For many people, the holiday season is filled with opportunities to gather with family and friends. Some gatherings may have alcoholic beverages as a drink option for adults who are the legal age to consume alcohol. If you are the legal age to consume alcohol and are offered an alcoholic beverage, I encourage you to take a moment to ‘Rethink the Drink’. Rethinking the drink will allow you time to reflect on the role alcohol plays in your life, plays in the lives of those around you, and will allow you time to consider if there are any changes that you would like to make concerning alcohol. 

Drinking alcohol can be harmful to a person’s health.  Alcohol use has both short-term and long-term health risks. Examples of short-term health risk include poisoning, accidents, and unsafe sexual behavior. Examples of long-term health risk include memory problems, increased risk of cancer, weakened immune system, and mental health problems. According to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), “More than 2,000 people in Oregon die from alcohol-related causes every year”. The OHA adds that the number of people who die from alcohol-related causes is three times higher than the number of people who die from other drug overdoses. To address this concern, the OHA created a campaign called ‘Rethink the Drink’. The target audience for this campaign are adults who are at the legal age to consume alcohol.  One of the main components of this campaign is a website. People who visit the website can learn about excessive alcohol use, health consequences of excessive alcohol use, and learn where to get support for excessive alcohol use. The campaign’s website is www.rethinkthedrink.com. 

My top takeaways from this campaign are:

• Excessive drinking includes underage drinking, drinking while pregnant, binge drinking, and heavy drinking. According to the OHA, 1 in 5 people in Oregon drink excessively.  Excessive drinking increases a person’s risk of an alcohol use disorder, certain cancers (colorectal, prostate, breast, cancers of the mouth, etc.), heart disease, and liver disease. 
• Excessive drinking includes both binge and heavy drinking. Binge drinking for a male is five or more drinks on one occasion. Binge drinking for females is four or more drinks on one occasion. Heavy drinking for a male is fifteen or more drinks per week. Heavy drinking for a female is, eight or more a drinks per week. 
• Not all drinks have equal alcohol content. Alcohol calculators can help a person understand how many standard drinks are in each drink.  For more information about standard drinks, review the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at www.niaaa.nih.gov. 
• A person can become more aware of their behaviors involving alcohol by utilizing the track, count, and shift method. Step 1, track the number of drinks, step 2, calculate the total alcohol in each drink, and step 3, get advice and/or shift to healthier options. 
• Alcohol treatment services are available to help individuals explore how drinking impacts their life. The campaign’s website has an alcohol treatment navigator link. This link will take you to the NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism website. On the website community members identify resources in their area. The resources featured on the website include alcohol treatment programs, counselors, therapists, and doctors. One local provider located on the navigator is the Tillamook Family Counseling Center, to learn more call (503) 842-8201. 

I encourage adults to spend time this holiday season having conversations with youth about the dangers of excessive drinking. These conversations can make a big impact in the prevention of underage alcohol use. 

Tips for having conversations with youth about alcohol: 

• Learn about the harms of underage drinking. To learn about this topic, I recommend the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) website to review ‘Get the Facts About Underage Drinking’. The website can be accessed at www.niaaa.nih.gov. 
• Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) website and review the ‘Talk. They Hear You’ campaign. This campaign can be found at www.samhsa.gov. 
• Have conversations with youth early and continue the conversations into early adulthood.
• Integrate topics about alcohol into everyday conversations.
• Educate youth on the harms of underage alcohol consumption.
• Help youth feel confident declining alcohol by roleplaying scenarios that they may be offered alcohol. 
• Let youth know that they can come to you if they have questions about alcohol.

Author: Janeane Krongos, Tillamook Family Counseling Center

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