HIFA Discussion: Alcohol Use Disorders (37) Do people understand the harms of alcohol? (9) How can they be better informed? (5)
Further to the post on 1st February 2024:
HIFA discussion on Alcohol Use Disorders, 5 Feb - 17 Mar 2024
- I have f/w some reflections (edited here). You may have your own experiences, skills, knowledge to contribute?
As a teenager you were very aware of peer pressure (as a social expectation) to drink. Is it an acquired taste?
The media played a key role - advertising "Tetley Bitter-men", "Double Diamond - works wonders", Babycham, Advocaat, Martini Rosso .. and many of the popular TV series we consumed (pardon the pun).
Getting in the pub AND served was a right of passage - and a rather 'tame' one for a white, male.
In the family the harms and risks of alcohol were explained.
Sometimes they were demonstrated at parties, weddings, the aunt, uncle - relative who was notorious for having too much.
Studying literature at school did have a role to play - although less directly.
Although on reflection when there were school assemblies I wonder if 'drink' (Church of England) was mentioned?
Interesting perhaps - the change in daily school routine.
I remember at a birthday party for a fellow class pupil at a social club, the birthday boy was sick all over the table - yes - had been drinking.
Tempered my attitude early on - c.15.
As a nursing asst. and student nurse you realised the other - dark - side. The key being the contradiction that alcohol represents:
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As a teenager you were very aware of peer pressure (as a social expectation) to drink. Is it an acquired taste?
The media played a key role - advertising "Tetley Bitter-men", "Double Diamond - works wonders", Babycham, Advocaat, Martini Rosso .. and many of the popular TV series we consumed (pardon the pun).
Getting in the pub AND served was a right of passage - and a rather 'tame' one for a white, male.
In the family the harms and risks of alcohol were explained.
Sometimes they were demonstrated at parties, weddings, the aunt, uncle - relative who was notorious for having too much.
Studying literature at school did have a role to play - although less directly.
Although on reflection when there were school assemblies I wonder if 'drink' (Church of England) was mentioned?
Interesting perhaps - the change in daily school routine.
I remember at a birthday party for a fellow class pupil at a social club, the birthday boy was sick all over the table - yes - had been drinking.
Tempered my attitude early on - c.15.
As a nursing asst. and student nurse you realised the other - dark - side. The key being the contradiction that alcohol represents:
- Drink to relax, socialise, be friendly, enjoy yourself;
- Impact of your health, risk of addiction, violence, (brewer's droop was an early lesson - tho not practically);
- IF YOU develop a drink problem then you're on your own and so is your family (there are of course agencies in developed nations - but the funding disparity - as in, gambling, tobacco?).
In a 'local' - public house - pub it was known in 1970s for some regulars (invariably men) to down c.12 (more?) pints in a night - even after drinking hours: they were heavy goods vehicle drivers.
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I may have posted before - how in 1987-88 I completed a study of alcohol (intervention) teams, Preston, Salford, Blackburn here in NW England. The consultant psychiatrist made a key point about the (much debated even then) use of economic levers to help reduce alcohol consumption.
Scotland have just updated their intervention:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/08/scotland-raises-minimum-alcohol-prices-by-almost-one-third
As a student nurse - I was already aware of some of the inorganic molecules that have been found in space: the original primordial soup!
The chemical names still remind me of a chemical plant, such as the former ICI plant at Widnes / Runcorn, Cheshire, England, e.g.:
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/heavy-industry-panorama-night-panoramic-view-chemical-plant-refinery-blue-sky-illumination-some-freight-85481422.jpg
This in-turn takes me to the miracle that is the liver - the biological chemical plant - with a potential powerful message in how 'alcohol' is broken down:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6527027/
Sometimes insight into this can work wonders in terms of motivation for change - the facts - not trying to scare (waste of time)...?
Which brings me to the obvious 'contradiction' in caring for people with a primary / secondary problem with alcohol.
Having a liver function test.
If it's OK that *means* I can carry on!!
I have over the years developed what imho I consider to be potentially therapeutic relationships with patients affected by alcohol.
I say potentially as I, with supervision, have had to withdraw input and discharge them. Even if the client can't 'draw the line', you cannot support the patient in their damaging alcohol consumption and related behaviours. The offer of further support was offered, with signposts should there be a change of mind.
Alcohol, tobacco - vapes, the 'mental pollution' that can be passed as legitimate 'advertising', fake news ... still calls for a generic model, a universal conceptual framework for personal and global health - across literacies and forms of informatics:
'alcohol'
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=alcohol
Just to close I saw an item (I will try to find...) on the preponderance of 'smoking' in films 1940s - present day.
Still a problem now.
Of course: advocacy for health requires constant vigilance.
---------
I may have posted before - how in 1987-88 I completed a study of alcohol (intervention) teams, Preston, Salford, Blackburn here in NW England. The consultant psychiatrist made a key point about the (much debated even then) use of economic levers to help reduce alcohol consumption.
Scotland have just updated their intervention:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/08/scotland-raises-minimum-alcohol-prices-by-almost-one-third
As a student nurse - I was already aware of some of the inorganic molecules that have been found in space: the original primordial soup!
The chemical names still remind me of a chemical plant, such as the former ICI plant at Widnes / Runcorn, Cheshire, England, e.g.:
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/heavy-industry-panorama-night-panoramic-view-chemical-plant-refinery-blue-sky-illumination-some-freight-85481422.jpg
This in-turn takes me to the miracle that is the liver - the biological chemical plant - with a potential powerful message in how 'alcohol' is broken down:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6527027/
Sometimes insight into this can work wonders in terms of motivation for change - the facts - not trying to scare (waste of time)...?
Which brings me to the obvious 'contradiction' in caring for people with a primary / secondary problem with alcohol.
Having a liver function test.
If it's OK that *means* I can carry on!!
I have over the years developed what imho I consider to be potentially therapeutic relationships with patients affected by alcohol.
I say potentially as I, with supervision, have had to withdraw input and discharge them. Even if the client can't 'draw the line', you cannot support the patient in their damaging alcohol consumption and related behaviours. The offer of further support was offered, with signposts should there be a change of mind.
Alcohol, tobacco - vapes, the 'mental pollution' that can be passed as legitimate 'advertising', fake news ... still calls for a generic model, a universal conceptual framework for personal and global health - across literacies and forms of informatics:
'alcohol'
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=alcohol
Just to close I saw an item (I will try to find...) on the preponderance of 'smoking' in films 1940s - present day.
Still a problem now.
Of course: advocacy for health requires constant vigilance.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965
