33anda3rd wrote:AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
I certainly didn't mean to imply it's normal, per se.
But, to the point of how difficult it is to establish a 'normal', what's wrong with 27 drinks in a roughly 60 hour timespan over the weekend? What would America accept as normal? 6 drinks? 9 drinks? What's better, 27 drinks over 27 hours @ a drink per hour or 9 drinks over 4 hours on Saturday night? Or are they both bad, and if so, is 9 drinks not normal? Does that need to be clarified too. I mean, how small of a green are we trying to hit here?
It's like America has a contradictory stance on the substance. Definitely drink. But make sure you drink responsibly *wink, wink, nod, grin*
I don't see the wink wink in the "drink responsibly" marketing. I have to drink for work. I have to go to a lot of events at night. I'm REALLY good at taking 90 minutes to finish a mezcal and soda or a High Life.
I can drink 99% of America under the table but I opt to have 3 drinks in a 6-hour night. I get home at a reasonable hour, I sleep well, I'm up and clear in the AM, I'm not ignoring kids or other life responsibilities, I'm not actively drinking even though I'm drinking--I drink responsibly.
I also don't think of someone who has 27 drinks over the weekend as having 27 drinks in 60 hours, I think of it as 27 drinks in 27 hours--basically all the waking non-morning hours between 6PM Friday and 11PM Sunday (11PM = bedtime in this equation.) To me, and I'm no clinician, anyone having a drink in their hand whenever they feel they have the excuse of it being socially acceptable to drink--there's a game on, we're at a game, we're pre-gaming, we went for one after the game, it was with dinner, it was while I was cooking dinner, it was to relax after dinner, it was just a nightcap, I just got home and the wife is on my ass--should maybe google "is my drinking a problem" to take a little quiz or possibly talk to their doctor honestly about how many drinks they're consuming rather than take my word for it on the internet.
So, if that's the definition you want to go with, can we change change 3/6 to 13/18, leave the rest the same and say it's drinking responsibly? If so, 13 beers over the course of the day is responsible by your definition.
Regarding seeing a doctor, how do you envision that conversation would go? Because here's how I imagine it playing out.
Me: Hey doc, I quit drinking a month and a half ago and see no discernible changes outside of being more lethargic now than before. Is my drinking a problem?
Doc: ...
Even if the goal was to get him to say there was a problem, it's something I've already corrected. And, let's be honest, doctors don't know more about drinking than any of us exluding the pathophysiological aspects to it (possibly) which are largely irrelevant on a grand scale. And, they don't know more than us because there's nothing to know. Back to my point about there not being a normal and as previously noted, there's no real guidelines for what is 'problematic'. Little is known for certain other than drinking, even moderate, increases risks of certain types of cancer and heavy drinking has a myriad of health problems associated with it. The alcohol companies tried to fund a study to prove that there are health benefits associated with moderate drinking but it was cancelled.
Regarding advertising, man, I don't want to come off as Carrie Nationy here but just look at the difference between tobacco and alcohol. Not apples to apples, but it's definitely not apples to charcoal either. Tobacco can't advertise on the air or on the radio. They don't name baseball stadiums after their products. They're forbidden from targeting minors with characters like Joe Camel. They had to get rid of the word 'light' on their products. Etc etc etc. Conversely, alcohol companies buy massive amounts of air time including the most sought after time slots. AB is probably the largest purchaser of Superbowl Ads the past however many decades trying to sell Bud Light using a variety of campaigns including the Clydesdale, frogs, and dogs of the top of my head.
To their credit, at least, I guess they do say 'drink responsibly' at the end of their commercials. But, is that effective. Probably not.
https://www.salon.com/2014/11/28/the_al ... y_partner/
In interviews, public health experts not involved in the Hopkins study said the findings were no surprise. “Drink responsibly messages are most likely ineffective and are most likely not even intended to really matter in any substantive way,” said Dr. Paul J. Chung, chief of general pediatrics at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA and a researcher who has studied alcohol advertising.
Although the industry’s efforts to curb problem drinking extend beyond the advertising messages, some experts also questioned the value of alcohol companies’ broader education campaigns. The companies “rely to a great extent on underage drinkers and abusive drinkers for the profits that they make. That’s just a fact,” said William DeJong, a public health professor at Boston University.