Branded Content: How to celebrate safely: Holiday alcohol awareness tips
'Tis the season for overindulging and, according to the NIH, this can lead to traffic accidents, fights and falls. These sobering facts don’t mean we cannot continue to make merry. According to Dr. Harshal Kirane, director of Addiction Services at Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH), people need to plan ahead and understand the effects of alcohol in order to celebrate the holidays safely.
Dr. Kirane points out that the holidays are often an emotionally stressful time contributing to excessive drinking and often enhancing the negative effects of alcohol. “In general, while the holidays are a celebratory time, they can often be stressful in that family dynamics, managing a lot of responsibilities and taking time away from work can add new pressures. Often alcohol can exacerbate these issues,” he says.
Below are his tips for celebrating safely.
1. Know how to pace yourself. For men, the general rule is more than four drinks in an evening is considered heavy drinking; for women that amount is three.
2. Understand the effects of alcohol in general and for you personally. What’s often recommended is interspersing one non-alcoholic drink for every alcoholic drink and to not have more than one drink per hour.
3. Don’t fall for the myths. This includes the misbelief that caffeine will sober you up or that driving after drinking is fine if you are not slurring your words. These are false and potentially dangerous assumptions. Alcohol continues to impair judgment for hours after the last sip.
4. Plan ahead. Make sure proper precautions are in place to prohibit drinking and driving. During the holidays, many people make various stops during an evening, going from party to party. To get home safely, make sure there is a designated sober driver, use public transport or take a car service.
5. Identify and define problems. And if they arise, find a safe welcoming place to get support. A number of treatment options are available to help efforts to cut back and abstain from alcohol. These include medications, counseling and group support and the program at SIUH can facilitate all of those. If someone perceives that alcohol is creating problems in their life, then that is a good indicator that there is an issue. The CAGE questionnaire asks four questions to test for drinking problems: Have you ever felt the need to cut down your drinking? Have people ever annoyed you by suggesting you stop drinking? Have you ever felt guilty about drinking? Do you ever feel the need to have an eye opener/a morning drink to get going? If the answer to two questions is “yes” that is indicative of an alcohol use disorder; if the answer to one question is “yes” answer, then he/she should consider being evaluated.
When asked what a concerned friend or family member can do if they feel someone needs help, Dr. Kirane says, “Make sure to make the conversation an open dialogue and not an attack or a criticism, which could lead the person to close up and withdraw.” Other suggestions include attend an AA meeting. (Find one at NYintergroup.org.) And consider a walk-in program model. “For example, at SIUH someone can walk in, be evaluated that very day and be connected to a level of care that is appropriate, ranging from detox programs to groups in the community,” Dr. Kirane says.
For more information about SIUH, visit www.siuh.edu. If you or someone you know has a problem or is in need of an assessment, call the SIUH Central Assessment & Intake Unit at (718) 356-8910.
