<story><title>‘Moderate’ drinking guidelines are too loose, study says</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/moderate-drinking-guidelines-are-too-loose-study-says/2018/04/12/da73d89c-3e64-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mrleiter</author><text>This is a good opportunity to point out that alcoholism is much more prevalent in young people than it is generally thought. Especially with students and young employees who like to &amp;quot;party&amp;quot;, it must be taken seriously. The fact that alcohol is not frowned upon by society in general, hides the devastating effects it can have.&lt;p&gt;What starts as drinking on weekends and getting wasted maybe once a week, turns into drinking 3-4 times a week, than maybe 4-5 times a week. When you start to feel alone and &amp;quot;need a drink&amp;quot;, when you want to have fun, but you &amp;quot;need a drink&amp;quot;, when you are under lots of stress and &amp;quot;you need a drink&amp;quot;, those are signs that you are becoming an alcoholic.&lt;p&gt;Please seek help and talk about it. Alcoholism is dangerous and kills you, makes you an outsider and loner over time. Please don&amp;#x27;t feel ashamed. Seek help, talk to friends&amp;#x2F;family.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>teekert</author><text>&amp;quot;The fact that alcohol is not frowned upon by society in general, hides the devastating effects it can have.&amp;quot; Not only is it not frowned upon, in every single movie or series people grab a bottle when they emotionally have a a bad time, every time. It&amp;#x27;s so normal and cool. Bad experience: Numb yourself with alcohol! All the cool kids do it!&lt;p&gt;Exactly how ingrained alcohol is in our culture really only starts to hit you when you know someone with an alcohol problem. Try to not drink for a couple of months, the reactions can be pretty strange, &amp;quot;you must be ill or something&amp;quot;... I really see alcohol as Soma from Brave New World. But unlike with tobacco, we still have our heroes use it on the telly all the time.&lt;p&gt;Yesterday I had a 16 y&amp;#x2F;o tell me that she doesn&amp;#x27;t like to drink and she&amp;#x27;s a bit of an outcast at school now. In fact she says, many kids don&amp;#x27;t like it but they do it anyway to be part of the group. Sure, that is normal for kids, but that used to be normal for smoking and that (at least here in the Netherlands) is in my experience quickly losing it&amp;#x27;s coolness by lack of commercials and government crackdown.</text></comment>
<story><title>‘Moderate’ drinking guidelines are too loose, study says</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/moderate-drinking-guidelines-are-too-loose-study-says/2018/04/12/da73d89c-3e64-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mrleiter</author><text>This is a good opportunity to point out that alcoholism is much more prevalent in young people than it is generally thought. Especially with students and young employees who like to &amp;quot;party&amp;quot;, it must be taken seriously. The fact that alcohol is not frowned upon by society in general, hides the devastating effects it can have.&lt;p&gt;What starts as drinking on weekends and getting wasted maybe once a week, turns into drinking 3-4 times a week, than maybe 4-5 times a week. When you start to feel alone and &amp;quot;need a drink&amp;quot;, when you want to have fun, but you &amp;quot;need a drink&amp;quot;, when you are under lots of stress and &amp;quot;you need a drink&amp;quot;, those are signs that you are becoming an alcoholic.&lt;p&gt;Please seek help and talk about it. Alcoholism is dangerous and kills you, makes you an outsider and loner over time. Please don&amp;#x27;t feel ashamed. Seek help, talk to friends&amp;#x2F;family.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>walshemj</author><text>Not sure I would totally agree with you in all European countries having say a beer or a glass of wine with lunch is normal.&lt;p&gt;I recall discussing with some one who did training for mangers to deal with  &amp;quot;serious substance abuse&amp;quot; and there comment was when you started finding multiple hidden stashes of  spirits that was when you know they had a problem.</text></comment>