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Thursday, 15 May 2008
Binge drinking - part 3
Here is a picture of me binge drinking.
I am the third on the left. Looking right at the camera (of course!) with the black hair and ciggie and beer in hand. There are some really good friends in that picture, it gets me all a bit nostalgic.
This is a very Australian scene. It is in what is called a "Beer Garden". There are not many beer gardens left these days. In those days a hotel or "Pub" would have a grassed, garden area out the back. People could drink out there instead of inside the pub. On a Saturday afternoon in the summer time it was grand indeed to get out in the beer garden with your friends and do some solid binge drinking.
Notice all the 'jugs' on the table. You would buy a jug of beer and then people would pour the beer into their glass to drink. It was the sociable thing to do instead of buying just yourself a beer. There are two girls in this picture but it is male dominated and this would also be typical really. The girls tended to come more out at night time and would drink less than the males typically.
That bush behind is actually a grape vine. On occasion after some good old binge drinking had been done someone would decide to throw a grape at someone else. In a short space of time all out war would break out and a grape throwing fight would ensue with much vigor.
Really good days and great times indeed.
Graffiti
16:15 Permalink | Comments (39) | Email this
Binge drinking - part 2
Roses says
When i want to get drunk or make the world bend my way for a bit, i just get a bottle of clear alcoholic liquid and drink it straight. Well sometimes i'd add an ice block to it so it's cooler than room temp. It tastes really bad and it feels really bad but it makes the world bend(1) for a bit. But then straight after for the next few hours i'd drink water and lots of it. Basically, hang overs are yucky. I just had to rehydrate my brain again so as to not get one - a hang over that is.
I consider that to be binge drinking. It's the intention, not the amount that is consumed.
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I think you make a good point Roses, about the intent rather than the volume and I have actually seen that written elsewhere. That binge drinking is defined when the intent of the person is to drink to get drunk.
This raises an interesting point in itself.
If a someone drinks to get drunk what is wrong with that? Of course this is an assumption that underlies the vast majority of government policy on drugs in society.
It is automatically assumed that if a person smokes marijuana then they are somehow ‘sick’. It is assumed that they have some psychological problem and are thus sent to counselling to correct that problem.
Similarly if some one drinks to get drunk then it is also assumed that they have some psychological problem.
There is no doubt that some people takes drugs to self medicate and so forth. Thus there is an ‘underlying’ problem with these people. The vast majority don’t and use drugs recreationally as they say.
So if a young woman drinks a bottle of wine to get drunk in the company of her friends she is defined as a binge drinker. Is that a problem? Does she have a problem?
Again the government and the AMA will tell her she has a problem. But one can argue that she does not. If she wants to get drunk and have a hang over, so be it. If she sees it as OK then again she will see mass media anti drug campaigns will have little effect with her.
Graffiti
09:42 Permalink | Comments (28) | Email this