Photo By Staff Sgt. Aubrey White | The theme of this year’s Alcohol Awareness Month is “Help for Today. Hope for...... read more read more
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By Staff Sgt. Charles Metts
579th Medical Group
What is alcohol? For some, it is the cornerstone of a good weekend or an occasional indulgence attached to special occasions and holidays. However, for others, alcohol is a problem-causing beverage linked to negative memories or used as a coping strategy.
Alcohol is a substance that can produce varying responses for everyone. Since April is Alcohol Awareness Month, we will look at how drinking behaviors lead to differing results, negative and positive.
Per the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, NCADD 2017, “Alcohol Awareness Month provides a focused opportunity across America to increase awareness and understanding of alcoholism, its causes, effective treatment and recovery. It is an opportunity to decrease stigma and misunderstandings in order to dismantle the barriers to treatment and recovery, and thus, make seeking help more readily available to those who suffer from this disease.”
Alcohol Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment (ADAPT) program providers here at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling see individuals with long histories of binge drinking, but no knowledge of what alcohol actually is. In a society that counts every calorie and talks endlessly about how amazing their gluten-free diets are, are we simply forgetting to pay attention to what we drink on the weekends? Many of you can probably instantly proclaim what country this morning's coffee beans came from, but are unable to recall the percentage of alcohol in your favorite weekend beverage.
Knowing what you are drinking and how much alcohol is in your beverage are essential components of responsible drinking. For example, one shot of liquor (40 percent alcohol) is equal to one standard drink. A Long Island iced tea contains roughly four to five shots of alcohol per glass. If a friend goes out drinking and tells you they will only have two drinks, they very well could consume eight to 10 standard servings of alcohol. Depending on how quickly your friend drinks those long island iced teas, he or she could reach a blood alcohol level (BAL) around 0.20, putting them at more than double the 0.08 legal limit of intoxication when operating a vehicle. Always keep track of how much alcohol you consume. Never go off of “how you feel” or “how many glasses you’ve had,” because different beverages have different alcohol percentages, which can make your BAL a lot higher than you may think.
One incident is too many. Almost all incidents are preventable, and you need to look out for your fellow service members. If you have any questions regarding alcohol abuse or about the ADAPT program, call 202-767-0611.
If you would like to take a free anonymous survey about whether you are drinking responsibly or not, visit www.ncadd.org/get-help/take-the-test and click on “take the alcohol test.”
| Date Taken: | 04.13.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 04.13.2017 11:31 |
| Story ID: | 230249 |
| Location: | DC, US |
| Web Views: | 261 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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