Example of Alcohol’s Horrors

This brings us back to the McFly autobiography. McFly is a band largely unknown in America, so let me introduce you.  They’ve been a band since 2003, been pretty big in Europe since 2004. Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones sing and play lead/rhythm guitar. Dougie Poynter is the bassist and Harry Judd plays drums. These four make a “proper guitar band,” as opposed to a “boyband that sits on stools and sings.” Their style is slightly like a more rock version of One Direction to be put in simplest terms, but with more substance behind their sound. 

McFly

Source

I consider them to be quite inspirational people, not because of their success but what they had to overcome to get there. To each there are multiple stories, but whilst reading their tell-all autobiography released recently, one chapter struck me, and most McFly fans, the most. Titled Dougie’s Secret, it was told almost entirely from the point of view of the bassist, and was probably one of the saddest things I’ve ever read.

Long story short, this:

“When I was seventeen, I started getting into alcohol in quite a big way. Red wine was my thing – it felt a bit more sophisticated, somehow.”

Progressed to this:

“I’d tried and failed so many times to kick my various habits. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go to the pub and just have one drink…”

“My life had turned into a relentless hell, so the only solution was to end it.”

So what’s your point, Chichi? Pop stars surely don’t become alcoholics from watching television. Who’s fault was it getting into alcohol a year underage anyways?  (In England, the drinking age is 18). Dougie Poynter was a victim of his own creation, right?  What are you going on about, anyways?

My point is exactly that! This guy is a musician. A very popular one, constantly in the public eye, in the behind the scenes of show business. The same people creating and portraying the characters influencing us as teenagers are influencing their own. Sure, with his bandmates it didn’t lead to anything serious, but with him, it lead to a drink and drug problem bad enough to drive the man to suicide. He survived and sobered up, and thankfully continues to rock out for us fans today, but his case is an example.

Show business, the media, those teens look up to as influences glorify alcohol. They encourage it, consciously or not.  Teens drink, their buddies drink, the virus spreads. And among all that do indulge in the activity early on, a few unlucky ones develop dependency to it.

Oh, it’s not going to be you, is it?

Alcoholism Facts

Teens who start drinking before the age of 15 have a 50% more chance of developing dependency to alcohol.

Those with mental illnesses, depression, or traumatic pasts increase chances of alcoholism.

Having one alcoholic parent triples the likelihood for an alcoholic son, and significantly increases the likelihood for having an alcoholic daughter.

Lacking a father figure increases one’s chance of alcoholism.

Alcoholism takes around 15 years to fully develop in adults, but just years in teens and young adults.

30% of adults in America have had alcohol abuse or dependence problems.

Alcohol Facts

Drunk Driving Statistics