Playing with fire

If old habits die hard, then maybe it will be best to avoid developing certain habits to begin with.
One habit in particular sticks out the most for me – irresponsible alcohol consumption. If you read the label on any bottle of alcohol, it says to “please drink responsibly.” Does anyone really listen to the label? Those three words have little to no affect once the bottle is opened and the drinks start pouring. It’s like images of cancer-ridden lungs and charts of mortality rates on cigarette packs - the warnings are pretty much ignored.
What could happen if you don’t drink responsibly?
First off, you may say or do things you regret when you’re sober. This is a rather small humiliation that is usually forgotten within a few days.
Secondly, you will be hung over the next day (or several days, depending on your system). Third, you will make new friends. Isn’t that great? The more you drink - the more friends you make and the better your life feels.
Finally, you have a newfound sense of confidence (also known as “beer courage”). You feel like you could do anything. This overinflated sense of self-esteem is one of the most-desired feelings when it comes to drinking.
But then you get older, you are no longer the fresh-faced 19 year-old having harmless fun in the bars. You are around 25; you are getting old in the scene – you may have finished school by this time, and you may be in your career working the 9-5. Sure you deserve another night out!
So you go to your favourite bar and start drinking to your heart’s content. You drink so much that when you wake up the next afternoon, you can’t remember the night before. The black-outs are more frequent now but who cares, you deserve it! You find your social networking profile is filled with photos of you having the time of your life every weekend for the last five years. People probably think you are so cool and popular.
You start to dislike all the other people in your bar who give you the evil-eye, so you purposefully bump their shoulder with yours as you pass.
They must be jealous of you because you have it all; a college education, a stable career, a place to live, and an amazing boyfriend.
And don’t forget your alcohol.
But then you wake up at the age of 27 and you are late for work because you went out on Thursday (Thursday being the new Friday). There are comments left on your profile about how you are always at the bar – like clockwork – so partying feels a little embarrassing now. Everyone notices the smell of alcohol on your breath at work. Who cares? You had fun while they were at home watching Blackstone.
More people comment on your drinking, so you don’t go to your bar as often. Instead you party at home and get into arguments with your boyfriend. The fights become so bad that the cops are called and noise complaints are filed. You take time off work because you are “going through a rough patch” and then eventually quit because “you don’t need that job anyway.” Your boyfriend breaks up with you and you can no longer make rent, so you are evicted because both your boyfriend and your landlord see too many problems with having you in their lives. No job, no boyfriend, no place to live but you still have your alcohol.
Nobody understands that you’ve had a rough life so the drinking is not your fault. You drink because that’s what your dad did, or your friends are doing it, or bad things have happened to you. You won’t realize that the party never stops until your heart does - once you pass out outside and succumb to exposure, or you pick a fight with the wrong person, or when you decide to drive a car while drunk and then crash it.
Many lives are lost thanks to alcohol. If you think about any of your loved ones whose light was drowned out in the flame that is liquor – do you believe they’d want the same for you? If you removed alcohol from the equation that was their death, they’d probably still be alive.
When you play with fire long enough, you will eventually get burned.
Stop the deadly habit that is alcohol. Better yet, don’t start it to begin with.
It’s easy to make excuses for irresponsible drinking, but consider why you are trying to rationalize consuming a poison that has destroyed the lives of countless Anishinaabe people in our history. There is no harm-free way that you can play with fire-water without getting burned. Be safe.