I've been thinking about this for a long time. About the culture of alcohol, and how prevalent and loud the need to document and broadcast drinking booze has become - and what does this mean for us - and what does it mean for our kids?
Every day I see someone Instagramming their glass of wine, or Facebooking that they're updating their status with a short and stumpy glass of gin and tonic with a caption "Hey it's wine o'clock!" - or some such inane comment.
Not saying that my posts are any more interesting - but I'm not into sharing my every-beverage.
What is our obsession with alcohol? Why is it the highlight of the day? And how did we become so infatuated with dulling life with alcohol. Because if you're punctuating your every day with bevvies, then I'm a little concerned. Alcohol is a drug - and
A few months ago, after some particularly stressful days at work, I'd come home and drink most of a bottle of wine to myself. Then I'd wake up all dusty, and cranky and not feeling fabulous - and then I'd do it again. After a few days of this (and my body does not tolerate alcohol very well) I realised this was not a healthy, productive way to cope with stress.
So I started exercising.
What I'm saying is, by sharing images of alcohol, by talking about it all the time, aren't we setting ourselves up to normalise it - and in turn, isn't there a loss of control with this blase attitude? We're drinking alcohol like it's water - or at least, that's how it feels on the social media stage. And who else is seeing that firsthand?
Alcohol in Australia is attributed to:
- 30% of road accidents
- 44% of fire injuries; 34% of falls and drownings
- exacerbating depression
In young people, it's attributed to:
- a key factor in the three leading causes of death among adolescents; unintentional injury, homicide and suicide
- Over one in five (22%) of all hospitalisations of young people aged 15-24 years old are alcohol related
- Of all those hospitalised, 30% of young men and 23% of young women are hospitalised because of an alcohol related assault
Like my friend Kate pointed out - FebFast is all well and good - but since when was it a mean feat to go 28 days sans alcohol?
Another friend, Courtney told me about Hello Sunday Morning - changing the world's relationship with alcohol. I've signed up.
Can you change your habits? Can you stop broadcasting your boozing? I'm not telling you to give up drinking forever, but I am thinking often about how alcohol affects our lives - and what it says to our children.
I used the following sources for current Australian statistics: NSW Police, SA Government
image via Style Me Pretty
