Controlling alcohol - Enjoy it but know when to say ‘no’
This is especially so at holiday time — this time of the year.
Equally, we are all only too well aware of the terrible consequences of regular alcohol abuse. Nearly every family or business in this country has watched with something beyond despair as an individual, a relative or a colleague, surrenders their independence, career, quality of life, relationships and health to alcohol addiction. This pain is especially sharp in communities where alcohol misuse has been a factor in suicide or drink-related road deaths — more or less every community in the country.
Though the focus is often on public drunkenness, the tens of thousands of men and women who drink quietly and excessively at home, to alleviate loneliness or plain boredom, are far more susceptible to alcoholism than weekend binge drinkers.
We are also aware of the cant, sanctimony and hypocrisy that surrounds advocacy on alcohol in a society where it is more or less the social lingua franca, the primary lubricant of so very much that is warming in our lives. The great challenge, especially at a time like Christmas and the New Year, is to strike a balance between good fun, excess and self-destruction.
It is a national tragedy, and we are not by any means alone in this, that we have not always successfully navigated our way through this particular minefield. The figures around alcohol abuse are so very stark that they cannot be ignored.
Alcohol causes nearly 100 — 88 — deaths every month in Ireland. Cheap alcohol is fuelling an escalating health and crime crisis that costs an estimated €3.7bn a year in health, crime, public order and other costs.
The consequences of alcohol abuse are so obvious, so unrelenting and so very toxic that there is hardly a need to repeat them. Yet the problem persists, even though drink advertising has been greatly curtailed and the role of the drinks industry in sports’ sponsorship is under constant and an ever-less-tolerant review. Indeed the resignation of former junior health minister Rosín Shortall on this very issue is probably a pretty accurate reflection of how society — and Government — is split on how we might respond to the crisis.
It is likely many of us will drink more than we usually do over the next few weeks, no matter what doctors, health policy analysts or well-meaning friends or relatives say. Therefore it may be wise to have an honest self-assessment of what we drink and the impact that has on our lives and the lives of those around us. If we do this and find we need to modify our behaviour then so be it, it is not a crime to say “thanks, but no thanks, I’ve had enough”.
Of course, this is far more easily said than done but if more of us get to that point then we will have taken a step towards making this society less vulnerable to the threat of alcohol abuse and a far, far happier place.
