It’s the Monday after a game day, and you’re waiting for lecture to start. In front of you, two people having a conversation.
“How was your game day?” the first person asks.
“Wish I remembered,” the second person says.
The first person laughs. “Same. What time did you start?”
“We started at like seven. Which should have been fine, but we went out Friday night too, so I was basically dead by kickoff.”
“Wow,” the first person says. “We didn’t start until like nine am. I wish I had your dedication.”
Lecture begins and you never think about that conversation again. Why would you? There has never been a conversation more pedestrian, more commonplace. It was just two students discussing an ordinary weekend at the self-proclaimed best university in the world.
And therein lies the problem.
How can a student know if he or she has an alcohol problem?
Alcohol problem. You probably shuddered at those words, right? We’re in college. We can’t have an alcohol problem. It’s not alcoholism until you graduate!
For this article, I’ve consulted Luke Henke, Psy.D., who is a staff psychologist at the University of Michigan Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), and Matt Waddell, LMSW, who is the Coordinator of Alcohol/Other Drugs Initiatives at CAPS. Collaboratively, they provided helpful information regarding alcohol use on campus.
According to Henke and Waddell, some signs of an alcohol use disorder are “loss of control, such as drinking more than you intend to or longer than you intend to”, “increased tolerance or needing more alcohol to feel the same effect”, and “continued use despite negative consequences.” Of course, these are not tell-all indicators of alcoholism, but they are signs to be aware of.
Unfortunately, these are all habits that are extremely normalized in conversation on campus. As a student body, we will probably never stop drinking on game days and parties. That is part of college, and if done correctly, it can be relatively harmless. However, alcoholism is an extremely serious condition and should be treated as such. Wolverines, I challenge you to be aware of the signs of alcoholism, and stop brushing them off as if they’re normal. If you develop an alcohol addiction in college, it can and will haunt you the rest of your life. Even if your drinking habits are all completely healthy, if you speak in a way that normalizes indicators of an alcohol use disorder, you are contributing to a culture that puts people in serious danger.
So…what did happen on game day?
I can’t tell you exactly what you did when you were blacked (that’s what Snapchat memories are for), but thanks to Henke and Waddell, I can sort of let you know what was going on inside your body.
Alcohol is a “central nervous system depressant, which means that it has a sedating or slowing effect on the different areas of the brain.” Before you brush this off as useless knowledge that you already went over when you took that online class before freshman year, take a minute to realize how serious this actually is. You are taking in a substance that is so powerful that it makes you lose some of your most basic bodily functions. We joke about not being able to walk straight, or slurring your words, or experiencing changes in emotions, but think about how crazy it is that this substance takes away your ability to behave as a functional human being. You could talk properly and walk straight when you were five years old, and now you’re at one of the best universities in the country, and you willingly take in a substance that messes with your brain so much that you no longer have those abilities!
Why do you vomit? “People vomit from drinking for a similar reason to vomiting from food poisoning: the brain thinks there is a toxin in the body and is trying to get rid of it.” So basically, you’re putting poison in your body, and throwing up is a survival function we’ve evolved because that stuff is not supposed to be inside you.
And why do you black out? “Blacking out (or browning out or graying out) occurs when alcohol affects the memory areas of the brain, leading it to be unable to create new memories.” This is a lot more serious than we act like it is. Creating memories is a fundamental human ability. When you black out, that intelligent University of Michigan brain of yours was so impaired by poison that it could no longer create memories.
Henke and Waddell note, “It is also really important to know the symptoms of alcohol poisoning. These include seizures, vomiting, unconsciousness, irregular or shallow breathing, decreased body temperature, vomiting (especially if the person is unconscious), and/or pale skin. Alcohol poisoning can be fatal and is a medical emergency. The University of Michigan has a medical amnesty policy in place to reduce perceived barriers to seeking help in emergency situations involving alcohol.”
This is not to say that alcohol is the root of all evil. However, when we treat it like “liquid confidence” or “go-go juice”, we aren’t acknowledging the serious effects that it has on our brains. Simply put, be aware. When you drink, know what it’s doing to you.
How can we be leaders and best on Friday nights?
Okay, let’s face it: we’re always leaders and best. We just sometimes don’t act like it. Or maybe we just don’t talk like it. Henke and Waddell say, “I think work needs to be done normalizing the fact that most students do not engage in these drinking behaviors. Many U of M students chose not to drink or choose to drink responsibly (UM student survey data highlights this) yet the overall perception is that most students go out on Thursdays, or tailgate, or drink heavily on the weekend.” Even though a lot of us do drink safely, with the conversations we have, it makes it sound like we blackout multiple times every weekend. This is simply not the case, and it is likely to make others feel pressure to engage in unsafe behavior. An easy way to combat this is to be aware of when you exaggerate your alcohol usage. Don’t say “I don’t even remember this weekend” when, in reality, you were lit but not that lit. It sounds harmless, but it contributes to a really scary narrative.
But what if you really are just a “work hard, play hard” kinda gal? You don’t need to change that if you’re not threatening your own health, but be aware of a few things: “Know the warning signs of problem drinking. Be aware of your family history of addiction – people with a family history are at increased risk of developing alcohol use concerns. Count your drinks and pace yourself.” In reality, none of this is “buzzkill” info anyway: you want to find the zone where you’re having fun and feeling good, because ending up passed out on the floor or throwing up in the toilet isn’t even fun anyway.
Alcohol is, and probably always will be, a big part of campus culture, but it doesn’t have to threaten our health and safety. We worked hard to get here. Let’s not ruin it with a poisonous drink.
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