As a teenager you were very aware of peer pressure (as a social expectation) to drink.
The media played a key role - advertising "Tetley Bitter-men", "Double Diamond - works wonders", Babycham, Advocaat, Martini Rosso... and many of the popular TV series we consumed (pardon the pun).
Getting in the pub AND served was a right of passage.
In the family the harms and risks of alcohol were explained.
Sometimes they were demonstrated at parties, weddings, the aunt, uncle - relative who was notorious for having to much.
Studying literature at school did have a role to play - although less directly.
Although on reflection when there were school assemblies I wonder if 'drink' (Church of England) was mentioned?
Interesting perhaps - the change in daily school routine.
I remember at a birthday party for a fellow class pupil at a social club, the birthday boy was sick all over the table - yes - had been drinking.
Tempered my attitude early on - c.15.
As a nursing asst. and student nurse you realised the other - dark - side. The key being the contradiction that alcohol represents:
• Drink to relax, socialise, be friendly, enjoy yourself;
• Impact of your health, risk of addiction, violence, (brewer's droop was an early lesson - tho not practically);
• IF YOU develop a drink problem - you're on your own and so is your family (there are of course agencies in developed nations - but the funding disparity - like gambling, tobacco...??).
In a 'local' - public house - pub it was known in 1970s for some regulars (invariably men) to down c.12 (more?) pints in a night - even after drinking hours: they were heavy goods vehicle drivers.
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I may have posted before - how in 1987-88 I completed a study of alcohol intervention teams. The consultant psychiatrist made the point about use of economic levers to help reduce alcohol consumption.
Scotland have just updated their intervention:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/08/scotland-raises-minimum-...
As a student nurse - I was already aware of some of the inorganic molecules that have been found in space - a primordial soup!
The names still remind me of a chemical plant such as the former ICI plant at Widnes / Runcorn, Cheshire, England, e.g.:
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/heavy-industry-panorama-night-panoramic-...
This in-turn takes me to the miracle that is the liver - the biological chemical plant - with a potential powerful message in how 'alcohol' is broken down:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6527027/
Sometimes insight into this can work wonders in terms of motivation for change - the facts - not trying to scare (waste of time)...?
Which brings me to the obvious 'contradiction' in caring for people with a primary / secondary problem with alcohol.
Having a liver function test.
If it's OK that *means* I can carry on!!
I have over the years developed what imho I consider to be potentially therapeutic relationships with people affected by alcohol.
I say potentially as I - with due supervision - have had to withdraw input and discharge them being unwilling to support them in their damaging alcohol consumption and related behaviours.
Alcohol, tobacco - vapes, the 'mental pollution' that can be passed as legitimate 'advertising', fake news ... still calls for a generic model, a universal conceptual framework for personal and global health - across literacies and forms of informatics:
'alcohol'
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=alcohol
Just to close I saw an item (I will try to find...) on the preponderance of 'smoking' in films 1940s - present day.
Still a problem now.
Of course: advocacy for health requires constant vigilance.
Peter Jones
Community Mental Health Nurse and Researcher
CMHT, Prescott House, Salford NW England, UK
Blogging at "Welcome to the QUAD"
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/h2cm
HIFA profile: Peter Jones is a Community Mental Health Nurse with the NHS in NW England and a a part-time tutor at Bolton University. Peter champions a conceptual framework - Hodges' model - that can be used to facilitate personal and group reflection and holistic / integrated care. A bibliography is provided at the blog 'Welcome to the QUAD' (http://hodges-model.blogspot.com). h2cmuk AT yahoo.co.uk
