For Youth

For Youth

University years seem to be the best time of your life: away from parents, new friends, regular parties. It can’t be denied that alcohol is a big part of this life, and drinking is abundant.

It’s quite difficult to combine your studies, time with friends, and possibly even work. When feeling stressed, exhausted, the simplest relaxation method seems to be alcohol. However, there is a huge difference between having a drink and getting drunk. If the first lets you relax and have fun, the other has a negative effect on both studies and communication.

Where is the problem?

It is understandable that you drink alcohol at a party to relax, and it is seemingly easier to establish new relationships. That’s why it’s wiser to use alcohol in moderation – hardly anyone wants to talk to a person who seems incredibly smart and witty to himself but cannot say anything coherent to others and, besides that, smells like alcohol.

If you drink a lot, the effects the next day are unavoidable. Even if you do not get sick, a headache and cloudy thoughts will hardly help you write a quality report, course paper, or master the homework topic.

You are young, and you have no health issues. After drinking alcohol, you sometimes have mild hangovers, but they are passing. If you drink more than you should, you believe that there is no risk involved. But there always is, because alcohol use has an avalanche effect. You start with having drinks in the dormitories or parties over the weekends (which, of course, greatly exceed any recommended daily alcohol consumption limits), but end with a lost interest in your studies and damaged health. As a result, motivation to continue your studies is often lost. However, without getting an education your opportunities in the labor market is limited, and you can forget about rapidly growing your career.

Risks

  • Becoming a Crime Victim
    World statistics show that youth, as compared with other age groups of the population, are at the highest risk of suffering various crimes – sexual assaults, theft, fights, etc. Given that while heavily intoxicated, you do not know who you are and what you are doing, you can wake up at home or in a holding cell is the best case scenario, but otherwise you are extremely vulnerable.

  • Alcohol Poisoning
    Benders can end with serious alcohol poisoning. In the most critical cases, medical help must be sought.

  • Damaged Health
    Excessive drinking over time can lead to alcohol addiction, cirrhosis of the liver, cancer, depression, and cardiovascular diseases.

  • Study Quality Suffers
    Excessive drinking on a regular basis may lead to a situation when your studies become secondary. Acquiring knowledge is not a priority anymore, and in the best case, you get a lower grade for a course while in the worst case, studies are no longer on your agenda. As a result, your preparation for a professional career is low.

  • Your Budget Suffers
    Firstly, alcohol costs are rather high if you add the total, say, the amount spent on it in a month. In addition, education has a fee too. But if you spend time drinking and getting over your hangover, your study fee becomes wasted money as there is no return on the investment.

What to do?

  • Do sports – it will make it possible to turn the negative tension into positive energy.

  • Remember – you can also have fun without drinking. It’s best to choose an active activity instead. Everything starting from mushroom picking to extreme twenty-four hour adventure competition. There will simply be no time to drink.

  • If you go out for drinks, eat before. It will cause less damage to your stomach, the alcohol will be absorbed more slowly, and you will get intoxicated more slowly.

  • Drink plenty of water or juices alongside the alcoholic drink. This will help you to not lose the water necessary for your body and slow the process of intoxication. It is best to have alternate drinks – an alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage. This will make it easier to emit alcohol by reducing its concentration in your bloodstream.

  • Try not to drink alcohol every day. Allow your liver to rest for at least a few days.

  • Before going out, decide how much money you will spend on alcohol and try not to exceed this limit.

  • Always figure out how to get home after drinking alcohol. Do not wander around alone. Stay together with friends – either walk, take public transport, or a taxi.

  • Keep an eye on your drink at all times so that no one can add anything to it. If a stranger buys you a drink, consider whether that person can be trusted.

  • Do not drink alcohol with energy drinks. Scientists have proven that it helps to mask the intoxication effect and can lead to drinking 36% more alcohol than otherwise, and the risk of other injuries, respectively, is higher. In addition, such a mix overburdens the nervous system, heart, and liver. Alcohol expands the blood vessels while the caffeine in energy drinks narrows them. Both alcohol and energy drinks increase your heart rate and intensify the emission of water from the body. With such an extra load, it is difficult for the body to cope.

Sources