Alcoholism (noun): an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency.
Alcoholism is tragic. Alcoholism is emotional. Alcoholism is life changing. Alcoholism is not cool and it never will be.
In college, drinking is taken lightly. College students drink almost every night, especially on the weekends. There is a bar open, a party happening or an opportunity waiting for people who drink every night of the week. Drinking is the social norm. It is what makes you fit in on a college campus. It is what you and 32,000 other students have in common. If you are thinking of going out downtown on a Friday or Saturday night, don't unless you plan on being intoxicated or you will feel out of place. It's something that will never change around here.
Alcoholism creeps up on you before you know it. And once you know, it's too late.
Let's paint a scenario. You are new to college and you have never drank before. You drink one beer at your first house party. It tastes weird but you start to feel loose. The next weekend, you take a shot of Ciroc and you start to dance. All inhibitions are gone. You dance on the table and make people laugh, which is rare because you never do sober. You are a social butterfly. You drink the next weekend one too many drinks and you find yourself puking in the club bathroom. Next thing you know, you wake up on a couch that isn't yours, in a house that isn't familiar and in a T-shirt you don't recognize.
You begin to wonder what happened as your friends have to explain what you don't remember. Alcohol happened. Binge drinking happened. Mistakes you don't remember making happened. But it's college so oh well, right? You go out with your friends the next weekend and you mix different types of alcohol. You wake up the next morning with your body bruised and broken. You spend your day in the Emergency Room because the doctors thought you had internal bleeding in your head due to your concussion. You fell while you were intoxicated, but you don't remember because alcohol influenced your behavior. But, it's college, right? It happens, right?
Fast forward five years. You are graduated, engaged and working for a company you have dreamed of. Your drinking habits have become a lifestyle. You can no longer blame your drinking habits on your grades and your school work. You drink to get through the day. Your fiancee is getting sick of your drinking, but he has hope it is just because of stress. You build a family and you finally have the life you've always wanted. But, you drunkenly stumble into your home and your kids are getting ready for bed. You miss their birthday parties and their field trips because you slept through them. Your relationships are deteriorating because they don't make you feel like alcohol does. Your life you built is ruined because alcohol said so.
You don't know someone's past. You don't know what could happen presently that could influence their future. The mindless side comments about how it's funny to be an alcoholic or that there is nothing to do around town but drink... those comments could become detrimental to someone's life.
It begins with a drink. It ends with a lifetime. Alcoholism is not cool and never will be. Being responsible is not always the fun thing to do, but it will save your life. Alcohol won't.
